Patterico's Pontifications

10/21/2005

Proofreading Miers’s Questionnaire Answers: Questions 17 and 18

Filed under: General,Humor — Patterico @ 6:41 am



This is my latest post proofreading Harriet Miers’s questionnaire answers. This post looks at Miers’s answers to Questions 17 (“Constitutional Issues”) and 18 (“Legal Activities”). She did much better than in her answers to Questions 15 and 16. My main comment is that someone needs to teach her that a comma does not perform the same function as a semi-colon or a period.

Page 48:

We argued that Pioneer had insufficient contacts with Illinois to be subject to personal jurisdiction there, the court ultimately disagreed.

That should be a semicolon and not a comma. The same problem pops up in the next example, at page 50:

The Council was free to state its policy position, we were against flag burning.

As before, I am avoiding the pickier points, such as whether the various branches of government should be capitalized (pp. 50-51) or not (pp. 54-55). See how kind I am?

P.S. As always, the race is on to find something wrong in the blog post about proofreading . . . . Bonus points to the first person to spot an error in this post — but don’t forget my retort! (You can find it in the P.P.S. to my earlier proofreading post.) And remember: we’re having fun here, as evidenced by the filing of these posts in the “Humor” category.

22 Responses to “Proofreading Miers’s Questionnaire Answers: Questions 17 and 18”

  1. This is great stuff!! “Proofreading Miers’s Questionnaire Answers” is one of the posts I’d missed. Excellent!

    Why isn’t this cross-filed in the “Grammar” category? I don’t claim to have fantastic grammar, but the posts on that subject are my favorites.

    Is “semi-colon” your error?

    Laudio (06d15b)

  2. “Proofreading Miers’s Questionnaire Answers” is one of the posts I’d missed.

    Oops — I was referring to the “earlier proofreading post,” BTW.

    Laudio (06d15b)

  3. More Miers inadequacies

    Patterico uncovers the real reason we should oppose Harriet Miers — her frickin’ comma splices.

    Technorati Tags: good links East Asia watch …

    blog.matthewstinson.net (88868d)

  4. Just wondering if anyone here is familiar with transformational thinking? Otherwise it is known as The Dialectic and Praxis. I believe Miers is a student of mediation, it is not facts based but relys on reaching a consensus. I have read alot of her pontifications and I see all the “consensus building” buzz words.
    (If anyone is intereted in a quick study of the Dialectic, search under Dean Gotcher (Institution for Authority Research)

    Is it truly possible this lady is too dumb to realize she’s not qualified?

    alexandra morris (8d0335)

  5. I believe Miers is a student of mediation, it is not facts based but relys on reaching a consensus

    Whoops, I did a Miers!! I think i should have placed a . or a ; after the word mediation. Actually, I should rephrase: I believe Miers is a student of mediation, a consensus rather than a facts based approach to law.

    Actually, i’m not sure…where’s my law clerk when I need her…………..

    alexandra morris (8d0335)

  6. Mier’s should be Miers’

    Just noticed the challange……i’ll look for more

    alexandra morris (8d0335)

  7. Harriet Miers Watch: Miers Will Keep Visiting Senators

    Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, left, meets with Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005, in Washington.
    The ASSociated Press has Miers Will Keep Visiting Senators.
    Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers will continue meeting with se…

    FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog (baa0b4)

  8. […] Miers failed to pay her dues a couple of times and had her license suspended twice. She can’t run a spell check on her questionnaire. And her grammar may be less than stellar. I would think a Supreme Court judge may need to pay attention to details. […]

    SayUncle » Blog Archive » Pull the plug on Miers already (9b413a)

  9. Given that judges have legal assistants to do most of their writing for them, I’m wondering why her writing skills are all that important.

    Jackie Warner (95d9f3)

  10. Semicolon is not hyphenated.

    DomFriar (c5bd39)

  11. P.P.S. The rule is: in any post about proofreading or grammar, there must be at least one typo. Your job is to be the first to find it!

    How about………..In any post about proof-reading or grammar, the rule is there must be atleast one typo. Your job is to be the first to find it.

    I am obviously new to this blog so I admit I have no idea if i’m on the same page as as the Pontif.

    also not Miers’s but Miers’?????????

    or how about another hint as to what error and where one is suppossed to be looking? For some obsessive-compulsive reason, that is totally alien to my personality, I keep checking back to see the mystery resolved.

    Give me the answer or pass the lithium………..

    alexandra morris (a071ac)

  12. Miers’s should be Miers’.

    Teri (afca91)

  13. I think semicolon can be hyphenated but usually isn’t. In this post, it’s done both ways; I should choose one or the other.

    I like it that you guys treated this as if it were a quiz. In fact, I was just making the observation that whenever one harps on grammar, punctuation, or other proofreading trivialities, one is bound to make an error in one of those categories.

    My second arguable error: I didn’t intend this as a quiz, but based on my wording, many of you thought it was. Lack of clarity on my part. Bzzzzzzt!

    So I’ll give you two points. But only two.

    “Miers’s” is correct.

    P.S. Thank God this wasn’t my application to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court!

    Patterico (4e4b70)

  14. Patterico,

    Please submit your last twenty briefs and/or pleadings for review.

    Flap is sure they will be great and/or cool.

    Flap (cc77c4)

  15. Tell you what. You swing me a Supreme Court nomination, and I’ll give them a look-see and let you have at them.

    In the meantime, you are free to judge the quality of my writing and proofreading by perusing my blog, on which I spew out dozens to hundreds of words a day. I am not the best writer in the world, but I dare say I’m better than Harriet Miers. And (as I think I may have mentioned) my blog posts are not an application to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Patterico (4e4b70)

  16. Patrick,

    I was being facetious.

    I already gave my favs: PO or JRB

    BTW: I have enough dental depositions to read for Monday’s conference call.

    Flap (cc77c4)

  17. I was being facetious.

    You were . . . sort of. I understood that.

    Patterico (4e4b70)

  18. i’m even more confused ………..i’m not pleased with your responses. Please re-submit…….

    For example, who was given 2 pts and why?

    Is Miers’ the correct correction or is Miers’s indeed punctually correct.

    If I am displeased with your response,I will have to go to George Will.

    alexandra morris (a071ac)

  19. No! Not George Will!

    I believe that saying:

    Miers’s

    is proper.

    Patterico (4e4b70)

  20. I am not always in agreement with George, but I think his latest comments reflect some Coulter animation.

    Thank you for your total clarification ……….NOT

    alexandra morris (8d0335)

  21. Miers: a vote against

    The Bear has called for a blog vote on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, and my vote has been stated early and often: I oppose the Miers nomination.
    There are a myriad reasons to come out against Miers, not the least of which is the shifting rati…

    blog.matthewstinson.net (88868d)

  22. Back to semi-colon. This is a very controvercial sign. It’s usually used according to author’s taste.

    Kelly, proofreader (115515)


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