I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar can actually help its readers learn more about the English language in a humorous way. When you see a photograph of the word “YEILD” painted on the street with white paint, or a photograph of a green highway sign that reads “DONT’T DRINK AND DRIVE,” you’ll chuckle at the same time you’re reminded where to place apostrophes and how to spell commonly misspelled words. While the comments that appear under the photographs poke fun of the errors, several point out how the signs should read. Under two photographs of signs reading KNIFES, the author writes “Apparently, this is a common mistake. The plural of knife is knives.”
Sharon Eliza Nichols is the creator of the Facebook group I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar. With more than 300,000 members and over 7000 uploaded photographs, English mistakes that appear in public are now being shared with people all over the world. To create her book, Sharon chose only ‘the funniest and most ridiculous’ photographs that have appeared on her site and divided them into ten categories.
The chapter on “Food and Drink” starts with a photograph of a Southern Beastro sign and ends with a photograph of a sign advertising Breakeast-Lunch-Dinner. The “Fashion Statements” chapter shows spelling and grammar mistakes that have appeared on baby and adult clothing, and the “Shopping Signage” chapter includes photographs taken at gas stations, shopping malls, grocery stores and hair salons.
Apostrophe mistakes, which are prevalent in this book, have their own chapter, as do the signs which the author has categorized under “Say What?” This is where you will find this writing on a box - Being Tored will be Unvalid - and this on a banner: Select Close for Ranivation Sorry For in Convenience. Although cities are not indicated on the photographs that appear in this book, photo credits are listed on the last page.
Small in size (7 x 4.9 inches) and easily read in under an hour, this book makes a great gift for teenage or reluctant adult readers, and any person who is in the mood for a light, amusing read.
A law student at the University of Alabama, Sharon Eliza Nichols lives in Tuscaloosa.