March 5, 2010 7:20 PM
- Text
Katie Couric's Notebook: Grammer Idol
Last night on American Idol, Simon Cowell offered praise to Crystal Bowersox, the crunchy coffee shop chanteuse who's an early favorite in the competition.
He said, "I misunderestimated you last week."
How apropos that his gaffe would come on the eve of National Grammar Day.
"Misunderestimate" is not a word, and somewhere E.B White is champing at the bit to correct it. That's right, it's "champing," not "chomping."
Those mistakes are made a lot...two words..."a" and "lot." You wouldn't write "a little" as one word would you?
And it's a shame that so many of us misuse apostrophes. I-t-apostrophe-s on that one.
Never end a sentence with a preposition. Why would you do a thing like THAT for?
Who can avoid common grammatical errors? Someone for whom proper usage is a virtue.
So dust off your phonics book today...and become a grammar idol.
As William Safire once said, "Only in grammar can you be more than perfect."
That's a page from my notebook.
I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.
He said, "I misunderestimated you last week."
How apropos that his gaffe would come on the eve of National Grammar Day.
"Misunderestimate" is not a word, and somewhere E.B White is champing at the bit to correct it. That's right, it's "champing," not "chomping."
Those mistakes are made a lot...two words..."a" and "lot." You wouldn't write "a little" as one word would you?
And it's a shame that so many of us misuse apostrophes. I-t-apostrophe-s on that one.
Never end a sentence with a preposition. Why would you do a thing like THAT for?
Who can avoid common grammatical errors? Someone for whom proper usage is a virtue.
So dust off your phonics book today...and become a grammar idol.
As William Safire once said, "Only in grammar can you be more than perfect."
That's a page from my notebook.
I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.
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