Yes, I know that for most people a grammar bonus isn’t as much fun as bonuses should be, but I wanted a little something to apologize for being MIA recently.
Yesterday, Allison and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts and saw the Gems of Rajput Painting exhibit. (It leaves on September 3, but it is just one room with a wealth of beautiful art, so go see it if you can!) One of the walls had this text:
There is a very small mistake … can you find it?
Hint 1A comma is missing.
Hint 2A comma near some adjectives is missing.
Hint 3In the second sentence, a comma near some adjectives is missing.
Hint 4Furious…what?
And the solutionThere should be a comma after the word “wild.” It’s furious anger; it’s even wild anger!
I’m not sharing this with you to laugh at this mistake. It is a super-sneaky mistake that both Allison and I missed on the first reading. Instead, think about how hard it is to be perfect when using English … and think about whether the mistake (if you can even find it!) affects the sign. It doesn’t affect the meaning significantly, or the reader’s ability to understand. Personally, it doesn’t affect my respect for the person who wrote this, because I care more about the interesting ideas they are teaching me and about the exciting images they are bringing to life inside my mind.
My goal for my students is for them to be able to communicate well, and that is something this sign does. If you can do it with 100% perfect grammar all the time then I am really, truly, extremely impressed … because I have never yet met someone who can.
(I am nervous about posting this because there is probably a mistake here, too. However, I think I have written well enough that you can understand me, even though I am not perfect, either!)
