MG Siegler Destroys the English Language – Episode 3

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 7:03 PM on July 23, 2009 in Commentary. View Comments Tags: , , . Short URL: http://plankhead.com/aa

MG Siegler Destroys the Enlgish Language

Today on MG Siegler Destroys the English Language, MG seems to be having a better day in terms of competence. But in “The Mac Versus PC Debate Has Never Been Clearer“, he proves once again that he has no idea what an em dash is supposed to do. Oh, and some other things.

The point MG makes in the article is a great one: the Mac vs. PC debate is very much like a Porsche vs. Camry comparison. But that doesn’t make his writing any less aggravating to read.

You need look no further than numbers released today by NPD to understand Apple’s strategy. Its revenue share of the “premium” price market — that is, computers over $1,000 — is a staggering 91%.

Better, MG. Much better than your previous efforts. In fact, you came so close to a successful em dash use there. But you just had to throw in a “that is.” Without the “that is,” you could’ve used these em dashes so well, MG, and I’d have been so proud, but with two little words, you turned the whole damn phrase into a parenthetical. You know, the half-circle thingies that you use to make sad and happy faces? Or, to put it another way, the things you used in the next paragraph:

Analysts and journalists are often quick to point out Apple’s relatively low overall market share (less than 10%).

That’s a correct use of parentheses, MG, and the fact that you were able to do that makes me wonder if you see any difference in all these punctuation symbols. They do different things; em dashes are for long, emphatic mid-sentence pauses, and parentheses are for shorter, more subdued asides. Listen to yourself talk, and it’s not very hard to figure out.

At least this time you didn’t use em dashes where there should have been commas, though. I’ll give you that.

Other minor errors include “naive” instead of “naïve” (normally something I’d let slide, but you’re a Mac user, MG — press option+u before typing the i, it’s easy) and “lets” instead of “let’s” (typo, maybe, I can’t tell with you). Alone, they’d be minuscule, but overall they deplete my confidence in you even further. I don’t like seeing you fail, MG, and I don’t like having to write these things; this blog doesn’t give me ad revenue. I think I speak for all literate people when I say, please join us.

  • Plankhead, I work with a guy like you. It takes him 8 hours to get a blog post out the door.

    What would you trade off, time to market or perfect grammar?

    Different strokes for different folks.
  • Nick Berg
    Your premise is flawed. Once you learn to write proper English, you don't have to go back and correct your writing. Or are you the sort of retard who needs to consult a dictionary for the proper use of "there", "their", and "they're" every single freaking time instead of just learning it once? But if you're an unintelligent dork who struggles at the English language, then perhaps a career in journalism isn't for you. Or it signals that you need an editor to clean up the crap you spew out. That's why they exist: to turn unreadable garbage that you excrete into sensible English. Not making an effort makes you a cheap, lazy, and illiterate bastard.
  • I know this is the Internet, but please don't call people retards. It's much better to educate the misinformed than to insult them.
  • ivanotter
    Ok, suddenly I like you a lot more. *gives you Kudos*.
  • Personally, I strike a balance and then actually click "Edit" if I spot an error after the fact.

    Also, proper use of punctuation doesn't take very long. You just kind of do it.
  • While I adore your keen focus on MG's attempts at proper English, I feel you're missing an opportunity to tear down other TC writers, too. You wouldn't have to limit yourself to grammatical errors, either: Jason Kincaid doesn't even bother to use spell check! http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/06/team-apart...
  • That particular article had just one typo. He spelled it correctly at the beginning of the article, so I'm sure it was a case of simply not looking hard enough for the red wavy lines (unless he writes his articles in Internet Explorer, which I believe still lacks the red wavy lines, and that seems highly unlikely). I brought it to his attention in the comments, so hopefully that will be enough for him to actually edit the article.

    But while typos can usually be recognized by a reader and interpreted as the intended word, MG, on the other hand, not only makes punctuation errors which seriously hamper the readability of his articles, but are also really funny to complain about. If I ever feel like another TechCruch writer screws up in a way that I can point out entertainingly enough, believe me, I shall do so.
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