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Post by Blaque on Mar 23, 2007 8:36:57 GMT -5
Do you correct people's grammar?
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Post by thicknbassy on Mar 23, 2007 12:11:23 GMT -5
Do you correct people's grammar? Y'know, when I graduated high school, I was seriously considering being an English teacher...I'm more apt to correct folks' writing, and have been attacked for that. Could never understand why folks would be OFFENDED for being corrected. If I'm saying or doing something that makes me look like a dumbass, I'm GRATEFUL when it's pointed out to me. Poor writing (spelling/punctuation) is a pet peeve of mine. In this global information and technology age, where folks can come to this country from the other side of the WORLD, and then master our language, there is simply NO EXCUSE, and I get chaffed by the excuses, ("this is JUST a messageboard," "I'm not applying for a job," "this ain't no term paper," etc.) My question to those who, in the afforementioned formats have no problem practicing inexcellence is this...WHERE do you go to practice EXCELLENCE then? How do you know what proper speilling and punctuation is supposed to look like if you NEVER practice it? That's like a marathon runner saying that it's okay to eat Mickey Dees Monday thru Saturday, since they ONLY run on Sundays! I've seen the reports where we are becoming a nation of dummies. College students more and more not only know very LITTLE about the world around them, (other than "American Idol," and "I Love NY") but they can't even write basic English, and writing ability is on the decline...and I'm talking about GRADUATES!We live in a generation that has more information at its fingertips than all previous generations combined, and the accepted and excused ignorance is truly perplexing. What example are we setting for our kids? "Honey, it's okay that it looks like a freakin' RANSOM NOTE, since it's nothing important, and I'm sure that everything you write that IS important is FLAWLESS?" If that's your mindset, would you want YOU checking your kids' homework before they turn it in?
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sweetpie
B.E. Staff Sergeant
Posts: 2,081
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Post by sweetpie on Mar 23, 2007 17:22:23 GMT -5
I do it to my kids. I see it (spelling) but I don't take to the point that it drives me crazy. I just do the best I can and hope I've explained myself.
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Post by lusciouslois on Mar 26, 2007 16:33:27 GMT -5
I pretty much have given up, especially in the case of my coworkers
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Post by darock on Mar 28, 2007 15:37:21 GMT -5
I pretty much have given up, especially in the case of my coworkers I can't STAND bad writing, or bad grammar! These kids..mumbling when they speak, sounding just like that chit they listen to on the radio! When it comes to many of us, there is this notion that ignorance is cool, education is somehow "weak," or makes one "soft." Dayum shame that a brotha can get more respect in some circles for going to jail than for going to college. **NEVER heard a thug get called a "Tom"...guess they have MORE than sufficient "blackness"**
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Post by thicknbassy on Apr 4, 2007 2:40:53 GMT -5
See what I mean? Damn.
By Lori Aratani Washington Post Staff Writer
Zoe Bambery, a senior at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, might send more than 100 instant messages -- IMs -- during a typical evening. So during the SAT exam, the 18-year-old found herself inadvertently lapsing into IM-speak, using "b/c" instead of "because" as she scrambled to finish her essay.
She caught herself and now is careful to proofread before hitting print. But she is hardly the only student to find IM phrases creeping into schoolwork. "They are using it absolutely everywhere," said Sara Goodman, an English teacher at Clarksburg High School in Montgomery County who has worn out many purple and red markers circling the offending phrases in papers and tests.
Wendy Borelli, a seasoned English teacher at Springbrook High in Silver Spring, finds photo captions for the school yearbook sprinkled with shorthand such as "B4" and "nite." A student who left on a brief errand to the office announced he would "BRB."
In 2004, 16 million teenagers used instant messages to communicate, up from 13 million in 2000, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Students say IM language has become so ubiquitous they often do not realize they have lapsed into it.
"It's just natural. I had to learn not to do it" in papers, ChiChi Aniebonam, 17, said about her proficiency in IM. "I'm in AP literature, where you just can't put it into your writing, but when I'm writing something informal, now and again I use it."
Text messaging and instant messaging allow instant communication via phone or computer. But because the number of characters that can be used to convey a message can be limited, it has given rise to a whole new language. A phrase like "I know what you mean" is reduced to "IKWUM" in text-speak; "OTFL" translates to "on the floor laughing."
"The biggest problem for me is I don't IM, so I don't know what they're saying," said Allison Finn, who teaches AP English at Blake High School in Silver Spring. "They'll say things like 'TTYL,' [talk to you later] and I don't know what they're talking about."
It's not just teenagers. Some college professors say the lingo is popping up at their level as well.
Jeff Stanton, an associate professor in the school of information sciences at Syracuse University, said sometimes he is taken aback at how informal students have become in the way they communicate.
Stanton shared one of his favorite pieces of correspondence: "hi prof how are u culd u tell me my xm grade - tim."
"It bothers me at one level, but I try not to let it get under my skin," he said. "But I am concerned [students] won't be successful if they don't know how to communicate on a formal basis. The first time they send a goofy message to the boss, they're going to be out."
Bridget Tomich, an English teacher at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington County, said she has begun to pick up some of the shorthand and can now tell her LOLs (laugh out loud) from her TTYLs. She said her students get a kick out of being able to teach her for a change.
Still, some academics fret that the shorthand will hurt students' ability to write and communicate.
"The drawback of text messaging is that most services limit the messages to 30 words, and the ingenious young writers using that service have created symbols and abbreviations that lead to a very cryptic method of communication that does not lend itself to being transferred to academic writing," said John Briggs, a professor of English at the University of California at Riverside, who heads the university's entry-level writing program for students.
But others see "teachable moments" in the new lingo. In fact, the National Council of Teachers of English, in a partnership with the International Reading Association, includes an outline on how to use IM and other forms of electronic communication on a Web site of lessons it maintains for educators across the country.
"In some ways, [IM] is an English teacher's dream because it's using writing for a real purpose, towards a real audience, and that's something we always struggle with in a classroom," said Leila Christenbury, the council's past president and a professor of English education at Virginia Commonwealth University.
A few years ago, after several weeks of grading papers filled with IM-speak and other jargon, Goodman took matters into her own hands.
When the students showed up for class the following day, she asked them to read a paragraph she had written using many of the same phrases they used in their papers.
"chaucer's the canterbury tales r a scathing attack on the catholic church of the late 1300s . . . he uses the descriptions of many pilgrims (including several very sketchy religious dawgs) 2 deliver a veiled message about the mad corruption he like saw in the church the greed that some of his characters have 4 money, represents like the use of church scratch 2 build some pretty tight cathedrals."
She said they laughed but understood her point.
Edward Hardin, who works in test development for the College Board, which administers the SAT and AP exams, said that although some students slip an occasional IM-ism into an essay, the mistake he most often sees these days is students who confuse the word ludicrous -- causing laughter because of absurdity -- with Ludacris, the rapper.
"The guy has redefined the spelling of that word," Hardin said with a chuckle.
Anybody agree that this ain't cute?
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Post by pelicanguy on Apr 13, 2007 22:15:47 GMT -5
I don't like bad grammar/punctuation either. It drives me nuts that people can't take the time to form correct sentences with the correct punctuation.
If you ask me to look over something for you, I'm gonna go over every last detail. Don't get mad at me if you don't know what you're doing. I'm trying to help YOU out.
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