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Visual Literacy Seminar (A First Course in Methodology) · Theories of Communication & Technology (A Second Course in Methodology) · Language in Society (A Third Course in Methodology)
UMBC'S Conservative Newspaper: "The Retriever's Right Eye" · UMBC'S University Newspaper: "The Retriever Weekly" · Introduction to Journalism · Feature Writing · Science Writing Papers
Exercise at the end of Chapter 1 in "The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier" · Exercise at the end of Chapter 4 in "The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier"
Exercise at the end of Chapter 5 in "The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier" ·
Song Lyrics Grammar Analysis
I walk along through the Commons and it's there. I stroll down into the basement of the library towards the Writing Center desk encountering more. Scurrying off to class - still more. I get on the MTA (Maryland Transit Authority) bus to go home and there it is, again. Everywhere I look, it's there. I am desensitized by it. I don't even see it most of the time. It's just a blur, a decoration, a meaningless splash of color. Sometimes, it attracts me, beckoning me, alluring me, "Please pull out your flat black marker and fix me. I am an aberration within the English language." Or worse, I desire to circle it, draw an arrow to it, and across the wide, curved line write, "This is IT!" So what is iiiiit?
The main it here refers to advertising. Yet advertising defies all prescriptive rules of grammar by using one or many of the following: sentence fragments, comma splices, passive voice, faulty parallelism, misplaced or dangling modifiers, illogical or incomplete comparisons, improper use of punctuation, but the most common error is the overuse of the vague pronoun reference it, pushing the boundaries of meaning-making to where no one understands what it refers to.
According to Worldwatch Institute, global spending hit a new all-time record spending in 2005 of $570 billion, a 2.4 percent increase from 2004. The U.S. alone spent $273.6 billion or 48 percent of this total for 2005. By examining the grammar used in three advertisements picked at random from the November 2006 issue of Wired magazine, I intend to illustrate how faulty grammar sells products.
In a Hyundai advertisement selling the new Tucson SUV, above the vehicle we find the text "If greatness is a destination, we're on the road to it" (23). This is not an offense as the pronoun it in this case refers to the word greatness meaning that the new Hyundai Tucson is on the road to greatness. Underneath the vehicle the text continues, "Hyundai Tucson is the 'highest ranked compact multi-activity vehicle in initial quality.' We're going places people never thought possible. Like the top of the world" (23). Here, "Like the top of the world" is the prescriptive grammar offense (23). According to Andrea L. Lunsford, author of The Everyday Writer, "sentence fragments are groups of words that are punctuated as sentences but lack some element grammatically necessary to the sentence, usually either a subject or a verb" (260). This sentence lacks a subject. The word like is certainly not the subject nor is any other word in this sentence. The sentence is incomplete; therefore, "Like the top of the world" is a sentence fragment. The fragment grabs our attention.
In a Toyota advertisement, four men are pictured standing in the automobile factory next to a fully assembled engine. The opening text below the image reads "Being a good corporate citizen starts with hiring lots of good citizens" (43). The text blub underneath has flawless prescriptive grammar until the third paragraph. The first sentence of the third paragraph reads "Our team members care about doing what's right; at work as well as in their local communities" (43). The problem here is the use of the semi-colon. According to Lunsford, the semi-colon should only be used for the following:
Clearly, a series of items containing other punctuation such as "Independent Clause; item A, item B, and item C" does not exist, so the first bullet does not apply to the sentence.
Conjunctive adverbs would be words such as; also, besides, furthermore, however, indeed, instead, likewise, and a host of similar words. The conjunctive adverb would have to appear directly after the semi-colon and the word "at" is not a conjunctive adverb; rather, "at" is a preposition; therefore, the second bullet does not apply to the sentence.
The error is in considering the two clauses as independent clauses. The first clause is an independent clause, "Our team members care about doing what's right." The second clause is not independent because it does not contain a subject. The sentence is grammatically correct without the semi-colon. The advertising department used the semi-colon to create a pause in order to create a stronger effect in the language.
In the Intel advertisement we find the heinous crime of the overuse of the pronoun it:
Take everything you love about technology and multiply it. Take the fun, the games, the curiosity, the creativity, the excitement, the progress, the learning, and the passion... and amplify it. Now take everything you don't like - the lag times, the lockups, the stuttersteps... and delete it. It's a new way of computing. In fact, it's computing the way it was meant to be (16-17).
In the first sentence, the pronoun it is used correctly. It in this case refers to "technology." In the second sentence, it refers to the entire string, "...the fun, the games, the curiosity, the creativity, the excitement, the progress, the learning, and the passion...." In the third sentence, it refers to the entire string of things the reader "does not like," where the subject technology, is inferred. The vague pronoun reference is in the last two sentences: "It's a new way of computing," and "It's computing...." The last it in the last sentence is correct because this it refers to computing.The other problem one could argue is the word it is used so many times, the reader no longer understands what it refers to. One only determines what it is when the reader looks to the lower corner of page 17 where the advertisement reads "Introducing Intel Core™ Duo. The world's best processors." The language used here seems to infer that in this case "Duo" is not a single processor, but rather, multiple processors, as in two, most likely running in parallel in order to obtain a 40 percent increase in processing speed. Without this text, no one would understand what it represented.
Advertisers constantly break prescriptive grammar rules for the purpose of creating emphasis, creating intrigue, or creating effect. The example advertisements shown here break the rules of sentence fragments, punctuation; specifically, the use of the semi-colon, and the vague use of the pronoun reference it.
With my black marker in hand, I walk the streets of Baltimore. I spot another advertisement billboard with grammatical errors and can't help myself. My pen comes down on its shiny texture.
Caught. [Yes, this is a fragment. I am using the fragment for effect.] A small man with unkempt, curly black hair wearing immigrant shoes and a single breasted tan trench coat walks up to me while staring at the ground. He looks up at me with cross-eyed eyes and points to my shoes with his cigar.
"Where did you get those shoes?" he inquires.
As I attempt to answer, the man begins to babble about his wife, his broken down car, and other totally unrelated musings of the mind. Eventually his focus returns to me.
"What are you doing with that black marker? You do realize you are damaging the private property of that company which is a criminal offense?"
I retort, "I am with the Prescriptive Grammar Division of the Grammarian Police."
The curly haired man's upper lip curls, "Yea, yea, and my name is Detective Colombo. If you're with the Grammarian Police, where's your badge?"
By way of firm reply, I respond, "Badges? We have no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
Hyundai. Advertisement. Wired. Nov. 2006.
Toyota. Advertisement. Wired. Nov. 2006.
Intel. Advertisement. Wired. Nov. 2006.
"Advertising Spending Sets Another Record." Worldwatch Institute. 7, July 2006. Sourced 19, Nov. 2006 http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4263 .
Lunsford, Andrea, A. The Everyday Writer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.
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