(Over the years, I had been constantly chosen to perform Quality Control checks in a variety of professional positions. From print ads created per prescribed formats, to store plans and editing in order to assure they were done to spec.
One thing that has irked my children and grandchildren is the ability to read their wonderful stories, and not be able to overlook misspellings or grammatical errors. Tough being on the receiving end. Sorry…just in my nature!
So this is a tribute to the failure of schools in teaching children the basics of a few simple grammar tricks. And communication formalities.
And just so you know, I don’t earn a commission from the recommendations listed below. Unfortunately.)
Over the past several years, I have noticed a decline in the ability for users to construct any meaningful sentences when posting comments. Trying to decipher their meaning becomes tedious, and any well-meant statement lost in their inability to use punctuation – ANY punctuation – let alone spell what they mean correctly.
Here are just a few examples I’d like to share with my readers:
American English (a conundrum in that idea itself) is difficult enough to understand, but poor grammar and grammatical construction makes clear communication nearly impossible.
Over the past several years, I have noticed a decline in the ability for users to construct any meaningful sentences when posting comments. Trying to decipher their meaning becomes tedious, and any well-meant statement lost in their inability to use punctuation – ANY punctuation – let alone spell what they mean correctly.
Here are just a few examples I’d like to share with my readers:
To, Two, Too…
This one can be a challenge if you don’t understand what each of these forms mean.
To – Associative. The car belongs to John.
- Also, movement. John drove to the store.
Two – Numeric. There are two apples in my basket, not one.
Too – Also. John brought David and his dog, Pooky, also. This is the same as, John brought Dave and his dog, Pooky, too.
Punctuation…
“Let’s eat Grandma!
Let’s eat, Grandma!
Proper punctuation saves lives!”
Anonymous
There is power in the little comma. Let’s learn to use it properly. More than that, let’s learn to USE it! Like this grammar school class did. (Ditto with periods, apostrophes, exclamation marks, question marks, and all the other marks that seem to be missing in modern graduates’ writings.)
Excellent resource: Eats, Shoots and Leaves
Runonsentences….
You read that right. Run on sentences…that is run together. Nothing drives the grammar police crazier than someone who doesn’t know how to separate their words. Or add punctuation between sentences…so that the reader can figure out where one sentence stops and another one starts.
ALL CAPS!!!
Okay. This may sound a bit finicky, but do you REALLY HAVE TO YELL YOUR COMMENTS TO EVERYONE? Because that’s what the caps button does. Unless there is a good reason for all caps, everything else – ESPECIALLY IN THE ENTIRE COMMENT – becomes someone behind a keyboard screaming at everyone else.
Seriously?
A story in California…
Years ago, I read a story written by an editor. He was explaining the background of the letters he’s received from a public school in Northern California.
The school computer lab had been broken into, and all the computers were stolen. The kids were so upset that the teacher had them hand-write letters to the local newspaper expressing their outrage.
The result was, unfortunately, hilarious.
It became blatantly obvious from the letters that the children had been taught to depend on the machine to correct their spelling. And, where possible, their punctuation.
So the editor published them all…unedited.
In Georgia…
There is a prestigious county in Georgia just north of Atlanta. It is called “Gwinnett County”.
One year, I took my children to the local library there to peruse the books. Meanwhile, I meandered over the the teacher’s section and discovered a manual to train the teachers how to instruct the students in grammar.
They divided up the groups of students by their ability. The smarter ones, as they passed through the grades, were the first to be enrolled into computer literacy. The majority of their work was to be typed out using the computers. The mediocre kids were next in the process, only their computer literacy courses were to be held off until later grades. The “dumb” ones were not to get computers at all until much later in their schooling grades.
The result? Everyone reached the same level of grammar literacy by the time they reached High School.
Remember the comments? The runonsentences? The lack of punctuation? Yeah. That was them.
What about the days of the uneducated?
You know, the “dark ages” when kids went to the stupid one-room school-houses back in the 1800’s. The time of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
There were many readers and grammar books used back then. One of the most popular was the McGuffey Readers.
Proper grammar, vocabulary, spelling, enunciation, and understanding what was read were tools baked into these modest books. They began with the Primer, and ended with the 6th Grade Reader. If anyone with a High School diploma today were to pick up even the Fifth Eclectic Reader, they would be shocked at just how impressive the vocabulary was.
Unlike kids today, these readers also introduced not only a love of reading, but taught many lessons in building moral and sound character. Henry Ford, the first car manufacturer and industrialist of the time, credited much of their influence on his formation.
What can we learn?
That we need to work on reeducating our youth. It is up to the parents to take charge, as they are starting to do now. Pick up the standard left by their fore-bearers and work with the school boards to bring back the education that is important.
Reading. Writing. And ‘Rithmetic.