I'm a firm believer that the lack of education regarding proper sentence structure and spelling is due to a lack of reading. People who read books, newspapers and magazines regularly see how a sentence is supposed to be crafted and how words are spelled correctly. Too many people only read from internet sources, many of which are full of grammar and spelling errors, and therefore come away with bad habits and bad english.

The worst are those who spell common words or phrases in a way which makes me wonder if they even understand the language that they speak. I can't remember an example right this second, but they are very obvious. I see several people who often write something like, "the media is bias" instead of the proper, "the media is biased," and have to wonder if they even have a basic grasp of the language and how it's used.

M R DUKS, OSAR C M WANGS

A simple example of communication, a certain truth rings aloud, lacking in eloquent accuracy and punctuation the point is taken and the offering is on the table, a willing sacrifice for the grammar Nazis. Is this really what ATS has become? A community of grammatical bureaucracy bound tight with the red tape of spell check ignoring the message itself?

Last I checked, I saw no section of the T and C pointing reference to the correct way in which a post should be structured. After all: Einstein said: "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." How's that, please explain?

"I want to go to."
To where?

"Don't you read what people right?"
Was it wrong?

"I defiantly like that ice cream."
As opposed to liking ice cream submissively?


Here's one I see often on Craigslist

"Rod iron furniture for sale"

- and once someone was selling a "chester drawers" - I kid you not.



It drives me crazy! Where's my red pen?

I am definitely a grammar nazi.

I find that there are a lot of typos in a lot of my posts. It bugs me to no end, but I'm one of the types of people that really hate to read what I actually post. It's just something that really sickens me to no end.

Homophones are one of the most common typos and I mean, it's really easy to make mistakes. I mean, the OP did it himself. Not everyone's perfect.

Y'know what I probably hate more than grammatical errors? People that don't paragraph their posts. It's highly bothersome when it's a rather large post. It looks unclean, and just comes across as a big pile of text. It's highly unattractive to mein eyes.

my sister was an administrator at my sons school and while I was visiting, the principal said "recess will be indoors due to incumbent weather"

Originally posted by alyosha1981
M R DUKS, OSAR C M WANGS

A simple example of communication, a certain truth rings aloud, lacking in eloquent accuracy and punctuation the point is taken and the offering is on the table, a willing sacrifice for the grammar Nazis. Is this really what ATS has become? A community of grammatical bureaucracy bound tight with the red tape of spell check ignoring the message itself?

Last I checked, I saw no section of the T and C pointing reference to the correct way in which a post should be structured. After all: Einstein said: "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." How's that, please explain?

This has been mostly a polite, reasonable thread with plenty of friendly banter, fun, and acceptance of anyone (specifically with a few references that grammar rules don't apply to everyone).

I can understand not reading 80+ posts of this but getting a feel for the thread before making an accusation of "what ATS has become" would be more inviting.

[edit on 26-10-2009 by notreallyalive]

I'm terrible when it comes grammars, dictions, sentence structures, and spelling. I just skipped out on that crucial milestone in elementary school, and it's I've regret it more than anything now.

In addition, my lack of reading and writing from a young age made the matter even worse. It's because of those factors, that I'm dyslexic, or at least I feel I am (I'm not diagnosed yet). What I mean is I can't read vocally, thus have trouble doing presentation or talking to crowd. It's really frustrating when you have the information, knowledge, and idea, but you can't communicate it to others.

So who do I blame? The education grading system and technology. I mean I know grading system is used as a deterrent to encourage and check on kids if they've been doing their assignments: reading, writing, solving.

But when learning is based on fear, many kids will find any means possible to obtain that get the highest possible grade, as quickly as possible. With the availability of technology, the amount of possible shortcuts are endless. The problem is technology improves our ease of living, eliminating things such as repetition.

And unfortunately, I feel repetition is a crucial process or factor in learning. People no longer bother to go back to read a book or a chapter for an assignment, they have sparknotes. People don't bother going through a paper they've written to check for spelling, grammer, or diction, they have softwares for that. Nor do people bother rewriting their essay or paper from scratch, they word document software for that.

Me. I'm guilty of all of those things at one point in my life or another. Its once I began college, that I understood the value of English in general. I've taken the initiative to read all of the books assigned to me. I'm starting to read the newspaper daily. Best of all, I'm slowly becoming less dependent on my sister "check" my papers - aka. rewrite whole paragraphs and sometimes pages for me.

So yes, I am making an effort to improve myself. But, it would of been a whole lot easier if I'd just paid attention back in elementary school. Now, I have to pay the price. So parents, make sure your kids are reading and writing as much as possible, English is such a valuable tool set.

But you know what's the sad part is? I feel I'm probably better off than most kids in my generation (this generation).

P.S. If anyone have any recommendation on books, webpages, or basic tips or advice to improve in the areas I've mention above, I would be grateful and delighted to look into it.


[edit on 26-10-2009 by skyblueff0]

Originally posted by LAUGHING-CAT
my sister was an administrator at my sons school and while I was visiting, the principal said "recess will be indoors due to incumbent weather"

So, it was stormy yesterday too?

Originally posted by notreallyalive
How is it that so many people don't know the basics??

Public school systems, a fine example is LAUSD. It's rather comical that we have such an emphasis on children with "learning disabilities" when it is obvious that teachers and the whole bureaucratic system have what is called a "teaching disability".

Low test scores, drop out rates, pour grammar, are all fine examples of a failing public school system.

I believe the problem is a combination of the public school system and lack of parental involvement. A basic example of this is my daughter's vocabulary/spelling list. She is in the fifth grade, each week she is given a spelling list and a worksheet in which they are required to draw a picture to indicate the definition. This is not adequate in my book, so on a separate piece of paper she writes the actual definition of the word, tense, various usages that sort of thing and submits that to me.

Unfortunately, it is not simply grammar it is the educational system across the board. But that's a whole other thread.