top posting (off-topic)

[David Benfell]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:31:51 -0500, Bart Silverstrim wrote:
> 
> We have adults who can't be bothered to tell the difference 
> between lose and loose in writing. Wonderful things encouraged by people 
> justifying their lazy writing styles.
> 
This might be slightly unfair.

A large proportion of the population has *never* been able to spell correctly
or to use proper grammar.  A difference between now, and a few years ago, is
that we are more often encountering their expressions in a written form, as
they, too, gain access to the Internet.

As a graduate student in communication, I write a lot.  As a teacher of public
speaking, I see grammatical and spelling errors in the outlines my students
turn in.  These errors irritate me, but having also worked in the technology
sector, and having seen memos from my fellow technology workers, prior to
outsourcing and the importing of people who have an excuse, I know my students
are not alone.

Dyslexia and other learning disabilities that impede mastery of spelling and
grammar may be much more common than is often reported.  Underfunded public
schools don't help.

And an insistence on grammatical and spelling correctness is its own form of
elitism.



-- 
David Benfell, LCP
benfell at parts-unknown.org
---
Resume available at http://www.parts-unknown.org/
NOTE: I sign all messages with GnuPG (0DD1D1E3).
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