Grammatical error abound in cyberspace - poor education or just plain laziness?

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Also keep in mind we start educating our kids much much sooner than the US. In Ontario, you start when you are 4 years old. It is not compulsary in the US to start until 6 or 7 years old in some states. Those 3 years you miss out on a lot of learning. When I was 5, I was doing basic math and language (English and French). I know at least 2 kids (aged 5 and 6) that cannot read and are not in school yet here in the states. They can pick out words but not read. If you show them a card with "car" written on it, they can say "car". If you show them "carton" they have no idea where to even begin.

 

We started educating our kids before they were born. I didn't want to scare them from ever coming out, so my wife did the singing. Being a music teacher, she swears there's all sorts of math involved. I taught them real math a little later. They could read and do square roots before they even started kindergarten.

 

It depends on which book. There are several, and they don't agree. Rule books like this are called "xxxx manual of style", where "xxxx" is the name of the organization. One of the best known is the Chicago Manual of Style. As you might expect, any book containing the word "style" contains suggestions. If you work for an organization, whatever style guide they use becomes the rule. Otherwise you are free to choose, but don't be surprised if you are chastised by grammar nazis.

Style varies, and none is really correct. For example, let's look at three boys going to the store. You could write it like this: "Bob, John, and Tom went to the store." Or you could say: "Bob, John and Tom went to the store." The first example contains what is commonly called the Oxford Comma or Serial Comma. I like the extra comma because it is logical. Many don't, as they see the extra comma as unnecessary. Which is correct? The answer depends on who pays you to write.

Tom

 

Those are the people who right plays, write? Rite?

 

Without punctuation you wouldn't know whether or not that person was talking about a panda bear or an extremely rude dinner guest.

 

I'm a huge fan of the Oxford Comma (Otherwise you get classics like "This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God").

 

ZOMG! Grammatical errors!

 

a-grey-prius: funny cartoon !

 

Grammatical errors are compounded by the fact that many learned on a mono-spaced font typewriter and have not learned the rules of typography for word processing and proportionally-space fonts. Examples include no underlining, use of em and en dashes, sub- and supra-scripts and throw in a strong dose of texting on the fly with shorthand, acronyms and made up terms.

 

If a person can't write beyond a 5th grade level, then I'm not sure they read beyond a 5th grade level. I've read that newspapers are written at the 7th grade level. Do publishers believe readers can not comprehend beyond the 7th grade, or is it written at 7th grade level because reporters and writers do not know how to write at a higher level?

Speaking of reading, Mark Twain says, "The man who doesn't read good books, has no advantage over the man who can't read." I believe that.

Generally, we no longer write in the traditional sense. We text, keyboard, tweet or some other shorthand form of communicating such as substituting feeling with icons .

I assume that 21st century American english is changing. Our grammar and literary style certainly changed from the 19th century when compared with today's grammar and written style.

Its' just ain't the same when its done wrong...haha...lol...