Bad

Do you remember one of the old Abbott and Costello exchanges used many times that went like this:

Abbott [to Costello]: "You ever go to school, stupid?

Costello: Yeah. And I came out the same way.


Planeflyer

 

Like it or not, our progeny of FaceBooking, YouTubing, MySpaceing, TextMessaging, X-Boxing, young folks will be the ones selecting our nursing homes.

Scary, huh?

Planeflyr

 

true in part. while i am bye no means the best speller; i do try my best to spell everything correctly online, mostly because i feel it reflects on you as a person in a big way in an impersonal environment. Though i take flying very seriously and don't accept the smallest of errors, especially when flying instruments. But i do feel the school system as a whole is not as good as it could be.

 

oopse

 

Thank You Switches!!


Rob,
I'm really with Switches, on this topic.
On another forum, Ive been labelled the "Grammar Police", and have pi$$ed off alot of people that don't want their stupidity recognized.

I won't do it here... as much as, I'd like to.

True... Chat rooms are not to be construed as a published literary work.

However that's the kind of attitude, He's been speaking of.

Just because it's quick and efficient for communication shouldn't mean that all hell can break loose grammatically speaking. To communicate, one must be able to form complete sentences, and have spelled them correctly so as not to be misconstrued.

He isn't speaking of the occasional misspelled word, in an otherwise correct and intelligent posting, he's speaking of the breakdown of the English language by people that don't care about it, or its heritage.

The capitalization of the word "I" shows some esteem in oneself, Lacking that, it exhibits a surge of laziness...

( Oh it's just a chat room it don't matter)

Well it sure does matter.

It matters in the way people interpret who you are, and how much credibility to give you, on the board. The spelling errors which reappear consistantly, only serve as a billboard to ones stupidity, and lack of education.

"Why if one can't spell airplane how can you fly one.

Well, you can't fly "one". You can fly "it"
( the subject is 'airplane', not 'how many')


Grammar, isn't used correctly in the media either.
Ever see the car ad that states "THIS CAR IS SO FUN"?
The idiot that wrote that, was one of the contributors to the breakdown.
The word fun, requires a quantifier..."This car is so much fun" would be

"so much gooder english"

Yes, you probably understood my quotation, as much better English,
but what would you really think of the author of that phrase,
if it stood all alone?

* * A college professor
* * A Blue collar worker
* * An unskilled writer
* * A Moron in the languidge?? (intentionally misspelled for effect)

Why I've seen people spell moron, the same as the reddish brown colors name, maroon!

Don't they know that two O's give the long sound?? as in moon?? June...
and buffoon??


See ? ?
It does matter, when all one has to judge another person on, is the written word.
So, whether you want to believe it or not, we all judge each other, knowingly, or otherwise.

Rant Off!

Skyraider
AKA Charlie

No aspersions cast on anyone in this thread....

 

A lot of the half-written words, lack of punctuation and zero structure is a carry over of the text messaging, instant messaging culture. It's very hard to type coherent sentences from the key pad of your telephone. Time consuming too.

It's a lousy trend but may evolve into something better down the road.

 

I know the difference but have been known to call a person a MAROON in a shoddy attempt to be politically correct. It failed of course but I don't care.

Sometimes it goes right over their head----------mission accomplished!

 

In my business it makes all the difference in the world if one doesn't speak or write the English language. Things may well change - but not during my lifetime.

 

thank u sooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
charlie aka gramme(a)r police
do u teach englsih at a unvisity or h.s. or r u a autur/editor

 

As for your thank you to Rob,

You missed one important word in what he wrote.
The word "efficient".
Having to Decipher the meaning of some jumbled grouping of letters,
is hardly efficient communications.

Here is a quick and efficient answer, to your "run on" questions...

No. But I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.

And yes, Grammar is spelled with an "A", not an "E":

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

http://www.onelook.com/?w=grammar&ls=a

Charlie

 

I was a moderator on another exotic (?) English car forum for a number of years.
we were a truly International group too! But everyone typed in English.
The folks that had ESL could be detected, but only rarely.
It seems that the only place that doesn't speak English 100%,
is the good 'ol USA we can take our drivers written, in 49 different languages, and that's just in my state alone, that I'm aware of.
add to that the advertisements popping up everywhere that I , born and raised here, can't understand, because it isn't in my native language.

I'm speaking about .....(UH huh! you guessed it)... English!
Add to that the Officials in power, wanting to make some "foreign" language the "Official" state language... All I can say is Aieee, Chihuahua!
Yep , in that language!

But I understand it's all a smoke screen to redirect our minds away from the truly important issues afflicting us...

(sarcasm: ON!)

i.e. Those horrific decorated pine trees that keep appearing annually, at the Gov't buildings, this time of year! Yeah, and the 9 count candle holders in the parks, and especially in eastern European sections of our fair city!
We've got to pass a law that prohibits people from saying "Merry" anything!
and institute "Happy Holiday" in it's place.
(sarcasm: OFF!)

Let me tell ya ! It's the gospel truth! Oops!!!! I said a bad word!

Can you believe this is actually happening here in NJ??
It's so, as NOT to offend anyone... the frikin nutz!

I wonder what our heroic war dead,
just might be thinking about these state of affairs...

" AWW ! CRAP! I gave up my life, for this F.- B.S. ??"

Charlie

 

if you havent notice yet i did it on intentally

 

Yes, but can you "do it off intentally"?

I know what I'm about to say will make me sound like another grumpy old guy, but I want to reiterate something Switches said a few posts back. What it amounts to is the old saw "Excellence is not an act, but a habit".

