Friday, October 19, 2007

On doohickeys

As I was saying more than a week ago, I had looked up "doodad" to find a word for little graphics images I was creating. But since then, I've come up with a better term. For small graphics files used on message boards and elsewhere on the Internet as zingers, jokes or commentary, I hereby coin the term:

"image quip"

Of course, when I google "image quip," I see it's been used before, but only by about three people and none of them to refer to the above-described doohickeys.

I created these image quips as a form of rather shameless self promotion, hoping they'll catch on like wildfire on message boards across the globe, skyrocketing me and my little grammar books to international fame or a least into one more printing. So, the-forgive-the-shameless-self-promotion qualifier now stated, here they are. Use them liberally.















4 comments:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Ohhh, m'gosh! I sure will let the subscribers to Sharing with Writers know about your doodads. (-: They are adorable. We'll have to think of some other way to promote with them, too!
Best,
Your zero-tolerance pal for purposes of getting by the grammar snobs
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
www.HowToDoItFrugally.com

--Deb said...

Okay, your image quips are adorable, but I feel like I'm missing something. If you use the wrong variation of it's/its or your/you're and so on, don't the grammar snobs LOSE? Or maybe I'm just too tired for anything to make sense at this point . . . which is entirely possible!

--Deb
www.punctualityrules.com

June Casagrande said...

Hi, Deb.

The idea is that, when we make mistakes, we give fodder to people who thrive on opportunities to pick on others and feel superior.

In the intro to my book I sort try to use the snobs as motivation for people to learn about grammar: "It's time oh yes, it's time for the rest of us to stand up these snobs -- to call their bluff. If not for our own edification, if not to gain a better command of the language and all the doors it opens for us -- at the very least we must learn a little about grammar and usage for the sheer thrill of taking down these grammar tyrants, one at a time, just to watch them fall."

Just my sort of trumped-up way of trying to make it fun and worthwhile.

June Casagrande said...

I realize I didn't explain that too well. In the book, I make a distinction between grammar snobs and sticklers. Sticklers support good grammar. They care about it. Grammar snobs are just in favor of making other people feel small. They're the people who criticize without first getting their facts straight.

The book starts out with a true story about two readers who reamed me for using "wrong" as an adverb -- without first bothering to learn that "wrong," in addition to being an adjective, is also an adverb! Those are the people I refer to as grammar snobs.

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