Thread: Reading Writing Hotline

Mine will improve when I replace my desktop computer and can stop using this stupid eepc that is about the size of a small book , with a track pad right where my hands need to rest for typing and keys smaller than the tips of my fingers...
i may even try to use capital letters again... occasionally..

I look at it this way. I can spell but I can't weld (very well). I can't do a lot of things that others can do.

So I don't rubbish them for their inability to spell - but I sometime try to chide them in a humorous way that will make them remember the correct spelling. Often I will partially correct spelling in posts - not every instance of the wrongly spelled word.

Why?

Because if they do a search for the post in the future and I've corrected all the spelling, there is every chance they won't get a hit as they have used their incorrect spelling as a search term. By correcting some spelling, those who can spell will also be able to find it.

However, I do get annoyed at text speak, etc. For example, using "@" instead of "at". One still has to press two keys to type @ - why not spell it.

Spell check is available for any internet browser (if not already built in). Use it.

Another oddity which I don't understand is the placing of a space before a full stop or comma, then following immediately with the next word, e.g.,

"I saw a big ,beautiful butterfly .I photographed it."

Surely people read enough to see that's wrong!

VNX noted a bad habit exhibited by many - no paragraph spacing. Their sentences go on and on with no punctuation. Of course, we have the opposite extreme where writers interpose commas willy-nilly throughout the text as they know the sentence has to be punctuated - somewhere.

What I find quite puzzling is that I had 10 years education, normal standard for the time. Not many years before that, eight was the norm. For at least a decade twelve has been predominant with tertiary common yet, my generation and older appear to have a better grip on spelling, punctuation and grammar. Basic arithmetic falls into the same basket. What do students do at school (apart from throw sandwiches ) these days? Is it a failing of the teachers or the syllabus? Do educators want to make school a 'pleasant experience' rather than an educational one?

Originally Posted by V8Ian

What do students do at school (apart from throw sandwiches ) these days?

One of the things that contributes to the problem is that society expects schools to do many of the things that parents or grandparents used to do.

How often do you see someone suggesting that something should be added to the curriculum? Some people think that budgeting, ethics, risk assessment, driver education, drug education, sex education, responsible gambling, and a whole host of other things should be taught by schools.

The curriculum is already crowded. Do those people who advocate that schools pick up the things being neglected by parents also have a suggestion about how much time should be taken away from learning literacy and numeracy to make the time available?

Schools' "core business" is numeracy and literacy. Social development is simply a by-product of the environment in which children are educated. None of the other faff should be allowed to encroach upon the primary purpose.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Schools' "core business" is numeracy and literacy. Social development is simply a by-product of the environment in which children are educated. None of the other faff should be allowed to encroach upon the primary purpose.

In an ideal world, perhaps schools could concentrate on core business, but they are not in a position to ignore the demands of society.

Originally Posted by vnx205

I accept that some people have difficulty with spelling and grammar.

What I find hard to accept is the way some people write several lines without breaking the text into paragraphs. Sometimes they don't even break it into sentences.

Paragraphs and sentences are not just some arbitrary rule imposed by grammarians. They make it easier to read and understand the text.

I believe that if someone wants to write something on a forum, the onus is on them to make at least a token effort to make it easy to read.

Let us be thankful James Joyce or William Faulkner aren't on this forum.

maybe this oncoming generation have reversed roles. Ancient man , before languages were "invented" used crude images, gesticulations, guttural sounds, wall paintings and hieroglyphics to communicate. Look around....the youth use strange words and phrases. gesticulate crazily on their Iphones and galaxies and send strange texts and images to each other.A new culture may be arising.