Bad spelling and grammar

There’s mistakes, dyslexia and pure laziness when it comes to spelling and grammar. I hate only one of them – which do we think it is?

how do you tell the difference?

I think it’s a relatively new addition Highclimber, they offer things liked coloured paper for exam papers and such.

A woman without her man is nothing.

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Does punctuation make a difference? Probably…

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

James, while John had had “had”, had had “had had”; “had had” had had a better effect on the teacher

I helped my uncle jack off his horse once 😳

On a forum like this one it doesn’t really matter if someone forgets to punctuate a contraction but a failure to include a full stop or a comma where one is needed is inexcusable.

Is it really inexcusable? As I long as I get the semantic gist I’m not fussed. In general though (business and official communications) if a document is poorly presented I’ll think the writer a plum, possibly a little shoddy and have less faith in the job being carried out properly.

Grammar is the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.

I have to say, as a regular employer of graduates, poor grammar (in a covering letter) will not get the candidate an interview.

Until the ‘grammar doesn’t matter’ cohort reach the top, this will remain the case I think.

It’s just a personal pride thing with me; I like knowing how to punctuate and spell. However I’m sure I get plenty wrong and wouldn’t have a problem being corrected! In fact maybe most if us wouldn’t mind, assuming that broadening your own knowledge in anything is mildly enjoyable?

I don’t get strung up about seeing bad grammar/spelling, but the argument of “evolving language” to justify crap spelling repeated frequently, does grate!

Having recently advertised for a receptionist position I can assure you the best way to have your cv heading straight to the bin is a failure to spell veterinary correctly. Failure of attention to detail to that degree means no interview.

highclimber – Member

There’s(There are) mistakes, dyslexia and pure laziness when it comes to spelling and grammar. I hate only one of them – which do we think it is?

On a forum like this one it doesn’t really matter if someone forgets to punctuate a contraction but a failure to include a full stop or a comma where one is needed is inexcusable.
On an official document it’s(its) imperative it has exactly zero mistakes otherwise it makes me think i(I) shouldn’t take it seriously.

I often make real howlers while typing up stuff & as you can see in the previous text it can be open to interpretation, well apart from the “i” 😉

“It’s” is correct there, isn’t it? It’s a contraction, not a possessive.

Like I said Ben either could be correct as interpretation comes into play?

My father amongst other things was an editor of scientific journals, he had an unerring ability to reduce me to a quivering wreck when he passed his eye over any of my school/collage work.
Often he would scan it in a few seconds then the red Biro would strike! Slashing through my scribblings he would reduce a page to a single paragraph, yet in that single paragraph would contain all I needed to convey.

Sadly he died 14 years ago, but I still get scared of his rapier like red pen 😮

Like I said Ben either could be correct as interpretation comes into play?

No. In that case “it’s” is correct, “its” is wrong. I’m also struggling to see where the question is in what I’ve quoted above. Claiming it’s subject to interpretation as an excuse for getting it wrong is even more irritating than getting it wrong but being ignorant about it.

My father amongst other things was an editor of scientific journals, he had an unerring ability to reduce me to a quivering wreck when he passed his eye over any of my school/collage work.

Did he stick new bits on?

Only when he had Prit stick 😉

OK it was late & some red wine had been consumed 😮

🙂

Junkyard – Member
The conclusion was it a nice to have but not a big deal anymore . . .
Is that making any sense to anyone else?

What is hard about that?
It matters less now than it used to[ no big deal anymore], however, it is still a useful skill to have an it would be useful [ nice] to have it

Patently that is where you are wrong, it does matter to a certain sector of society, who, very often are in positions to determine the future of our youth. The arrogance of those in the education sector, thinking like you, doesn’t serve either cause well.

I don’t mean to cast blame here, you have in turn been a victim of your own training/guidance and for that, other than you choosing to improve for the sake of those you teach, there’s nothing much anyone can do, suffice to say, being wrong and continuing to argue the point just increases the view that we have of the misguided arrogance prevalent in your profession.

Take it or leave it, no skin off my nose and believe it or not, nothing contained herein is intended to upset you personally, as I said, you are in turn the victim of your own conditioning.

I was “translating” what someone else had said that someone else could not understand on this thread – it is obvious from your quote this is what I have done rather than give a personal view. Clearly you dont read very well, struggle to comprehend and jump to erroneous conclusion and use the royal “we” when you give your own view.
Just like you though i dont mean it personally you are just a victim of your conditioning.

I’m firmly in the camp that if you can’t be bothered to use something even slightly approaching correct grammar it says something about you. I work abroad currently and give a MASSIVE amount of latitude to people I deal with as I know my grammar in their languages is awful however I don’t give the same leeway in the UK.

Send a CV that gets to me and you haven’t even spellchecked and, try as I might, I can’t get past the feeling that you’re going to show the same lack of interest in your work and unless there’s a compelling reason to change my mind, I won’t. I expect people to have a basic grasp of English and that includes their vocabulary and grammar but perhaps I’m in the minority.

MrStirlingCrispin has just spotted her ideal job advertised by her current employer.
Except they are asking the applicant to deliver divers training, and although wifey is a strong swimmer she’s never been diving, scuba or otherwise.

Does she apply for the job anyway, on the assumption that they meant diverse training?

Junkyard – Member
I was “translating” what someone else had said that someone else could not understand on this thread – it is obvious from your quote this is what I have done rather than give a personal view. Clearly you dont read very well, struggle to comprehend and jump to erroneous conclusion and use the royal “we” when you give your own view.
Just like you though i dont mean it personally you are just a victim of your conditioning.

Well just the same, perhaps in future when answering posts of mine, please take a little trouble and correct your spelling, punctuation and first person capitalisation, then maybe I’ll mentally give you credit for not being wrongly placed in charge of our nation’s education, or, don’t bother and ignore me in future, that way ‘we’ all end up happy. 😉