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Several years ago while bored, I browsed a number of school websites. From official statements to introductory essays by the educators, the sheer number of misspellings, grammatical errors and horribly-constructed sentences was appalling.
Several years ago while bored, I browsed a number of school websites. From official statements to introductory essays by the educators, the sheer number of misspellings, grammatical errors and horribly-constructed sentences was appalling.
When my daughter was in school I would often send corrections in via email to our school website. The number of obvious errors was ridiculous.
When my daughter was in school I would often send corrections in via email to our school website. The number of obvious errors was ridiculous.
As a high school counselor, I received a fairly large amount of correspondence from colleges, both of a routine nature, and in regard to specific students. The number of grammatical errors in those letters was disturbingly high, and on a few occasions I actually "red-penned" the routine letters and mailed them back in envelopes w/o a return address. I mailed the letters back anonymously because I didn't want an offended Director of Admissions to discriminate against students from the school where The Grammar Nazi Counselor worked.
I think that the most ridiculous error that I found was in regard to the On-Site Admissions program that we had arranged with a few colleges. That program allowed students to be interviewed, have their transcripts reviewed, and receive an admissions decision in our offices on a specific day each year. However, one college's admissions office persisted in referring to the program as the On Sight Admissions program.
When my daughter was in school I would often send corrections in via email to our school website. The number of obvious errors was ridiculous.
Someone left this question as a rep comment:
Did you ever confront and question in person?
Yes. At the PTA meeting, I brought it up a couple of times. I was met with blank and/or confused stares. I remember one other person spoke up and agreed with me, but most people seemed to treat it as some sort of silly issue that really didn't matter, and they just went on with whatever they were talking about.
It's funny, because I live in and I belong to a church in a different area of the state now, and the woman who does our church website holds a position as the website person for the school system of a small neighboring town. There are always spelling errors on the church website, so I imagine there must be errors on that school system's website, too. The church thing is voluntary, but the school website is her JOB.
Shouldn't a basic command of spelling be some sort of requirement for such a position?
As a high school counselor, I received a fairly large amount of correspondence from colleges, both of a routine nature, and in regard to specific students. The number of grammatical errors in those letters was disturbingly high, and on a few occasions I actually "red-penned" the routine letters and mailed them back in envelopes w/o a return address. I mailed the letters back anonymously because I didn't want an offended Director of Admissions to discriminate against students from the school where The Grammar Nazi Counselor worked.
I think that the most ridiculous error that I found was in regard to the On-Site Admissions program that we had arranged with a few colleges. That program allowed students to be interviewed, have their transcripts reviewed, and receive an admissions decision in our offices on a specific day each year. However, one college's admissions office persisted in referring to the program as the On Sight Admissions program.
Years ago when I placed an ad looking for help I received a ton of resumes. The amount of misspellings and poor grammar was incredible. One came from a fellow college alumni and like you, I "red-penned" it and sent it back. Never heard from the guy again.
It's sad, but that's the way things are these days.
Years ago when I placed an ad looking for help I received a ton of resumes. The amount of misspellings and poor grammar was incredible.
In my second career, as a Paralegal, I had much of the responsibility for hiring people for new Paralegal positions at my agency, and I was both shocked and appalled to see how many cover letters stated that the applicant was responding to our "add". If somebody doesn't know the difference between the abbreviation for the word "advertisement" and the word signifying one of the four basic math functions, then I didn't want him/her drafting legal documents. These applicants never even got to the interview stage of the hiring process.
For applicants who did get to the interview stage of the process, the next step after an interview was a test of their writing ability. At this point, I had to eliminate people who did not know the difference between "libel" and "liable", the difference between "sever" and "severe", the difference between "your" and "you're", and--of course--those who thought that "a lot" had somehow morphed into one non-word, namely "alot".
It's funny, because I live in and I belong to a church in a different area of the state now, and the woman who does our church website holds a position as the website person for the school system of a small neighboring town.
You live in a church?
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