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I agree.
However, I have finally learned, late in life, to ignore such foolishness.
Another thing that I find annoying is the apparent lack of caring enough to proofread the typing before hitting the "Post" button. All too many people obviously don't care how the rest of the world sees them.
As for the "woman with a four year college degree", that is just a point to prove my contention that the only difference between a BSN (Bachelor of Science Nurse) and an ADN (Associates Degree Nurse) is a few of what I call "feather courses" that have nothing to do with patient care. In fact, both of them take exactly the same test to qualify to put RN after their name! However, in many, if not most, organizations, only a BSN will be considered for a management position. Actually, this works great for those who know going in that they want nothing to do with "management". They get the ADN, take the NCLEX to become an ADRN, and go to work taking care of sick people. They can't be faulted for not trying for a "Promotion", because they are not qualified.
Sorry for the rant, but that line pushed one of my "Hot Buttons". I am married to an ADRN with about 30 years of experience as a Med/Surg Nurse, most of it as a traveler or float pool Nurse. I have seen first hand the difference in care between the BSN and the ADRN (None!) and the difference in observed attitude between the two (sometimes considerable). I would often much rather have an ADRN taking care of me!
I hear you. While I do respect people who put the time, money, and effort into getting a BSN, I don't think it makes someone a better nurse. As you pointed out, we all take the same exam to become an RN so we all need the same basic medical knowledge. The fact that the BSN requires extra courses, several in the area of language arts, drives home my point of why in the world my boss can't use proper grammar. I do understand why many companies require a BSN to move up to a management position, because when I inquired about pursuing my BSN at one time, I learned that the few courses that I still needed were in nursing management.
I never did get my BSN because frankly, after 28 years as an RN I am really just waiting to retire from nursing to pursue other interests and I have no desire to rack up the cost of additional nursing education, not to mention that I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to work in any type of nursing management and am happy just to work at my current job until I can afford to leave nursing altogether.
I have known many very skilled and competent Associates Degree and Diploma nurses that I would trust with my life. I am a Diploma nurse who graduated from a rigorous hospital based RN program that had a reputation for turning out the best nurses in the city, not that I think I am particularly great, just lucky to get through it and have a long and relatively successful career. I have also known several (generally young) BSN nurses who possessed a great contempt for bedside care and wanted to avoid it on their way to the top at all costs, but also some who loved hands on care. I guess it depends on the individual.
Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack my own thread, lol, so I will just say that I am thankful for the teachers that I had throughout my primary and secondary education who took the time to teach correct grammar. I am not perfect but I can spot glaring errors and I am thankful. I guess I "should of" thanked my "teacher's" when I had a chance.
As I mentioned in my OP, it really, REALLY drives me crazy when I see people who work in journalism, such as those who work for television news stations, using incorrect grammar, especially when they use it in online news stories. It is embarrassing to realize that when you read a news story riddled with incorrect grammar, punctuation, and word usage, you are reading the work of people who graduated from American institutions of higher learning and even majored in a field where proper language usage is critically important. The ball is being dropped somewhere. Is having an article proofread a thing of the past?
The plural of you is one error that I can't stand, and I see it and HEAR it said so often. Yous, you's and you'se.
How I would love to correct them because it sounds so wrong to me.
This is so basic that it baffles me how someone can go all the way through school without learning that "you" is both singular and plural.
I write "youse" sometimes tongue-in-cheek because of the TV/movie stereotype that people in NJ speak that way. It has some basis in reality. There are still a few pockets in Hudson County (the urbanish area that borders the Hudson across from NYC) where "youse" is in use, and I had a friend from Kearny, NJ, in that same area, who said "yuhs". "Are yuhs gonna come over later?"
As I mentioned in my OP, it really, REALLY drives me crazy when I see people who work in journalism, such as those who work for television news stations, using incorrect grammar, especially when they use it in online news stories. It is embarrassing to realize that when you read a news story riddled with incorrect grammar, punctuation, and word usage, you are reading the work of people who graduated from American institutions of higher learning and even majored in a field where proper language usage is critically important. The ball is being dropped somewhere. Is having an article proofread a thing of the past?
