New Word 'SOARING'

At 05:00 03 February 2005, Tony Verhulst wrote:

Why Worry About Grammar??? (Read the Following Quickly
.)

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd
waht I was rdanieg.

Tell my fifth grade English teacher it isn't important.
Scariest woman
I ever knew.

Mrs Hall went to visit an author friend in the hospital.
He was
complaining about a miss-spelled word in a magazine
article he wrote.
Mrs Hall said 'what's the big deal?. The author replied
'mrs Hell, it
makes a hall of a difference'. Miss-spelled words in
a magazine may not
be important, but it is sloppy, IMHO.

Tony V.


Right!

I appreciate the work that the staff at SSA does -
very much.

We have a creeping disease in our society that puts
the bottom line ahead of every consideration of quality,
and it affects every profession and every thing we
do. The hurry up to reduce overhead forces neglect,
carelessness, sloppy work. I have spent 30 years in
my house finding and correcting shortcuts the builder
took to save a few moments. His saving $2.50 has cost
me $30.00 in many cases.

Language is as important as arithmetic. If you wouldn't
tolerate incorrect math, why dismiss sloppy language
as unimportant. It reveals that the person either
does not care for precision, or else is so rushed that
he/she has no time to go back and clean up their work.
We all make typos; how many go back and read through
their posts before sending them out.

I'm a curmudgeon; I judge people who use poor grammar
and syntax as persons who can't or don't think critically;
maybe they can, but are just slovenly. Shirtsleeve
English doesn't work in print; it causes confusion.

I worked in a university. I observed that foreign
students coming to this country spoke with very precise,
articulate English and put our local students to shame
with their precision of thought and expression. They
even ask for help in correcting their English, and
they have thanked me when I pointed out errors, and
begged for more comments. It is as easy to learn it
correctly as it is to learn it incorrectly. We stopped
teaching grammar back in the 60s in favor of getting
students to 'express themselves.' We are paying for
that now.

I served as a consultant to a legal firm in evaluating
a collection of intellectual property in a divorce
settlement. The correspondence from the young lawyer
got all the 'boiler plate' down pat, but it was painful
trying to sort out his meaning in the text surrounding
it. We required two or three letters to sort out what
he really wanted precisely from me. Spell checkers
create as much confusion as they solve.

I'm off my soapbox, and I promise not to get back up
on it again; I do appreciate the editors and writers
at SSA and I do not attack them. They need more help.