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Everywhere I look I am inundated with it. I don't mind a minor flaw here or there in writing. But, I consistently see horrific misspellings, run-on sentences, lack of paragraph structuring, incoherent themes, etc.. What makes me cringe the most is when somebody presents themself as being educated and their post looks like it was written by a third grader.
Are you positive it was ever better? Or perhaps you are just seeing it more clearly than you could have in past years because more and more people are participating in the Internet, including the semiliterates? In 1950, you would not have gotten to sample as many people's writing as you do today.
Everywhere I look I am inundated with it. I don't mind a minor flaw here or there in writing. But, I consistently see horrific misspellings, run-on sentences, lack of paragraph structuring, incoherent themes, etc.. What makes me cringe the most is when somebody presents themself as being educated and their post looks like it was written by a third grader.
What has happened to our educational system?
The poster above me is right. You are just seeing more of the semi-literate people who have always existed. There has never been a time when everyone, or even most people, spoke or wrote properly.
Everywhere I look I am inundated with it. I don't mind a minor flaw here or there in writing. But, I consistently see horrific misspellings, run-on sentences, lack of paragraph structuring, incoherent themes, etc.. What makes me cringe the most is when somebody presents themself as being educated and their post looks like it was written by a third grader.
What has happened to our educational system?
I think, with the internet being a newer form of expression, you're just seeing what was already there.
But I know what you mean. I'm not perfect by any means, but those long posts with little punctuation and no paragraphs are like nails on a chalkboard.
People don't write anymore. They e-mail, text, and talk on the phone. Do you remember the last time you got a letter in the mail? A real letter, written on stationary? That's got to be todays writing equivalent of vinyl records.
U aint liking my gramar? Just kidding. Although my grammar isn't perfect, it is not as bad as some people's on here. The most annoying to me are the following:
"I am loosing money"
"I need my breaks fixed on my car"
"My car is in good conditions"
The problem is I see so many people speak like this.
My college English class has an online discussion where students are supposed to post stuff. You should see how bad the grammar is...makes you wonder how these people are smart enough to go to college. There's even an English major in my class that has worse grammar than me. If the bad grammar bothers me, I can only imagine how frustrated the professor must be.
I'm told by reliable sources that grammar is no longer taught - even in grammar school, ironically. They teach self-appreciation, and they teach art, and they teach computer skills. But schools apparently assume that students will somehow absorb grammar by osmosis.
Poor writing isn't corrected, criticized or even mentioned because it would make little Johnnie feel bad. Johnnie can't read, cannot comprehend and certainly cannot write. Years down the road, we'll all wonder why Johnnie rammed the commuter train into the station at high speed, despite clearly written company instructions ...
I'm told by reliable sources that grammar is no longer taught
It's not. And although I'm a bit torn on the issue (I feel that our language is profoundly flawed and unnecessarily contorted), I agree that it should at least be understood and used correctly by its practitioners in its current accepted form.
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