I even commented on it .That got me to thinking ( I know , Dangereous , right ? ) I have seen attrocious editing even in Squadron’s publication . And misidentification too .
Would they put an old teacher of the language and spelling thereof , on the payroll . Nope . Why ? Well , it would cost to much . Sadly , I’ve worked with College grads in Media and such . they can’t even spell Argentina !
What is it that makes folks laugh at America ? It’s our casual attitude toward that which should be normal , Like punctuation , spelling , and just plain good Grammar .
The cavalier attitude in print and yes , on T.V. Closed Captioning should be examined and fixed. I mean , even though as a person I can’t stand TRUMP , I don’t spell his name Tramp or Twrump " I mean c’mon now ! Tanker - Builder
I feel this is an issue even with posts to this forum. I find many posts hard to read because of lack of capitalization, paragraph breaks, poor grammer that confuses clauses, etc. There have been a few- admittedly only a few- long posts that I just gave up reading because they were just too hard to read. If it was the original post starting a thread, I never went back to the thread.
I think in many cases it is just laziness, not caring that it makes things harder for the reader. Have pity on the reader and help him read the posts you make.
You are so right . I got called out on this some years back , remember ? Now I try my best to do it right . There are some who are here and English is not their home language .Those I can forgive .
The young ones of course . But the rest ? I think , we don’t think , when we type an answer .That’s part of the problem . That , and most folks don’t write like they speak . Some would run out of breath , now wouldn’t they ?
All goes to the current education model, and the lack of the old “3 R’s”. Add in the abrevations in the texting world now and there you go. In another thousand years we’ll probably be back to sign language and grunts.
I imagine I’ve spent more of my adult life writing than most Forum members have. And I’m thoroughly burnt out on marking up college students’ papers. (I dream of the day I find a student who DOES know the difference between “it’s” and “its.” And so help me, the next time I get an ROTC cadet who can’t spell “soldier”…Time to retire.)
But I claim no right to pass judgment on any other Forum contributor. I’ve made more than my share of grammatical mistakes here. I try to read over each of my posts after I post it. I’ve found some pretty awful goofs that way. But I’m sure I’ve missed plenty of others.
I have, though, noticed a couple of errors that seem to be showing up more frequently recently.
One is the misuse of the apostrophe. Some folks seem to have the notion that they’re supposed to hit the apostrophe before every use of the letter S. No. The apostrophe (with a few exceptions) is just used for possessives and contractions. Not plurals. (Incorrect: “Jim’s ship model’s aren’t rigged.” Correct: “Jim’s ship models aren’t rigged.” “Jim’s” is a possessive. “Models” is a plural. “Aren’t” is a contraction.)
The other increasingly common goof involves spacing and punctuation marks. Except in a few specific cases, you don’t need to hit the space bar BEFORE a punctuation mark (like a comma or period). But (usually) you do need a space after the punctuation mark. (Wrong: "Jim , the first baseman , caught the ball . " Right: “Jim, the first baseman, caught the ball.”)
When somebody calls me a grammar nazi, I pat him or her on the head and say “there, their, they’re.”
I shall now head for work (five weeks to go), and inflict my Olde Phogey standards on a collection of innocent young minds.
P.S. I just proofread this post and found six mistakes in it - which I fixed. I suspect that if I read it again tomorrow I’ll find some more.
What a weird thread. First of all TB, your posts are pretty much unreadable.
Second, if Squadron has a publication full of typos, what does that reflect of our education and standards here in the US? Maybe on those of Michigan, where they are located? Maybe on China, or where ever the thing is printed?
GM, you lost me. What does Squadron have to do with this thread? Did I fail to make a connection?
For what it’s worth, I’m bugged by the Squadron website’s insistance on putting numbers in parentheses. Like “(2)” or “(4)” or “(225).” I sent the site an e-mail about that once; I didn’t get an answer.
Oh - and I believe Squadron is headquartered in Texas.
It’s in TB’s main thread post. It’s in the first paragraph. And in my post I highlighted that statement for you too see, since you asked the question. Then I wrote “This is why GM mentioned it” because GM commented on it.
That TB quote is from the opening paragraph of this thread.
As for the meat and potatoes of it, well I am no grammarphile myself. Although the biggest part of my daily job is writing (you mean playing cops and robbers for the rest of your life means having to write down what you did?), I try to do the best I can. For a guy with only a HS diploma and some college. Perhaps because I have loved reading so much that has helped? Putting online abbreviations in posts does irk the bejeezus out of me. But hey, that appears to be where we are headed as a society.
As far as long run on paragraphs go here? Well lets just say that some posts I avoid as soon as I see due to knowing the likeliness of such happening. And others lose me along the way. Then I may ask a question for clarification if needed.
I guess “why” came through as “way.” Pure typo. Glad to have it cleared up.
TB’s first post in this thread does contain that quote; my apologies. He begins his first post with “I have read the thread.” TB - which thread is that?
I could offer several theories on the reasons for young people’s lousy writing skills. The truth is that I don’t have any single, clear answer. I will say this, though. I started teaching freshman-level American history 42 years ago, when I was in grad school. In all honesty I haven’t seen a consistent trend, upward or downward, in the quality of students’ writing. In 1974 the typical undergraduate essay was a literary disaster, and it still is.
I think Stik’s comment on long paragraphs is interesting. Quite a few of my students don’t write in paragraphs; they just write and write until they’re out of time. “Do you realize that your entire essay consists of one paragraph?” is one of my standard exam comments. (Others include “this sentence doesn’t make sense,” and “what does this expression mean?”) A lot of people who write long paragraphs don’t know they’re doing it.
For what it’s worth, Stik, I’ve always found your posts clear and readable - as well as well-informed.
[^o)] Very true! (we really could use a laughing emoji) If that sort of thing get’s your goat, you probably have too much time on your hands, are too easily upset by little things, or some combination of the two.[;)]
JT, thank you for the feedback. I sometimes wonder about my ramblings on here. I can still hear my field training officer’s words every now and then when writing reports: new idea, new paragraph.
Laughing my head off! Great photo…“The Dude” “Damnit Donnie”…“When I was in the muck and the mud in Nam” Great photo and movie. Hopefully I didn’t use quotations too much (lol) [whstl]
I turned 75 a few weeks ago, in my mid sixties I had a few TIA’s, commonly called “mini strokes,” followed by a more severe stroke. I’m left with residual effects, both physical and mental, partial loss of arm/leg feeling, with some speech/memory issues.
I am aware that I often lack clarity, but I do try to be cautious and do my best when speaking, or posting here at FSM. If I have offended anyone by posting in a poor or confusing manner, I express my regrets. I have made my best attempts to contribute in a positive way. My wife helps out, but likely mistakes do get by.
Like I said, I find this discussion started by a wierd statement.
So this stands as an argument for correct grammar and spelling?[8-)]
Then Common Core, which was adopted in 2010, gets the blame.
College educated people! Lazy students!
I really can’t say anything about how people spell or construct sentences on here. I myself am at the least in the Tilley hundhaus for inappropriate use of the apostrophe.
But more importantly, so many people here have various disabilities, learning differences and language challenges that it has to me become part of the mosaic.
