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Original poster

anyone want to join me in grumble about the quality of other people's written work

158 replies

hatwoman · 06/11/2006 22:01

quality of language, analysis, strategy all up for discussion. Blaming A levels, universities, your own work-place training all invited. Awarding of points out of 10 particularly enouraged. I had to spend all sodding day today reading something for publication that I seriously would give about 3/10. just. it was appalling. record sentence (yes I took to counting, it was that bad) was 63 words long. yep. SIXTY-THREE. and, in case you missed it, this is for EXTERNAL PUBLICATION.

OP posts:
foundintranslation · 06/11/2006 22:03

My students' essays.

I can't go on

Wordsmith · 06/11/2006 22:08

Oh yes. In my last job I had to teach my team how to use commas. And these were University educated people in the communications business, FGS!!!! What is the world coming to? We may as well all just give up and lrn txt spk.

(Just don't take me to task for my typing. It's appalling and might make you think I can't spell or do grammar proper like)

robinpud · 06/11/2006 22:11

I have a sheaf of application forms in front of me. I am interviewing for a teacher tomorrow and there is at least 1 grammatical error on each form. One of them deserves to sit on the naughty chair for misuse of apostrophes and capitalisation.
Read an interesting artical recently which commented that although general standards of education 40 years ago were far lower than today; most people of that gerenation can punctuate correctly.

robinpud · 06/11/2006 22:12

Reading that back I think perhaps it should say, "I a interviewing for a teacher's position tomorrow. "

Wordsmith · 06/11/2006 22:18

I'm sure you meant 'article' and 'generation' there Robinpud..

Wordsmith · 06/11/2006 22:18

... and I meant to add at the end of that

moondog · 06/11/2006 22:22

Yes robin.
My grandpareents were not educated people but I can never recall seing a punctuation of grammatical error.

I had a teacher writing to me the other day about a child's 'tremmor's'.

mamama · 07/11/2006 00:43

I read some dissertations for my husband's students (21 year olds at the end of a 3 year science degree) and was completely appalled . Spelling, punctuation, grammar - all of it was horrible. There were commas all over the place, apostrophes in plurals and embarrassing spelling mistakes.

I did feel rather smug that most of my Year Five class knew the importance of proof-reading, spell-checking and editing their work and would have been able to construct better sentences than these adults.

Californifrau · 07/11/2006 00:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fortyplus · 07/11/2006 01:05

I hate it when I post something or send an e-mail and then spot a typo!

Derby Council have an excellent plain Engilsh guide on their website, though sometimes 'easy to read' doesn't equate to an attractive, flowing style of prose.

somethingunderthebedisdrooling · 07/11/2006 01:08

the reason for the appalling grammar and punctuation these days is that a generation of children are being taught by a generation who was never taught grammar and punctuation themselves.

fortyplus · 07/11/2006 01:13

Couldn't agree more! My pet hate is when people use 'it's' instead of 'its' for possession.

Oh... and 'practice' as a verb.

Sad, I know!

somethingunderthebedisdrooling · 07/11/2006 01:15

maybe next summer i will take my digital camera with me and take photos of all the misused apostrophes and commas on signs.

like this one in Devon
Cream Tea's

fortyplus · 07/11/2006 01:19

Just don't start me on that one...

Every time I have a wee at work I have to sit and look at a sign saying 'Please ensure that the toilet and it's contents have flushed properly'.

I have SUCH an urge to take the Tippex to the loo with me!

somethingunderthebedisdrooling · 07/11/2006 01:22

lol

mamama · 07/11/2006 01:59

PLEASE Tippex that, fortyplus! It's irritating me just knowing about it.

In my defense, as one of those teachers who teaches grammar despite never being taught it at school, I spent a huge amount of time learning everything I needed to teach before I went into the lessons. I sincerely hope others do the same.

My pet peeve is 'would of' or 'could of'. It's HAVE. Would HAVE [grrrr].

moondog · 07/11/2006 08:12

lmao at CaliforniaFrau's 'good self' of a boss.

Carmenere · 07/11/2006 08:20

Dp had to fire his cr@p solicitor who repeatedly sent letters that a ten yr old could have written better

MrsBadger · 07/11/2006 08:33

There really is a generational divide (although thinking about it it may just be a seniority one) - all academics over 50 seem to be grammatical to a fault, but writing quality gets steadily sloppier as researchers get younger (even the very bright ones with a string of degrees as long as your arm).

It gets to the point where, rather than just inserting / deleting punctuation etc, I have to sit down and ask 'So, what's the idea you're trying to convey in this paragraph?' because their communication skills are just so poor I have no clue what was in their head.

I firmly attribute it to not reading enough when young.

saadia · 07/11/2006 08:39

mamama can I be very nosy and ask whether you teach in the private or state sector? It would reassure me no end if the standards you expect were expected in other state schools.

fortyplus · 07/11/2006 08:59

Hmmm. Not entirely sure that I agree. I know lots of older people who write badly. I type in a sloppy , chatty style on mn or in e mails to friends, but make sure that letters and articles are grammatically correct, don't contain repetition and are written in a style appropriate to the intended recipient or audience. I work for my local council and the formal closing para 'In the event of any query please do not hesitate to contact me at the above address'seems to be the norm. It drives me NUTS! I write to people as though they are human.

expatinscotland · 07/11/2006 09:04

There's been a lot of dumbing down in society, obstensibly to spare people from having their feelings hurt.

I thought that was just part of life?

Guess not. We have to be 'inclusive' - of thugs, of people who preach hatred, of 'txt spk' as a form of English, etc.

Bolleaux, methinks!

edam · 07/11/2006 09:27

Oh, I agree, Expat.

Mrs Badger I think that's a very important point. My generation (30s) weren't taught grammar in huge detail; we didn't have to parse sentences or learn anything beyond 'doing words' and so on. But we were taught about commas and basic sentence structure. I learnt everything else I know about the use of language from reading widely as a child (and an adult).

expatinscotland · 07/11/2006 09:33

I wondered about that, edam, b/c I had a British boyfriend who misused capitals like no one's business. Yet he fancied himself a pedant. LOL!

He got all miffed when he asked me to review something he'd written for business clients and I highlighted all these inappropriate capitals and misuse of apostrophes and other punctuation.

I was taught grammar in school, but I was in one of those G&T programmes.

fortyplus · 07/11/2006 09:42

It's like spelling - if you can do it then you can't understand why anyone else can't. My ds1 takes after dh - he's nearly 13 and sometimes doesn't even manage a plausible phonetic spelling of a word. The other day I caught him writing 'becals'!!! I mean - they taught him that 'Big Elephants Always Understand Small Elephants' in yr2!!! ds2, on the other hand, could spell 'philosopher' when he was 7. So I think their brains work in different ways. Even ds2 doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'paragraph', though!