In my case, I can tell you spelling most definitely does matter when trying to get into a competitive program like Embry Riddle's or any other. How do I know? I serve on the admissions committee of a university that is at least as selective as Embry Riddle. Part of my job is to read applicants' essays, and I can tell you -- and this isn't just me, it's an attitude shared by my colleagues -- that typos and bad grammar are a surefire way to ruin your candidacy.

Most students think, 'No problem! I'll just spell check my essay when it matters.' Sadly, it doesn't work. You need to be able to check your spell checker, and that's something that takes practice. You can't simply 'turn on' grammar when you need it. It is a skill. A habit. (Just ask the poor person who wrote me about how he admired his grandfather, a "screwed businessman".)

Part of that habit, reading, is dying. As people read less and the sources of their reading become things like the internet, their 'ear' for grammar and spelling atrophies. Want to write better? Read better. Reading good writers - and it can be as simple as picking up Plane and Pilot or Sports Illustrated, or the New York Times - will improve your spelling and grammar.

 

Switches, Charlie, you can count me as an ally in this discussion.

I am aghast at the complete lack of the proper use of punctuation, grammatical misdeeds and total avoidance of responsibility for expressing one's self in an intelligent manner.

This is not about typographical errors or expedience, it is just plain laziness. I see it everywhere I turn, my own kids as well. I let them have it too! I require that they at least make an attempt to write a coherent sentence and a paragraph which expresses a thought properly rather than just correcting their errors. By the way, I turned off spell checker on their computer too.

I did commit a tactical mistake, though. By assuring that the essays they needed to submit with their graduate school and college applications respectively, (two girls) I assured that the tuition bills will be forthcoming. Just think of how much money I would have saved if I let them submit their applications as they originally wrote them!

The test messaging and e-mails along with the kid culture of communicating have eroded good habits to the point far beyond annoyance. It is a perverse way to express one's self in a growing world economy. The "excuse" of the issues surrounding text messaging by cell phone does not wash with me. Frankly, I don't even understand the entire culture surrounding test messaging. It's a phone, for God's sake. Just call the person and have a real conversation!

Sadly, the individual who sparked this ongoing discussion makes no apologies for his or her actions. In fact the individual remains defiant.

I know that there are generational differences here, but the ability to communicate both precisely and intelligently will separate out the successful from the wannabe's.

Nuff said, off the soap box. (for now anyway)

Planeflyr

 

Our admissions committee just met within the past two weeks. Out of an average of 80 applications received each year, we invite 20 for on-campus interviews (at a major children's hospital). We look for almost any reason to eliminate 60 of those applicants. With electronic medical records, there really isn't any opportunity to correct spelling or punctuation errors short of an addendum to the medical record which will actually call attention to the errors.

So, does spelling and punctuation count? You bet it does. We can't have a bunch of written reports filed that contain multiple errors.

I've written 10 books and almost 200 articles. Virtually every one of them has been professionally edited (with only 3 private editors over the past 30 years). I wouldn't think of sending in a manuscript that hadn't been edited. And, since I pay my editors by the hour, the better my manuscript is in rough form, the less it costs me.

And, the less it costs me, the more money I have to spend on my airplane!

 

YEA!!! Planeflyer! Thanks for climbing aboard.
and,...... so sorry about your future
educational, (general and administrative overhead), financial expenditures...

I have never been so annoyed at anything, as I have over people, that are too DA*NED LAZY, to apply our language, in it's proper form.

OK, You don't have to be an English Major, or a college professor, or even
a citizen to use the language correctly.
But you do have to have a little iniative, in the area of "RESPONSIBILITY".
(Obviously a taboo word, these days!)

You were born into , or are living in the greatest of all the countries in the world, and have fabulous freedoms!
( even though those are slowly being chipped away at by legislators who can't rub two words together and come up with a coherent sentence,
but that's..... another thread.)

You speak the language daily, read it everywhere you go, and also you hear it spoken, although not always properly.

You are not speaking the language of a conqueror, who invaded your homeland, you are speaking the language that men and women have died for,
while protecting that from happening!
The > RESPONSIBILITY< comes from respect for those that preceeded you and fought and died so that you could have the freedoms you now enjoy.

People are trying to restrict the words you can use, in order to become some fools idea of "Politically Correct".

For example, in their paradigm, one can no longer say"
*White lie
*Indian Giver
*It's Greek to me,
or any other words in the 4 page " list " published for Federal Government Employees, under penalty of dismissal. ( if even overheard! )

How much longer, before they become the words you can't say?

Language is too important a medium to let slip away!
It's how we express ourselves
( one of our Freedoms is the right to free speech)
and that, doesn't mean "No Taxes", on speech!

It is how we communicate abstract ideas
It is how we communicate concrete ideas
It is how we communicate desires
It is how we communicate needs
It is how we communicate with others of the same convictions

Without communication, there'd be no Cell phones
Without communication, there'd be no Television
Without communication, there'd be no computer games
Without communication, there'd be no friends, with which to share
Without communication, there'd be nothing!

Don't you think that we have some > RESPONSIBILITY< to keep the
ART, of communication, alive and well???



Oh! Good Grief!
I just wrote another essay..... (sigh!)

 

Charlie,

You realize that we both have overcome some significant cultural hurdles. You being from "Joisey" and me being a Brooklyn boy!

Planeflyr

 

Then I've overcome two hurdles....
Do the name "Bay Ridge" strike a note???
How about O.L.P.H. ? born and raised a few blocks from her...

Yep! I knew there was something special about you....
Feel free to PM me..