God's Proofreader
I thought I'd never come across God's Proofreader. For one thing I don't read many very clever books these days, and another, if I do I usually borrow them off my parents. Imagine my surprise when I saw this in William Brandt's Alpha Male. There were another couple of pencil scratches - another similar offence involving a double possessive, and a query on the word 'mojo'.
I feel like I've hit the jackpot.
7 comments:
Double possessive?? Is that a real term? I don't see how else you'd write it.
I believe it would be Sams', but frankly I'm not sure and who cares?
I found a worse one in the book too. I'll picture it.
Dunno, might properly be expressed as "She was a friend of Sam", or more elegantly, "She was Sam's friend".
A guess based solely on what looks right to me. But pretty anal to pick it up, I'd never have noticed.
Maybe it's what editors do in their spare time.
Good suggestion Llew. Interesting.
When I had my Gods Proofreader I felt like I had joined a club. It was sooo cool.
My mother who is very expert in these matters said it would be "a friend of Sam" properly. The "of" does something to the possesive apostrophe.
oops possessive
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