I had to create a news broadcast script for English class with a group of other people, and each of us was going to write one or two stories for it. I volunteered to collect them and put them together. Half of them were full of incorrect grammar and the other half, I couldn't tell because it was all chatspeak. *sigh* and we're in grade 10.
This happened to my younger sister in her college english class! They were doing some sort of newspaper project, and since she had been sick the day the assignment was given, she had gotten stuck with a group of students she didn't even know, and they all decided that she would be the one in charge of putting everything together. She had the same result as you. Her stories were relatively decent (with a little help from me), but all three other group members gave her unreadable stories. The grammar was horrible. One submitted all of her stories in chatspeak. None of them cited references, and one even gave her a plagerized web site -- word for word off the website he had cited. Even with my dad's and my help, my sister couldn't get the newspaper ready in time, and the professor had no sympathy for her
. Evidently, it was my sister's fault for being sick the day the assignment was given. I could understand if she had skipped class, but she even had cleared it with the Dean. So, Julie, this even happens in college. And my sister goes to a relatively well respected liberal arts/teaching college. Does that scare others as much as it scares me?
My father gets the credit for drilling proper English grammar into my head.
Mine, too. I can still hear his voice telling my sister: "Laura and???" "No, Jenny, it's not Laura and me, it's Laura and I!" Oh wait, that's because he's on the phone with her now. He wouldn't (still won't) answer any questions direceted at him unless we used correct grammar. Such are the perils of having a father who has a degree in english, yet taught high school physics for 30 years
! He needs to take his grammar agressions out somewhere
. I know my dad's grammar drilling has paid off -- I now find myself cringing whenever my roommate refuses to use the pronoun "me"! Rachel: He gave this thing to Ashu and I. Me: ASHU AND ME!! HE GAVE IT TO ME, NOT I!
I think that both writing and speaking English properly is even more of a requirement here in America, where we are not generally required by our public school system to learn second and/or third languages.
Yes! I agree completely. If English is the only language we know, why not know it correctly? Also, I learned that knowning English grammar really helps with learning other languages. I did better than anyone else in my high school Spanish class (which was an elective) because I knew the english grammar behind many things -- like when to use which form of the verb, etc. That's saying nothing, though, because I won the Spanish Award in high school, and could not even write a sentance in Spanish now
. It probably says something about how bad the other students were.
Oh, wow, Laura! I've never seen anything like it. Maybe my students aren't quite as bad as I thought.
I've been a teaching assistant for two semesters, and that was by far the worst incidence I'd ever seen. Most students do not have perfect grammar (especially because we have a very large number of international students), but this student was the worst. Plus, he was an American, not an international student. I would have forgiven an international student. Last year I taught seniors who were about to graduate, and their grammar, on the whole, is much better than the grammar of the second years I had last semester. I am wondering if it is an age/maturity thing. The seniors are about to go off into the world jobs/graduate school/professional school and have to present themselves to the world. The sophmores are still basically kids and have two more years to mature.
The only writing my students ever give my are emails. This really does a lot to form my impression about students because with a class of 128, it is almost impossible to get to know all of the students personally. There really aren't any essays written in my department, so emails are my only experience with their writing. However, many, many students think of email as an informal conversation rather than a conversation with an authorty figure. I emailed that student I quoted before the next day and saw that he had CC'd the professor on that email message, and I told him that if I were him, I would send the professor an apologetic email for making him read an email like that. In our department, there are absolutely no essays, but there is the occasional formal lab report, but, luckily, I have never been required to grade them. I've had to grade quizzes, exams, and informal lab reports. Thank goodness. I would hate to see what some of these students would come up with.
I just wish I could work out whether I should be proud or appalled to know that.
Exactly. I am in the same situation -- I don't have the best grammar in the world, and I do make some stupid mistakes, but I know that I am not even close to being the worst, and of my immediate RL friends, I am probably the most dilligent about my grammar. This frigtens me.
- Laura
