READING AND WRITING

As you may have guessed, I agree with your point.

If you have no objections, I may link to this essay from mine on the decline of grammar. As it is so similar anyone reading mine would likely have an interest in yours as well.

I am sorry. I thought you had commented on my essay on the decline of grammar when you commented on something completely different.

Regardless, I do think I will link to yours, as it is a synoptic blog entry, if you will. If you do mind the link, let me know and I will remove it.

As I said earlier, a good entry and one with which I agree.

Whattaya mean?

Why should anyone cair about thet?

Out here in Kalifornia they are going after home schooling...the only place kids are getting a real education...drives me nuts.

Btw...shameless plug...I have a second blog at http://moments.blogtownahll.com

I thought it might be nice to do a blog on a different note...

But sometimes grammar and spelling are not signs of intelligence but are signs of style.

Read my blog, for example, http://myworld.townhall.com.

I write it in the way that I talk. It has short, choppy sentences and sometimes uses slang. Does this mean I am not an intellectual? Not necessarily. I am a college graduate and work in journalism. I just write casually (and my writing is often full of typos - that is a legitimate gripe).

With the number of blogs that I read in a given day, I can assure you, this is not an age-related thing. There are, unfortunately, few well-written blogs. Whether this is related to the pacing of blog posts, the fact that these are not an intellectual outlet, or the fact that some people just do not have an education, I do not know.

Am I saying that young people do not have a strong grasp of grammar and language? No, because this is certainly true. The acceptance of casual writing - including my own - is not helping matters, but the ability to recognize the difference between a term paper and a blog should also be noted.

Andrews: I am pleased that you would want to add a link to this in one of your blogs.

While I have not read the blog to which you refer, I read enough to know that I will finish reading it. (It's not one of those that will be skipped over because of unintelligibility!)

Thanks for the compliment.

Thank you, Sheila, for your comment.

I'd heard, of course, about California and the home schooling uproar, and it would seem to me that you are absolutely correct: the only place kids can get an education is at home. At any rate, the education they'd get in some of the schools may be one you wouldn't wish on a dog.

I will definitely check out your new "Moments." (How do you find time???)

Chris, first, thank you for reading my little essay.

Second, I concur with you!

Writing can be conversational, and it need not always contain a subject and a verb. Very often my blog posts prove that.

Writing conversationally certainly does not mean the writer is not an intellectual or is unintelligent.

I agree that blogs are not on the same par with term papers, even though I admit that I have not written a term paper since high school.

Of course blogs are meant to be written in a more casual venue, and many of mine are casual and conversational; if you read any of them, you would quickly observe that they are a great deal less stilted than "Reading and Writing."

Your last paragraph is indeed one with which I can agree.

As you might imagine, I am one of the older people described in my "Reading and Writing" post. It simply appears to me after reading numerous other entries that older writers have more of a grasp of the rules of writing. A few blogs appear to have been pounded out by some of the ignoramuses graduating high school sans the ability to fill out a job application.

I find that when I write in here that, while my spelling is usually correct, and my grammar is nearly correct, I am apt to be a little more casual than i would normally be in writing. But I am in the same older age category as you (and more so :-)) ) so I am more aware of proper writing than some I see.
I rarely find a post that doesn't make sense, tho, even when it is not carefully edited. But I pick and choose which ones I want to read.
We have a newsletter in our park that comes out once a month and the girl who sets it up and puts it out is young and missed a lot of the grammar lessons, I think. I offered to proofread it and was told that several people already proofread it. I laughed to myself and notice that it has not improved in the several months since then.
One thing that drives me crazy is ...their, there, and they're. (English is impossible)
These three words are easily misused, I guess.
They are the worst abused I have seen.

While some blogs and online comments are enjoyable despite their poor written form, I find myself invariably more entertained and engaged when a blog is well-written.

Much to my daughter's dismay, I make it a point to read her homework and correct grammar, usage, and spelling. She doesn't complain too much anymore, and I find her starting to correct her little brother's grammar at the dinner table. Perhaps she's learning something useful after all.

I think the fact that people read fewer books today than they used to plays a role in this. Many young people won't read a book unless forced. Reading is not a pleasurable experience for them. Books, unlike newspapers and magazines, have a far better track record, grammatically, as they are edited and re-worked many times over. So it stands to reason, that people who read alot of books, are better writers.

And all this text messaging, is NOT helping. I have read comments following the main articles, that have more than a whiff of *texting* to them. I don't know about you, but when I see that, I move on!

Thank you for the kind words.

Sometimes it does seem as though, figuratively speaking anyway, we are going to blazes in a handbasket.

We seem to agree that reading is the first step in the ability to write. Naturally, we each have our own thoughts, but it is a history of reading that helps so much in learning how to express those thoughts. And, yes, "texting" is a definite detriment.

All many of us can do is "write right" (I know, I know) and hope that others follow. But they need to pick up a good book now and then!

"All many of us can do is "write right" (I know, I know) and hope that others follow. But they need to pick up a good book now and then!"

Baby, from your lips to God's ears! (Make the world a better place. Read a book!)

This was a great essay and a subject close to my heart!

I agree that informal writing is perfectly permissible. I do not follow all of the standard rules of grammar when writing, and often write in sentence fragments, run on sentences, use the second person, and many other violations of rules of composition.

