Hang around police or fire command staff meetings for a while, and the subject of report writing will inevitably surface. A common topic of conversations concerns the quality of writing. Often, someone will lament the decline in writing skills, and a chorus of agreement will follow.
Some of this is just another example of the ancient complaint of "kids these days." Some, however, is a genuine concern over what seems to be a decline in writing skills. Personally, I am something of a stickler for proper grammar, spelling, and word usage. As my blog reveals, however, I occasionally dangle my own participle. I try, though, to use language well. It drives me nuts when someone confuses exacerbate with exasperate or exaggerate, or turns a perfectly good phrase such as "graduated from high school" into an abominable one lacking the requisite preposition. And the next time I hear someone using the hackneyed expression "kick the can down the road," I think I will be ill.
Nevertheless, I realize that English is a living language. Today, it is increasingly living in short snippets contained in emails, tweets, and text messages. Despite my preferences for precision and elocution in language, you can actually communicate a lot of information in a short message that is perfectly understandable, though nowhere near the King's English. There, I've got that off my chest. I'm thru.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
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13 comments:
I share your passion for proper English, and, like you, I make the occasional typo, or end a sentence with a preposition (though I try my best not to dangle my paritciples...isn't there an ordinance about that?). I really hate it when my infinitives are split. I understand the idea of a "living language," and I realize new words are necessary to adequately convey meaning in the modern era.
It has been most interesting to me to watch a number of British sitcoms on DVD. In particular, the tendancy for the British to drop words that we would commonly include in sentences. For example, we would say, "My mother is in the hospital." They say, "Mums is in hospital."
I guess, despite my objections, it is inevitable that language will eventually become phonetic in nature, and it will probably be understood by most. Still, I have a hard time relinquishing the value of "just the right word" to express my ideas or feelings.
My pet peeve is after every sentenance or two, a person uses the words "you know". I want to reach out and grab the person and tell them "No I don't know, that is why you are telling me".
@1:38 AM: THANK YOU! I get sick of hearing 'You Know'! I constantly hear it on the radio while I'm in the car. It's coming from people who are supposed to be professional. If they say 'you know' more than twice, I have to turn the knob and listen to something else.
Whew, I feel a little better now.
Proper use of dative prepositions!! Why can't kids today make proper use of a dative preposition? With whom at LPS must I speak about this educational travesty.
I know what you mean. Sometimes I have to use my translator to understand what people are saying. 'You know' is ye be knowin'.
People typing in a rush or punching out text on mobile devices sometimes hit the wrong key, but such unintentional typos are obvious. I also understand the need for brevity resulting in shortened and incomplete sentences. These say "man in a hurry".
What bugs me most are two things that are done intentionally by the ignorant:
1. Apostrophe abuse (I have three dog's. Park your car's around back.)
2. Use of the wrong homonym (affect, effect; there, their, they're)
These say "idiot".
I worked for the NebDeptOfCorrections for 15 plus years. We were always writing incident reports (IRs), mostly because we were constantly looking over our shoulders (if you know what I mean?). As I supervised a large crew of said NDCS employees, I spotted a trait early on... that rural (ie: small school) employees were the best in conscise/grammer specific report writing, in spite of their superviser's obvious linguistic shortcommings.
A few years ago an obituary claimed the subject had passed away in the middle of a battle with cancer. Sounded like the end to me. I have a thing against words spelled wrong, especially in ads.
To 10:21---I have a boss who doesn't use appostrophes at all, even when they are required (i.e. in contractions like "don't" or "isn't.")
Another pet peeve is when someone writes ALOT instead of A LOT.
To 10:21---I have a boss who doesn't use appostrophes at all, even when they are required (i.e. in contractions like "don't" or "isn't.")
Another pet peeve is when someone writes ALOT instead of A LOT.
Anon 8:23
You see those mistakes alot. :)
By the way, there is only one "p" at the beginning of apostrophe. You should also have a comma after i.e. :)
If I've heard this once, I've heard it a miliion times around LPD. "I got an accommodation for catching that bad guy."
It is hard to always use proper English. Case in point, it is correct to currently use the idiom, Queen's English as the King has passed.
God save the Queen.
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