Student Examples of Grammar, Punctuation,

or Usage Errors

Prepared by Professor Lisa Mazzie Hatlen

Marquette University Law School

The Assignment• Three weeks before the due date, students are

shown a PowerPoint presentation that depicts some grammar, punctuation, or usage error(s).

• Their task: To go forth into the world and bring back a “real life” example of a grammar, punctuation, or usage error. They must identify the error and indicate how they would fix it.

• The #1 rule: They cannot do a purposeful Internet search looking for those websites that collect these errors.

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The Assignment - Continued

• Students have turned in brochures, newsletters, newspapers, magazines, photocopies from pages of their textbooks, and print-outs from websites of all kinds, or they take pictures if they can't physically remove a sign.

• In the spring semester, the assignment is due just after Spring Break, which gives students the opportunity to use Spring Break travel to locate errors.

• What follows are some of the best examples I have received from students (with a few of my own thrown in).

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On a student's t-shirt.

Submitted (and modeled) by Andy Helminiak

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Submitted by Kaitlyn Wild5

From a picture/poster hanging in the hallway at the law school.

Photo by Nick DeSiato

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Lack of punctuation, I tell them, can create unintended meanings.

Photo by Lisa Mazzie Hatlen7

Submitted by Adam Essman

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Shirts on sale in the boys' department at Kohl's Department Store, Madison, Wis.

Photo by Lisa Mazzie Hatlen 9

An ad on the side of a bus stop shelter one block from the law school.

Photo by Lisa Mazzie Hatlen

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At the border crossing on the Mexican side, Nogales, Mexico/Arizona.

Photo by Lisa Mazzie Hatlen11

A billboard near campus.

Photo by Nick Harken

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The cover a binational business magazine of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Submitted by Matthew Luening 13

At a New Orleans police station, post-Katrina.

Photo by Matthew Clabots

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At the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast Administrative Office Gift Shop.

Photo by Annika Thompson

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At Dirty Little Roddy's in Ketchum, Idaho.

Photo by Jaime Bouvette

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Manasota Beach, Florida.

Error pointed out by Brigid Moroney. Photo by Brigid’s mom.

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A page from the Barnes & Noble employment handbook.

Submitted by Kate Schmidt

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Notice how this place in Madison, Wis., handles its dress code.

Submitted by Amy Barnes

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Internet news from WKOW-TV in Madison, Wis.

Submitted by Lisa Mazzie Hatlen

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Submitted by Adam Ben-Zikri

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From the local grocery store's community board, McFarland, Wis.

Submitted by Lisa Mazzie Hatlen

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Thanks for watching!

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