Saturday, January 7, 2012

Unfortunate grammar mistake

Today I was driving home from the grocery store and I saw a car with words on the back windshield.  I see them a lot, either advertising for a company, or some random phrase or sometimes "in memory of" someone.  This one was different.

And before I share it, I have changed the university name (obviously) and blanked out the actual date.  Also, I am not knocking the parents' pride or the fact that their daughter may well be one of the first in their family to graduate; maybe she worked her way through--I'm not making fun of that aspect AT ALL

Well, let me just show you what I mean.  I'll show you what it actually said and then explain afterwards why this is funny but unfortunate(although you probably won't need me to).

Proud parents whose daughter "graduated" with a "degree" from Blank University
May ##, ####


Yes.  That is exactly how it was written (but with numbers and a real university name).  Sigh.  They are going around proclaiming to the entire city that their daughter pretended to graduate with a fake degree. 

Quick grammar lesson:  if you want to highlight a word or words, please don't use quotation marks.  They change the meaning to the opposite; they indicate sarcasm.  Use anything else, but please--I beg you--not quotation marks.  Thank you.

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