Sad shift for our youth - grammar and spelling

[eminemrh25]

Well, at my school, a kid wrote U instead of You on the board and everyone else made fun of him... It various by region...

I still type out "you" on a cell phone, for gods sakes, its 2 extra buttons....

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
ROFL!! I was just about to parse that one, but will give you a break.

Yes, in the common usage we all knew what you meant with "Makes baby jesus cry". I would not have mentioned it at all except that you challenged us to do it. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

Did you imply the "It" or did we infer the "It"? That is sort of a chicken or the egg argument as we got your meaning. However, good grammar does not rely upon the reader understanding the intent. The whole concept is to make the proper point in the proper way so that there are no mistakes in the translation.

We knew exactly what you meant, but it was not good grammar.

Ack, you've just made several more usage mistakes! :Q

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Ack, you've just made several more usage mistakes! :Q

[/quote]

Says the man who posts "Ack,"

 

[DrPizza]

Simple: 5 points off for each word spelled incorrectly.
(Hmmmm... That opens up another can of worms when you have students who have IEP's that state: "spelling not to count." )

If I were an English teacher, I suppose I'd phrase "5 points off for each word spelled incorrectly" to also include the use of shortcuts as mentioned in this thread. As a math teacher, I also assign work that requires writing, and I *do* take off a small amount of credit for multiple errors in grammar and spelling. When I'm teaching physics, I also assign projects that require a great deal of writing. To date, I haven't had a problem with students spelling words wrong and using incorrect grammar.

 

[Plasdom]

give it time and all of them will make it into the dictionary and become actual "words"

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

It is George Bush's fault.

Every generation claims the one following is degenerate and stupid but I don't know the answer to the original poster's query. I don't know if the information age is enlightening our younger generation or dumbing them (us) down in sheer desparation for some peace and quiet in our minds. I be stupid == I be not having responsibility. Gollum Gollum ... Gollum

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Perknose

Ack, you've just made several more usage mistakes! :Q

Says the man who posts "Ack,"

[/quote]The intentional use of a colloquial term is neither a grammatical nor a usage mistake.

 

[DaiShan]

Let me preface this by saying that my family taught me from a very early age to speak proper English, and I'm also an English Lit major, but I'm beginning to see less and less wrong with so called violations of "prescriptive" grammar.

Really, the examples in the OP are part of another dialect of the English language. For example, in British English, it is not required that subjects match their verbs in number. E.G. The armies was marching is acceptable in Britain. We've been taught that subjects must match verbs in number in American English, but that doesn't make it any more or less right.

Additionally, words such as "wikiality" and "truthiness" have been accepted by many lexicographers as newly formed words. We all know that they began as deliberate farcicle misrepresentations of other words, yet now they are accepted as perfectly correct English. I think that in the years to come prescriptive grammar will gradually fall by the wayside and give rise to so called "ease of communication" dialects. I think it's important to point out the arbitrariness of grammar in general. At the most fundemental level, all that is required for successful communication is an understanding between the participants involved, and countless studies have shown how versatile the human mind is at deciphering meaning from near gibberish.

 

[JujuFish]

Since we're on the topic, I'd like to say that "then" and "than" are two entirely different words. I see these misused more often than not.

 

[bleeb]

I don't believe that is necessarily true... I like to blame popular culture, MTV, and the terrible mind-numbing device known as the television.

 

[Leros]

omg, aim spk is gr8. y should i type xtra letters? not kool.

oh btw, my grammars r gr8.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Perknose

Ack, you've just made several more usage mistakes! :Q

Says the man who posts "Ack,"

[/quote]

SYN?

 

[Tom]

most people don't use thee and thine anymore either.

language evolves, the problem is some of you are like 24 years old and don't realize your time at being hip is already past.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Tom
most people don't use thee and thine anymore either.

language evolves, the problem is some of you are like 24 years old and don't realize your time at being hip is already past.

thou art insane

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I am not joking. I'm friends with many school teachers/administrators and the subject again came up at a party.

Here's the thing. They are constantly facing papers turned in with the following, I am not making this up,:

+ for the word and.
U for the word you.
Y for the word why.
A whole slew of text messaging acronyms and gross punctuation errors.

They are actually turning in papers with this, at a high school level. Makes baby jesus cry.

Please feel free to correct my grammar/punctuation.

This forum is a perfect example of such behavior.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I am not joking. I'm friends with many school teachers/administrators and the subject again came up at a party.

Here's the thing. They are constantly facing papers turned in with the following, I am not making this up,:

+ for the word and.
U for the word you.
Y for the word why.
A whole slew of text messaging acronyms and gross punctuation errors.

They are actually turning in papers with this, at a high school level. Makes baby jesus cry.

Please feel free to correct my grammar/punctuation.

These kind of people are going to be working at a convenience store, not writing textbooks. What do you care how bad their writing is?

