Please educate your children. Pretty please. For the sake of those of us who might have to read something they write someday, please, please educate them. Or at least teach them to keep their mouth shut. A story on the local news' FB page sparked a conversation about immigration. The following is, verbatim, a comment from that conversation: By that logic, this person who wrote that should be on the first flight to Mexico. :roll:
Funny,but sad. It's really difficult to take someone seriously when they can't even debate in a grammatically correct manner! LOL.
I get very frustrated at obvious grammatical errors. At my job, a woman wrote out a training sheet and it is FULL of errors. So many that I have thought of asking one of my bosses if I could change them and have them use the revised edition. That being said, I sometimes wonder if I make errors that someone else could easily find. I know I do in my everyday speech when I don't think about it. Now, that I am exposed to more grammar lessons, I am becoming more aware of them. So, while I am upset when I see the incorrect use of grammar, I try not to judge, because I know I am not perfect.
Rachael had an English teacher that told the kids that he wasn't perfect. So the first person to see an error in any of his handouts got a point of extra credit. She says he's ruined her for life; she's very quick to notice every little mistake now as a result!
I'm not a grammar snob or anything. I understand typos and little mistakes. But I had to read her first... um... sentence? four times before I even understood it. It's the complete lack of any structure is what gets me.
I am awful about seeing errors and then wanting to correct them. I actually did correct one at VBS this week because it was driving me crazy! One that really gets me is people using words wrong. Like loose for lose. I hate that!
Oh my. That left me.. speechless. I think we all make grammatical errors from time to time.. and I'm losing my spelling ability with age :roll: but there is a difference between THAT and not having a grasp on the basics. As I tell my children, using vulgar words makes people sound stupid. That goes double for using crappy grammar while trying to argue a point.
I have to agree. I think so much of the problem is children being raised with texting in shortened simple blurbs. They do not have that grasp on proper language and that text talk is not appropriate in so many situations. I hear stories about kids turning in school work with 2 for to or ur for your or you are. Really? It is sad that the written language holds much less value.
LOL Our local paper has a section called 30 seconds, where people can call in or email in and "complain" publicly (I say complain because that is 99% of it). I love to read it just to see how stupid some people sound.. the paper is very unforgiving and prints things just as they get them.
I'm being considered for a graduate assistantship at my university (Spring term) and this is what makes me the most nervous about it. I'm not the least bit phased by teaching a lecture hall full of disinterested students (Theatre 101 = gen ed people take because they think it's an easy A). I'm freaking out about how to not turn into the Wicked Witch of the West when I read papers full of crappy English.
Here are some of my pet peeves: to instead of too lite instead of light its instead of it's You was instead of you were (ouch that one really irks me) A local restaurant once had a sign that read: "Now taken Thanksgiving orders." HUH? The orders are already taken? I think I am a grammar snob sometimes, but I am trying to remember that a lot of people are not being educated and they really have not had the opportunities to learn correct grammar. I have also corrected something. Once, there was a notice at my job posted in several places and they had left out a comma. So, I went and put a comma where it was needed. I felt better.
My problem (well, the problem I assume I'll have if I get the position) is that these will be college students. I think it's reasonable to expect a college student to have a working knowledge of the English language. OK, in reality, maybe not. But it should be.
YES, YES, YES, and YES!!! (I bet you'll be able to tell right away which were hs'ed, lol!!!) My dss and I went around when he was in school. The local Christian school had a Junior/Senior banquet in Cincinnatti. The parents of one of his friends drove a group down, and then got two rooms at a State Park Lodge to spend the night. The kids had a great time. First of all, Jason fussed about WRITING a thank you note ("But I TOLD them thank you; why should I have to WRITE it?"), and then he wrote THNX. I made him re-do it, using PROPER SPELLING. He wasn't happy with me over it, but TOUGH!!!!
At the college level, I'd mop the floor with people who turn in a page full of errors! When I was in high school AP English, we were graded on a 0-4 scale. Each grammatical error (on a final, not a draft) cost us a point, and you had to have at least a score of 2 to pass the class (and this was in the days of typewriters, not spell checkers). Anyone with a 0 or 1 after the first semester was bumped down to the regular senior lit class. I was thankful to have paid attention in English all the years prior. It's one of my strongest subjects, and I thought about majoring in it. I just hate reading, so I knew I wouldn't enjoy the lit side of it.
In college, I'd say yes. If they are in college, I expect them to be held to a higher standard. What if they had to do a thesis? Do we let them get away with shoddy work simply because it's not an English class? Right or wrong, the ability to communicate is equated with intelligence. Why do you think a non-verbal person was called "dumb", rather than "mute"? Poor written communication is equated with being unintelligent, uneducated, or ignorant (or, in our case, educated in the public school, lol!) 2LittleBoys, that's kind of how Rachael's grammar teacher did it. You'd turn in the draft, and he'd correct it, citing the rule in the Writers, Inc. book. Then when you turned in your paper, he had you turn the draft in, too. If you missed making a correction, he took off double!
my brother teaches freshman comp at a college. He gets text talk in PAPERS submitted for grading all the time!
If kids are in college (oh, wait adults?), we should expect correct grammar or at least mostly correct grammar. Sure, it is natural to make some mistakes, but there is a difference between some mistakes and a paper full of errors or errors that are so bad they make you cringe. I would take this approach. Speak to the student who is making the errors and see if they would like to get some tutoring in English. If they are willing, maybe you could mark what is wrong on some of the papers and have them re-do it. After a while, you could expect them to do more of the work without the "intervention."
I have stared and pondered, and stared and pondered some more. I cannot for the life of me figure out what that first sentence is trying to communicate. Have any of you figured it out?
My best guess is the translation as follows: "it about time they are one cause of the mess this country in!!!" = It's about time. They are one cause of the mess this country is in!