My main rules when writing are that the style be appropriate for the context and that the end result convey the message intended.

Sometimes proper grammar is demanded, sometimes not.

My problem is not with those who deviate from the rules of grammar, but those who cannot follow the rules when they need to do so. It is fine to ignore rules when you know them. When you are not aware they exist, you cannot follow them when the need arises.

I am willing to accept those who knowingly write non-standard English. Those who do not understand grammar, on the other hand, seem unable to write intelligibly in any circumstance. Which is my main complaint.

In short, if you are writing, make sure others can understand it. Often that means knowing the rules. If you can do it without knowing the rules, then fine. But I seriously doubt you can consistently write intelligible work if you know none of the rules.

Andrews: You're on the money there.

When I wrote "Reading and Writing" I had seen some of the most horrendous examples of misspellings, misplaced apostrophes (the poor apostrophe!), etc.

At about the same time, I had been reading some of the blog entries of those I knew to be far removed from the educational arena. It appeared to me then that, in general, older people had probably had a better basic education in English than younger ones.

I admit my post was very stilted and made me appear to be absolutely pedantic -- and likely quite dull. It was terribly exaggerated; I simply wanted to get the point across that in my opinion something may be lacking in the education of today's young people.

That education begins at home, of course. I grew up surrounded by books and people who read them. It makes a difference.

Thanks for checking in again. I'm going directly to your blog and to Chris's to see what's going on there.

I appreciate your views.

From time to time, I interview folks who also need a grasp of math, science, and critical thinking. It's a grim landscape.

Of course, I find a way to inject politics into the fray, slattern that I am.

http://mhucao.blogtownhall.com/2008/03/04/the_obama_debacle _-_a_payback.thtml

Unfortunate, as I age, my memory heads South with everything else. Errors are on the rise.

The first time I heard someone say "That's my BFF." I had NO CLUE what it stood for! What can I say, I'm a happy camper that I don't comprehend "text" language.

Okay, I give up. (I don't "text.") What in blazes is BFF? Just give me a hint. I can probably fill in the blanks. Remember, I wasn't born yesterday.

Punctiliousness is close to -------- my heart. (Nowhere near Mulligatawny.)

Interesting thing about reading: it leads one into the intricacies of science and math and algebra and those other far-out subjects. If one cannot read, how can he comprehend algebra? Let alone critical thinking?

Now, don't make negative references to things "going South." Some people may take umbrage. As a Southerner (ex-), I used to but have gotten over it.

However, I have to admit that I see errors constantly in my typing, and I cannot write without an electronic dictionary open, minimized at the bottom of my screen, ready for perusal. Sometimes not even that helps.

Thanks for "stopping by," as they (who are "they"?) say.

See my comments to Doc Steech. I don't "do" texting, either!

It takes forever because (a) I spell everything out; (b) I use punctuation; (c) I correct mispellings; (d) I need to figure out which key to press and the number of times to press it; and (e) I need to re-do a lot of work because my brain and finger refuse to work together.

What makes all this even sadder is that I began working with a predecessor to texting over 20 years ago. Wow, from the cutting edge to the short bus. The circle is complete.

Going South, perhaps Venezuela?

(No offense intended, I once lived in southeastern VA. Does that count? 8-O)

No one said there was going to be a test. LOL! (That’s for Doc) In general I would agree with your premise. In my opinion, there are many causative factors for the decline in the written word. The expansion of voice communications, email, instant messaging, and texting have all but ended letter writing.

I think that there is also an occupational component involved that will, in many cases, set a pattern for written communications. I have to join Chris concerning the decision to choose a particular voice for a personal blog. Somewhere in an early comment on TH I pointed to the difficulty I was having shaking off the effects of decades of writing advertising copy. Attempting to convey a message, capture interest quickly, and punch the high points all on a 4x6 postcard does a terrible disservice to the language.

Townhall is a political site and emotion is in evidence here on a regular basis, displaying itself in half sentences, misspellings, and absent words, as the writer rushes to translate their thoughts to the keyboard. Many a good thought falls by the wayside in this manner.

In the end, there is something for everyone on Townhall. If I could write like a Thomas Sowell I'd be on the main page and not here in the farm system, where sometimes you just have to say "Who'da Thunk It".

If you can believe it, it means "best friends forever'. Okie dokie. I thought it meant "best female friend". Yup, the verdict's in, I'm a dork! LOL!

Some of us write like we talk. In Texas we do a pretty good job destroyn the written and spoken word. Not sayn I write like I talk, butspossble. Yes, in Texas that's one word.

For the very life of me I cannot understand why people have to be connected, electronically, with anybody, SOMEbody, constantly. One cannot go shopping without seeing someone using a cell phone, and, sitting at a table in a restaurant, it is very common to see "texting" going on almost constantly. What did people do before cell phones, for heaven's sake? Let alone "texting." (Which isn't even a word as far as I'm concerned.)

And, yes, I did have to believe that "BFF" had at least one naughty word or a two-word expression; in the latter case I couldn't figure out the "B."

Now, if someone would help me out with mhu cao's "8-O" my "texting" vocabulary will be complete, thank you very much. Enough's enough.

I ALSO thought one of the F's was a naughty word!!!! LOL! I have to imagine kids think we are so retarded!