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Old 01-23-2009, 01:35 PM
 
117 posts, read 333,989 times
Reputation: 118

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Niftybergin View Post
The only time I'm REALLY bothered by grammar/spelling mistakes is at work or when I find them in published books.
You know, I actually read (when I read books and not on Kindle) with a pencil nearby, and when I find an error, make a check in the margins. You'd be surprised how many books are full of errors. Really, I think that's tragic.
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Old 01-23-2009, 01:41 PM
 
117 posts, read 333,989 times
Reputation: 118
Quote:
Originally Posted by DawnW View Post
When my son went to pre-school, they handed new parents a huge notebook with their rules and information in it.

It was SO FULL of errors that I almost tried to find a different pre-school to send my child to. It was everything in me not to get out my red pen, mark it up, and hand it back and ask for a new and edited copy.
Good for you! I think you should do that!

I was thinking about this, and it's really not snobbery. It's more like reality orientation. Skill in language, command of at least your own language, is a powerful tool, and those who ignore it do so at their own peril. There are anecdotal exceptions to this, but language is power. Look at our new President. One of the reasons for his success is his command of language.

As a teacher, you want children to be powerful and articulate and capable, and having language skills is the key, really. NOT having them is a huge and unnecessary drawback.
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Old 01-23-2009, 01:44 PM
 
Location: Texas
44,256 posts, read 64,192,652 times
Reputation: 73922
LOL! Have you been watching this week's Wheel of Fortune? It's 'Teachers Week.' Some of those contestants should be downright embarrassed. Appalling.
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Old 01-23-2009, 01:44 PM
 
Location: Somewhere gray and damp, close to the West Coast
20,957 posts, read 5,527,189 times
Reputation: 8559
Quote:
Originally Posted by cellogurl23 View Post
Good for you! I think you should do that!

I was thinking about this, and it's really not snobbery. It's more like reality orientation. Skill in language, command of at least your own language, is a powerful tool, and those who ignore it do so at their own peril. There are anecdotal exceptions to this, but language is power. Look at our new President. One of the reasons for his success is his command of language.

As a teacher, you want children to be powerful and articulate and capable, and having language skills is the key, really. NOT having them is a huge and unnecessary drawback.
AMEN from an unemployed proofreader!
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Old 01-23-2009, 01:51 PM
 
117 posts, read 333,989 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4 View Post
LOL! Have you been watching this week's Wheel of Fortune? It's 'Teachers Week.' Some of those contestants should be downright embarrassed. Appalling.
Yeah; I've taught in public schools, and I don't want to bash teachers, because some of them are just wonderful. And all of them have a hard, low paying job with very little intrinsic rewards, sometimes. It's hard on the body and the soul, I think, and often, downright dangerous.

But I've seen some teachers that I just wanted to leave the room and cry, they were so bad.
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Old 01-23-2009, 02:09 PM
 
1,501 posts, read 5,672,786 times
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I've read a Harvard Paper with apostrophe for plural; seen them in my nephew's school projects go uncorrected; see them just about every single day somewhere in print.

Has something changed since I went to school? Do you really need an apostrophe on just about every plural now? College-educated people and businesses are doing this. What gives?

I worry more about the above than casual correspondence. Emails and message boards are mostly casual banter among friends for the most part. "Loose" (my mind) ... "Quite" (neighborhood) are fine with me :>)
I'll start to worry when I see them in print every single day.

I always wrote stuff for, perhaps, my best boss ever (former military.) He just didn't like writing, and didn't pretend to be Charles Dickens. He's done stuff in his career that most of us writers (I like to write) could never dream of doing. Folks have different strengths in different things. As long as people are good, kind folks and do whatever job they do well, I don't care how they spell :>)

I guess, knowing some really great people (older folks) who had to drop out of school at an early age to work due to circumstances beyond their control help me undertand more.

Last edited by Travel'r; 01-23-2009 at 02:23 PM..
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Old 01-23-2009, 03:29 PM
 
Location: Texas
44,256 posts, read 64,192,652 times
Reputation: 73922
Traveler, I have seen the exact same thing everywhere.

Apostrophes everywhere! Even at my gym - a nationwide chain! In big letters across one of the larger walls. Something about something being it's own reward. UGH!
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Old 01-23-2009, 03:31 PM
 
Location: southern california
61,289 posts, read 87,226,632 times
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I omit much punctuation and capitalization, but know how to do it. The sadness is when i don't.
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Old 01-23-2009, 05:31 PM
 
117 posts, read 333,989 times
Reputation: 118
Here's another one (I think mentioned before): the "you knows." Why is that interviewees on sports segments of the news say it so often. I just counted 10 from a basketball player.

This drives me nuts. Are they just unconscious?
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Old 01-24-2009, 12:25 AM
Status: "more of the good stuff" (set 15 hours ago)
 
1,813 posts, read 2,840,578 times
Reputation: 1609
It is sad. I have always known the rules--how to write and spell correctly. My teachers were sticklers for it. Now that I see so many mistakes I'm starting to question what I've known since I was pretty little. I've had to look up a couple things online to check the rules. I fear that many people truly believe those unwanted apostrophes are correct. Are teachers bothering to fix them when they see them on students' papers?

A few weeks ago we got a little book in the mail for the Adult Education program in our town. This is information about SCHOOL, folks, where one should expect the people in charge to be at least decent writers. It was full of classes with titles containing words such as Computer's and Aerobic's. Are you kidding me??? If educators can't get this right, who will?

I think email, to some extent, and texting could be making this worse, since speed is becoming more important than accuracy. Also, Spell Check is not capable of finding many errors, so one can not always learn from that.
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