I'm an English major in college, and I sometimes work at the writing center on campus proofreading kids' papers. You won't believe how bad their writing is. They have plenty of run-on sentence, missing punctuations, and the whole paper looks like he is just talking to the professor, like,
"I don't believe that students should wear uniforms to school. No it's not because..."
Since I take mostly English classes and all the other classes that I take don't require papers, I'm just wondering, do professors of other subjects just not care if the students don't have perfect grammar or are these students just special cases, and their writings are just extraordinarily horrid?
they don't care because they can't write proper english themselves
as for punctuation, personally i couldn't care less
but its a problem if you have "problems" with it
written language is degenerating, and it will continue to do so no matter what we do
the reason is not important, though as you can imagine - internet
most young people find pride in deviating to such a degree that its hard for other people to understand what exactly they're saying
the real issue is when their language is so simple that they can't express themselves properly
that said, english is not my first language, and there are times i wish i knew it better.. its said when i write better english than for instance the general american population
it would have been better if it was the other way around.
i dont know what your problem is man language is just a thing you know like cheetos or britney spears do what you feel man aint no thing i you just chill man dont sweat it peace
I actively resist this degradation of written language. I punctuate all of my text messages correctly, and actively correct my friend's punctuation.
Most likely, it's just the people who visit the writing center. The people who have confidence in their writing probably won't waste time visiting.
CS major here, and both my History classes and music classes seem to really care how papers are written. Then again, I'm probably an exception since I usually start on crap the night before it's due and still end up getting perfect scores. It's probably due to writing on the internet so often.
There's a dirty little secret behind the high literacy rates of many industrialized nations: many young adults are hemiliterate, meaning they can read even high-level texts fairly well, but are hopeless when it comes to writing without assistance. The hemiliteracy problem is especially bad in the US and Japan, with the major suspect in each case being problems in the education system.
>>4
So you only have one friend?
>>It's probably due to writing on the internet so often.
I hope this isn't the case.
> "I don't believe that students should wear uniforms to school. No it's not because..."
What's wrong with that exactly? It's just a style, 's all.
>>7
I mean I write sensibly on the internet, especially at forums where people would start to mock me otherwise. No AOL speak here. Though I might use sentence fragments or omit starting punctuation on purpose, since it doesn't really matter much.
I also stylistically write oddly in my papers every now and then. Starting sentences with "but," writing two sentence paragraphs, etc. I know it breaks the rules but I sometimes do it anyway, if I think it fits.
> "I don't believe that students should wear uniforms to school. No it's not because..."
I really can't give a comment on this, as it seems out of context.
OP here. I don't like that sentence because in written papers, you should always avoid using contractions. And also, the fact that the second sentence is "no it's not because", it sounds more like this student is just answering a question instead of actually answering. Say the question is "do you think students should wear uniforms to school?" And he just writes "no I don't, because..."
You know what I mean? I haven't slept much last night, it's kinda hard to explain what I'm trying to say.
>I also stylistically write oddly in my papers every now and then.
Was this infinitive split intentionally? (Or should I say, intentionally split?)
If so then well played anonymous. Well played.
>in written papers, you should always avoid using contractions
This is coming from an English major? I'm very disappointed; see me after class.
I used to misuse the comma quite a lot.
>>11
There is no infinitive in that excerpt.
also the split infinitive rule was made up by this one guy who liked latin too much. it's silly and arbitrary.
Hah. You're right. How silly of me. I thought he was making a grammar nerd joke and looked for a cleverness where there was none.
>I am known to oddly write (stylistically) in my papers every now and then.
There we go.
I fucking have an essay due... fuck, tomorrow, and Fuck if I can't get myself to sit and write it.
I can write alright once I get started. But fuck if I can get myself to start writing sort of a miracle, usually a rush of adrenaline in the last six hours before due-date. It's gotten to the point where I can't write any paper except as an all-nighter.
>>16
lol, hi my other self.
I have a draft for a 6 page paper due tuesday morning. All I've done so far is check out the books for it.
With our powers combined, we should be able to write at least ONE of these papers.
I can't write essay's at all. Last year I had an essay test in History class and all I wrote was one sentence. My Best essay was written over the course of a month and only got a "c" and I felt very passionatley about the subject.
I personally feel that certain rules in writing an essay are not neccassary. For example having a certain amout of quotes for each paragraph. If you can prove your point or at least get it across why do I need to have more quotes?
I'm in highschool by the way. Well at least for three more weeks.
Editors don't even know the difference between "lie" and "lay", or "effect" and "affect", or "lose" and "loose", or "Hear, hear!" and "Here, here!", or "except" and "accept", or "infer" and "imply", or "literally" and "figuratively" anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that language is a constantly evolving thing, but when, through sloppiness and inattention and a refusal to understand the roots of words, a pair of antonyms (e.g. "literally" and "figuratively", or "infer" and "imply") are commonly used as synonyms, I'd say we've lost something important.
Most of this is pure obliviousness. I'm always amazed at people who don't even know how to copy a word right, for example, when a printed test question says:
"What are the chief exports of Bolivia?"
And the student's handwritten answer begins, 1/4 inch below on the same goddamned piece of paper:
"The cheif exprots of Bovillila are ... "
AAAAARGH! I can understand not wanting to go find a dictionary, but ... you can't even use a resource that's right in front of your face?
>>21 best, passionately, necessary, amount, "you can prove" turns into "I need"?, high school, "Well, "
english isn't even my primary language.. jesus :P
Sorry. I've betrayed you all, too...
I'm not good with words, so I can't lay it all out well, but...
This thread has WAY too much magical power...
Glory to you all...
I don't see what the big deal is. I can express everything I need to in as much complexity as I want and I'm a bad writer. You guys are taking this way too seriously. If you're an English major and enjoy English that's fine but don't whine about people misusing words; I'm a physics major and I don't whine about people misusing scientific terms or doing math incorrectly. It's all about results not how much it conforms to your standards.
I'm not an English major, but that doesn't prevent me from knowing how to use MY OWN FIRST LANGUAGE.
>>23
'Infer' and 'imply' are neither antonyms nor synonyms. I assume you're speaking of 'imply' in the logical sense.
When I email my teacher eye typ lik a reet@rd but he knoe i can spel coz I got an A.
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