 

[GeNome]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: spidey07
I am not joking. I'm friends with many school teachers/administrators and the subject again came up at a party.

Here's the thing. They are constantly facing papers turned in with the following, I am not making this up,:

+ for the word and.
U for the word you.
Y for the word why.
A whole slew of text messaging acronyms and gross punctuation errors.

They are actually turning in papers with this, at a high school level. Makes baby jesus cry.

Please feel free to correct my grammar/punctuation.

Well, since you asked:

"I am not making this up,:" - Should be a colon only, no comma.

"Here's the thing. They ..." - Should be a colon, not a period.

"Makes baby jesus cry." is not a sentence and the J should be capitalized.

Other than that you were fine.


This comes down to bad teaching, not the idiocy of modern youths. Yes, modern youths are indeed idiots, but that's not the reason they're turning in papers like that. The teachers and administrators only need to look in the mirror to identify the problem. These kids have been taught that grammar like that is acceptable. They've obviously done it before and gotten away with it and will continue to do it until they can no longer slip it by. As soon as it results in lower grades it'll stop.

You mean 'youts', right?

 

[aloser]

Originally posted by: JujuFish
Since we're on the topic, I'd like to say that "then" and "than" are two entirely different words. I see these misused more often than not.

Biggest ones I see are to/too and apparently there is only one form of "your" anymore

to=Preposition (give TO someone; go TO the store)
too=Also (I made some grammatical and possibly spelnig erors TOO)
two=Number, as is 2 (you have 2 minutes for correcting your grammatical errors)

your=posession (YOUR post is more grammatically correct than mine)
you're=contraction (YOU'RE probably getting sick of these examples)
yore=long time ago (The last time anyone used the correct variations of these words seems to have been back in the days of yore)

And like was brought up, THEN is a time frame, and THAN is a comparison.


Doesn't matter what we say or do though; ultimately someone is going to find teachers to be offensive for trying to instill the proper spellings and grammar into tomorrow's leaders and there will be a huge lawsuit against the OP and ATOT for ridiculing "the new system" of text messaging.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: woodie1

Originally posted by: tersome
The saddest thing is, kids like this graduate.

HS diplomas are worthless now.

HS Diplomas haven't had any value for some time now. I have a sister who works at a community college and all she does is try to repair the damage done by our high schools so the kids can eventually be literate enough to get passing grades there.

I don't agree with this. I went into accelerated classes in high school to get me ready for college. they taught us what we needed to get into high maintenance college classes that helped you get a degree, rather than simple algrebra or simple grammar classes. you master those skills in high school so you can put more energy into more important things in college.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Perknose

Ack, you've just made several more usage mistakes! :Q

Says the man who posts "Ack,"

SYN? [/quote]

RST! :|

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: sonoma1993

Originally posted by: woodie1

Originally posted by: tersome
The saddest thing is, kids like this graduate.

HS diplomas are worthless now.

HS Diplomas haven't had any value for some time now. I have a sister who works at a community college and all she does is try to repair the damage done by our high schools so the kids can eventually be literate enough to get passing grades there.

i agree with this. My last year of high school, my school made some changes so that school is less stressful on the students. My highschool dropped all final exams for good, in 11th grade we had to write a thesis paper. Now the students don't have to write a thesis paper. The reason they did this, because the parents bitched and complain that school was to stressful for their kids.

*jaw drops*

No kidding, that is unbelievable. The people in charge of that curriculum need to be lined up against the wall and shot, and then replaced by people who know what they're doing.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Perknose

Ack, you've just made several more usage mistakes! :Q

Says the man who posts "Ack,"

SYN?

RST! :|

[/quote]

FIN!

 

[eits]

that's why i get sick and tired of losers always spelling "you're" y-o-u-r. then, when i comment about how they're dumbasses, they spew garbage like, "lol were not n school right now who cares?"

idiots.

 

[Extelleron]

WTH?!!!!! OMG LOL WHO CAERS ABOUT GRMMAR OR SP3LNG SKOOL SUX!!!1!!!!1 OMG



The failure of the school system to teach students proper grammar and spelling is yet another failure of the education system as a whole. It isn't just grammar and spelling, no, not at all. Ignorance seems to be the only virtue most students have in today's world. There's a reason why nine out of ten middle school students don't even know a country called Lebanon exists, unless they've watched the news recently (which is extremely unlikely.) I'm not saying I know that number as a fact, but I'm sure it's a fairly accurate assessment of the average student's knowledge, or lack of it.

It's hard to imagine that, in an information age, with so much information available at anyone's fingertips in seconds, that students, and even adults, are so ignorant of their surroundings.

I know this doesn't have much to do with the topic of grammar and spelling, but it's the same idea, isn't it?

 

[lyssword]

This thread is weak.