Grade School English

[LDO]

The short answer is a resounding "Yes!" You have to think outside the world of Facebook and texting to understand why, though. Go back to post #28 and look at how much Dale had to edit what you wrote in order to bring it up to "acceptable English" standards. To be blunt, when people older than your generation see this stuff, you collectively come off as a bunch of 'tards, and before you tell me that what they think doesn't matter, remember that they're the ones who'll be doing the hiring for the forseeable future.

Also, there's a huge difference between "generational slang" and the inability to differentiate between 2nd grade words like your and you're or there, their and they're. Do you get to mix and match multiplication table results too? Personally, I believe it comes down to willful indifference. Here's why: Over the years, we've had a decent sampling of Europeans join our board, and even though English was, at best, a second language to most of them, none of them ever created a literary pile of poop like you did in the paragraph that Dale edited. That's because they were taught proper English, including punctuation and spelling.

I'd honestly love to know how colleges are handling this kind of thing. Can you imagine grading a term paper wirtten in this garbage?

Monty- if you're ever in Austin and want a free beer, look me up.

[chevyfever2009]

Your statement is a perfect example, and - to the best of my ability, as my eighth grade English class taught me, some 50 years ago , this is how you might have typed it..... "Okay, I have a question for those complaining about how do people write stuff ? Do you spell everything you write correctly, use the correct version of certain words; use correct punctuation, capitalize everything anytime you write, spell, or email someone or post something?"...Sorry, in spelling, correct punctuation and capitalization ALONE, I have come up with10 incorrect uses of those in this paragraph, and I didn't even address other issues, such as sentence structure. And I will be the first to tell you, I make mistakes....but I do proof read before I post, and there IS an autocorrect, and I use it.

I dont care if i use all the correct uses and stuff im not a grammer nazi like some of you this is a fourm so it shouldnt matter this isnt a collage class or a class or a business where i have to make sure everything is correct so idont care if everything i post is correct

[Draggon]

And then there's that whole ebonics thing. When a school district excuses poor grammar due to heritage, something is very wrong.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ebonics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Ebonics_controversy

[Harry P.]

I dont care if i use all the correct uses and stuff im not a grammer nazi like some of you this is a fourm so it shouldnt matter this isnt a collage class or a class or a business where i have to make sure everything is correct so idont care if everything i post is correct

Ultimately how you write your posts is your decision. Nobody can make you care about anything. But communicating in standard English is a simple courtesy to the other forum members when you are "talking" to us here. It's not a matter of anyone being a "grammar nazi" or this place not being a "collage" class... it's about simple courtesy.

Is the post I quoted here really the way you want to came across to the rest of us? Really???

[2000-cvpi]

Ok i have a question for the ones complaining about how people write stuff. Do you spell everything you write correct,use the correct version of certian words use correct punctuation capitalize everything that should anytime you write spell or email some one or post something

Yes I do, it's called an education. Sometimes my phone auto corrects a word and I miss it before I post. I also will edit my post to fix any errors.

[Monty]

I dont care if i use all the correct uses and stuff im not a grammer nazi like some of you this is a fourm so it shouldnt matter this isnt a collage class or a class or a business where i have to make sure everything is correct so idont care if everything i post is correct

You seem to enjoy throwing the term "grammer nazi" around a lot, despite your inability to spell grammar correctly and the fact that you had no idea that "nazi" should be capitalized. Tell me something, are those who're proficient in math "number Nazis" because they insist on precision instead of "whatever"?

Yes, we get it - you "dont care". Please tell me that your job has nothing to do with legal paperwork or any other documentation where a customer might see your willful ignorance on display. You are a liability. On the other hand, you may be on the verge of a wonderful career writing song titles for rap albums, my nizzle.

Even if this were a college class or a business instead of a model forum, you'd still be in a world of hurt. Spellcheck will tell you if you've goofed on the spelling, but it won't tell you that you screwed up by using except instead of accept.

Lastly, you'll be pleased to know that you don't even have to go to college to take a "collage class". An interest in art might be helpful, though.

Edited August 26, 2013 by Monty

[2000-cvpi]

I dont care if i use all the correct uses and stuff im not a grammer nazi like some of you this is a fourm so it shouldnt matter this isnt a collage class or a class or a business where i have to make sure everything is correct so idont care if everything i post is correct

Nice job making all of the older guys here think every person under 35 is a idiot. I am four years older than you and I would be ashamed to come across so poorly as you have. It's not a grammar Nazi thing, it's very hard to read what you type. Another thing to think about is the mental picture that others will make about you based on what you type. My mental picture of you isn't too flattering.

I read my post after it was posted. I found an error, and corrected it.

Edited August 26, 2013 by 2000-cvpi

[Bernard Kron]

So far there hasn't been much ,discussion regarding the original question, - what really IS the deal with ignoring capitalization, punctuation, reasonable grammar, correct word-usage and spell-check? The deal is that it's a social statement, a form of rebellion, that has become the current slang or idiom among an increasingly large number of people expressing themselves in text. Personally, I think it's a bad thing because I believe It eliminates some useful tools of expression and severely limits the options people have for introducing nuance and precision into what they're trying to say.

