Beauty

[Harpa]

On 5/18/2014 dionline said:

OP might be the "grammarqueen" but I could be the "grammarprincess" and I'm NOT a retired teacher, just a better student than I thought I was. Poor grammar, diction, spelling and punctuation drive me up the proverbial wall.

A good friend of mine (who is an RN with an MBA!!) has such poor spelling & diction. My heart sunk when I saw some of her e-mails. I couldn't help but wonder, why, with as many years of school she attended, why it's so poor.

Then I couldn't help but wonder at what point will the people I'm interviewing with think I'M the one with the poor spelling because this is becoming SO commonplace.

Don't even get me started on the use of apostrophes when none are needed!!! (The number of patient's we see every day is NOT possessive...) Aarrgghhh!!!!

(I'm sure I missed some faux pas in here somewhere...Murphy's Law!!)

Just be glad they didn't spell it: patience!

[sharlee]

On 5/18/2014 bonnielu said:

It would seem it does not matter anymore. And the year I retired we were told not to teach grammar and spelling. It was more important to teach thinking skills.

I'd like to meet one of those brilliant individuals who decided spelling and grammar aren't necessary and beat him about the head and shoulders! I'm sure these folks don't have any idea how hard they've made MY job!

I spend most of my time at work converting engineer-speak into something approaching lucid prose. Now, engineers, brilliant as many of them are, have never been renowned for their writing skills, but these days they've gotten appreciably worse. One of our younger engineers questioned the use of the word "forego" (which was being used in the sense of doing without something) saying it wasn't a word!

I hear repeatedly from so many sources - colleges, other businesses - how high school graduates need to be taught grammar and basic writing skills (wasting valuable college time and business time) because they're hopeless when they first arrive at school or their first job.

[just bee]

On 5/18/2014 WenGirl42 said:

I think part of it is also a decline in reading...if you've never seen certain words in print and are just going by how you've heard them, it's going to be a lot harder to distinguish them. Spellcheck was dangerous enough, but in this age of "helpful" autocomplete and autocorrect, this is becoming a cycle that seems to spread faster and more widely than before.

I used to think that as well. I believed that if you regularly saw a word in print you would just know how it was spelled. But I think it has something to do with the decline in writing. If you're writing on a regular basis you're practicing the art of spelling, the art of grammar.

Are people writing these days? I've noticed some of the younger ones I know struggle when they have to actually use this thing we refer to as "a pen."

The real issue is with idioms. People repeat expressions they've heard and they repeat them incorrectly. Worse, they don't seem to understand the meaning of the original idiom because the one the person has chosen is inappropriate for the situation.

[KathyPet]

On 5/18/2014 flickerbulb said:

I might reply, "No, but I can be more Atlantic."

HA!

[WenGirl42]

On 5/18/2014 sharlee said:

On 5/18/2014 bonnielu said:

It would seem it does not matter anymore. And the year I retired we were told not to teach grammar and spelling. It was more important to teach thinking skills.

I'd like to meet one of those brilliant individuals who decided spelling and grammar aren't necessary and beat him about the head and shoulders! I'm sure these folks don't have any idea how hard they've made MY job!

I spend most of my time at work converting engineer-speak into something approaching lucid prose. Now, engineers, brilliant as many of them are, have never been renowned for their writing skills, but these days they've gotten appreciably worse. One of our younger engineers questioned the use of the word "forego" (which was being used in the sense of doing without something) saying it wasn't a word!

I hear repeatedly from so many sources - colleges, other businesses - how high school graduates need to be taught grammar and basic writing skills (wasting valuable college time and business time) because they're hopeless when they first arrive at school or their first job.

I don't think the problem is teaching thinking skills instead. It's that students obviously aren't learning thinking skills. Thinking means you don't just accept what your spellcheck and autocomplete give you. It also means you recognize that your never having seen or heard a word doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

[sharlee]

On 5/18/2014 just bee said:

The real issue is with idioms. People repeat expressions they've heard and they repeat them incorrectly. Worse, they don't seem to understand the meaning of the original idiom because the one the person has chosen is inappropriate for the situation.

Boy, is this ever true! My pet peeve is "It's a doggy-dog world."

[Maggon]

WOW! HOW Judgemental you are. Maybe he meant calm and peaceful, or maybe concilitory. You need to use your dictionary/thesaurus.

[WenGirl42]

On 5/18/2014 just bee said:

On 5/18/2014 WenGirl42 said:

I think part of it is also a decline in reading...if you've never seen certain words in print and are just going by how you've heard them, it's going to be a lot harder to distinguish them. Spellcheck was dangerous enough, but in this age of "helpful" autocomplete and autocorrect, this is becoming a cycle that seems to spread faster and more widely than before.

I used to think that as well. I believed that if you regularly saw a word in print you would just know how it was spelled. But I think it has something to do with the decline in writing. If you're writing on a regular basis you're practicing the art of spelling, the art of grammar.

Are people writing these days? I've noticed some of the younger ones I know struggle when they have to actually use this thing we refer to as "a pen."

The real issue is with idioms. People repeat expressions they've heard and they repeat them incorrectly. Worse, they don't seem to understand the meaning of the original idiom because the one the person has chosen is inappropriate for the situation.

I don't mean just that seeing words makes them easier to spell (though that's certainly part of it). But if you've never seen "there" spelled 3 different ways, how would you even know to wonder if you're using the right one? Or if all you do read is from sources unconcerned with such things, you get a skewed idea about how to put things together and a sense that it doesn't really matter because people still know what you mean. To me, reading (actual grammatically correct sources...dare I say books!) is the key to appreciating what you don't know. You're right about writing too though. When writing assignments (given less now) are permitted to be completed electronically, it makes it easier to rely on the processor (like learning math using a calculator). Furthermore. There seems to be a sense that if a paper is not written for an English class, it's not necessary to correct the grammar (this is not meant as a response to Harpa's scenario posted upthread, where there was an English teacher involved too). Maybe that's because the teacher doesn't feel (or isn't) qualified to do so, maybe it's because the teacher sees it as beyond the scope of their responsibility, or maybe it's simply too daunting and time-consuming a task. Whatever the reason, it isn't doing students any favors.

[just bee]

On 5/18/2014 Maggon said:

WOW! HOW Judgemental you are. Maybe he meant calm and peaceful, or maybe concilitory. You need to use your dictionary/thesaurus.

Oh, I do. And it would say judgmental and conciliatory.

[WenGirl42]

On 5/18/2014 just bee said:

On 5/18/2014 Maggon said:

WOW! HOW Judgemental you are. Maybe he meant calm and peaceful, or maybe concilitory. You need to use your dictionary/thesaurus.

Oh, I do. And it would say judgmental and conciliatory.

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