I think so. I don't think they have proofreaders in the budget anymore, and many of the "reporters" on newspapers now are the freshly-minted journalism graduates who are willing to work for peanuts.
Sometimes I will take the time to correct one of them. Another weird thing that has been popping up is the use of "begs the question" to mean "raises the question", which is not what it means at all. I see it on City-Data a lot lately, but when I saw it in Crain's, the NYC Real Estate publication, it was a bit too much. That's supposed to be a respectable publication.
I wrote to the reporter with a link indicating what "begs the question" means, and he responded and thanked me.
Eye liek to consider meyeself to be a sticler for grammer and propour speling, but even eye kan mess up at tiems (Note: those misspellings were done on purpose for comedic effect).
Eye liek to consider meyeself to be a sticler for grammer and propour speling, but even eye kan mess up at tiems (Note: those misspellings were done on purpose for comedic effect).
I think so. I don't think they have proofreaders in the budget anymore, and many of the "reporters" on newspapers now are the freshly-minted journalism graduates who are willing to work for peanuts.
Sometimes I will take the time to correct one of them. Another weird thing that has been popping up is the use of "begs the question" to mean "raises the question", which is not what it means at all. I see it on City-Data a lot lately, but when I saw it in Crain's, the NYC Real Estate publication, it was a bit too much. That's supposed to be a respectable publication.
I wrote to the reporter with a link indicating what "begs the question" means, and he responded and thanked me.
I wonder if the kind of grammar errors we often see and hear are peculiar to the US, or do Canadians make the same mistakes? And Aussies, and Brits? Are their school systems better at teaching correct grammar? I've lived in states, where none of the schools teach basic grammar on the elementary level, nor advanced grammar and writing at the HS level. Some of the journalists being complained about here are from that type of school.
How about the “newly” accepted use of omitting the s after the apostrophe? E.g., I’m going to take Ross’ car. I keep it old school: ...Ross’s car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlaskaAma
I remember learning that in middle school some 25 years ago, so I'm not sure "newly accepted" is accurate. It really bothers me when the invisible extra "s" is not pronounced, though!
Strunk & White, which was the most common style and usage manual in the US, promoted the use demonstrated by the example, Ross's
But in the latter decade or two of the 20th century, the Chicago Manual of Style (I believe, someone correct me if I am wrong) increasingly became the style manual of choice in American high schools and Universities. They accept Ross' as a valid grammatical form.
My understanding is that the Chicago Manual of Style was written as a handbook for print journalists who have a different motive for writing style, emphasizing concision and brevity to create a more 'clean' form, hence the dropping of the final s .
Quote:
Originally Posted by gouligann
The plural of you is one error that I can't stand, and I see it and HEAR it said so often. Yous, you's and you'se.
How I would love to correct them because it sounds so wrong to me.
This is so basic that it baffles me how someone can go all the way through school without learning that "you" is both singular and plural.
It may be "incorrect" in terms of written grammar, but it is a common, even fundamental, grammatical form in parts of northern England, Scotland, Ireland, parts of Newfoundland and Ontario, and the northeastern US.
I, too, find it kind of grating, but it is certainly not some rare abberation of speech in the broader English speaking world.
Is there an equivalent of possession for inanimate objects?
These sentences sound correct when dealing with a person:
1 - The man's beard was gray
2 - The man whose beard was gray
Replaced with an inanimate object, things get weird:
3 - The bed's comforter was threadbare
4 - The bed whose comforter was threadbare
Number 4 is like throwing a stick right in someone's bicycle spokes. Full stop. Does not compute. Is the fourth structure just simply not an option if one wishes to follow the rules?
The closest thing I can think of would be to write "The bed's comforter, which was threadbare"
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