I find it instructive to see how we got here from the days almost 3/4 of a century ago when elementary school systems still taught rigorous grammar and spelling as basic skills (do they still or is it simply being ignored?).

By the 1950s and 1960s the job of getting the overwhelming majority of Armican society to achieve basic literacy had largely been accomplished. As a result it became fashionable, starting in the better suburbs in America, for schools to eliminate the distinction between those students who, either through social or genetic good fortune, were better adapted to learning, and those who were less so. It was a distinction that was thought to be (and often was) fundamentally elitist and undemocratic. Eventually education became restructured around this notion. Many outcomes occurred, one of which was the emphasis on narrow specialization in the skills we use to get through life. Education became increasingly vocationally oriented.

Those who were gifted in the areas needed to evolve the technologies of our society, notably computation and communication technologies, often found themselves to be less interested , and sometimes less capable, in the "humanities". This included spelling, grammar, and the basics of good writing. Starting with the "sputnik generation" they were encouraged to focus on the areas they were best at and largely ignore the rest. As time and generations moved forward the other areas simply fell away.

Meanwhile the more learning challenged were encouraged to find employment better adapted to what was rapidly becoming a systematically under-educated class; employment that didn't require the skills they found more challenging to acquire, and which, quite often, they were no longer being offered. Up until the last 20 years, in many cases they were well enough compensated that these educational deficiencies really didn't matter. That expanding under-class was the "market" for the technocracy.

The intersection between the original concept of educational "democratization", really educational populism, and a technocratic class that is increasingly specialized has resulted in forms of communications that are best adapted to a lowest-common-denominator approach to both design and content. Think about auto-fill, for example, or spell-checkers and the problem of homonyms (words with different meanings and gramatical function but which sound the same), or the tiny restricted virtual keyboards on the screens of cell phones. All this reenforces a dumbing down of communication and a radical simplification of content.

The outcome is formalization and repetition. Eventually it changes the way we are able to think as we lose the mental tools to do otherwise. Ultimately we feel threatened by those that may still tolerate, or even demand, more complexity in the things they say and the manner in which they say it. They constitute an elite class and are to be resisted. What better way than unstructured, unpunctuated, and phonetically ad-hoc paragraphs?

Edited August 26, 2013 by Bernard Kron

[southpier]

xxx

Edited August 26, 2013 by southpier

[Harry P.]

This topic pops up regularly here, and there's nothing anyone can say to change things. The people who are the worst offenders when it comes to using poor grammar, spelling and punctuation are the very same people who aren't going to change their ways in order to make some "old fogeys" here happy. And the "old fogeys" who cringe when they see anything written in texting lingo aren't likely to embrace this "new way" of expression. Let's face it... neither side is going to convince the other to change their ways. My best advice to anyone who is really bothered by texting lingo and incoherent posts is to use the "ignore" preferences to filter out anyone whose writing makes your head hurt...

[Monty]

Maybe Apple or Microsoft will develop an app that translates infantile texting into fluent English. It'll need a clever name, though. Maybe we could call it 'tard-to-bard.

[MAGNUM4342]

Good suggestion Harry. I just added about four people from this thread alone, to my ignore list.

[Monty]

Monty- if you're ever in Austin and want a free beer, look me up.

Edit: I can't seem to get my reply in the same post as the one I'm quoting. Ugh.

Deal!

[chevyfever2009]

What i think is funny is that you all think your perfect at everything you type or say if you was perfect at it you wouldnt have to go back and fix anything because it would be perfect the first time. I could care less what you think of me as i will never meet anyone of you so it doesn't matter how you see me as i wont loose no sleep over it. I dont care if your 1 year older or 40 i could care less. And for your info i graduated high school with a 3.4 without even trying as i hated school and had otber interests than going to school

And for info a grammar Nazi is someone who has to correct any word that is wrong or anything in a sentence or paragraph.

Edited August 26, 2013 by chevyfever2009

[MAGNUM4342]

I is a collidge studint

Edited August 26, 2013 by MAGNUM4342

[Erik Smith]

What i think is funny is that you all think your perfect at everything you type or say if you was perfect at it you wouldnt have to go back and fix anything because it would be perfect the first time. I could care less what you think of me as i will never meet anyone of you so it doesn't matter how you see me as i wont loose no sleep over it. I dont care if your 1 year older or 40 i could care less. And for your info i graduated high school with a 3.4 without even trying as i hated school and had otber interests than going to school

And for info a grammar Nazi is someone who has to correct any word that is wrong or anything in a sentence or paragraph.

Not only is this faulty grammar, it is faulty logic as well.

I think a better way to address such a situation is to admit you are not good at writing and hope that others can still like you for the things you do well - or maybe even saying "I will try to be better"...

[Harry P.]

I think all the relevant points have been made.