Proper Grammar & Punctuation

[RDBoles]

And proud of it!

[J Canuck]

I dare say, the reading of these posts opined by like-minded cohorts has warmed the cockles of my heart. I must jump onto this grammatically correct bandwagon to communicate my pet peeve, as Rebuglar has just given me a kindly boost.

RebBugler wrote:

This is a very pertinent thread regarding two main points, communication and validity. Some folks may actually 'Get It' and conform if they get around to perusing here.

I'm not sure why substituting the grammatical tense of “me” for “I” has become my pet-peeve, but it may have something to do with having a twenty-something son I still correct; and, a primary school teaching sister just as fed up as I am with the minimal progress towards correcting the teaching of the basics in our public schools.

Welcome to North America where no apologies are necessary for one’s education; unless you are apologising for not playing a role in trying to knock some common sense into those who have carried the analytical learning and failure undermines self-esteem philosophies too far in our primary school curriculums. The lack of grounding in basic arithmetic and English grammar seems to be universal in Canada and the USA. I first heard "me" (object) being substituted for "I" (subject) about thirty years ago. Fairly recently I have been finding the use of this grammatical error is now invading movies and TV programs (creative license or ignorance??). This bastardisation is like fingernails scratching a blackboard!

To any lurking folks who would like to ‘Get It’, the following helps my son.

CORRECT:
I played ball with Mike. I and Bob (or Bob and I) played ball with Mike

INCORRECT:
Me played ball with Mike. Me and Bob (or Bob and me) played ball with Mike.

[Kerflumoxed]

Tacloban wrote:

Kerflumoxed,

I consider myself old school in that I learned to type business letters before text-messages; however, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that any language, syntax, usage, or grammer is a static phenomenon. All languages evolve in a constant state of flux responding to cultural, technological, and political changes. I would bet that the defenders of Old English probably similarly resented the changes to their language caused by the foreign influences after the invasions by the Norse and the Normans.

The writing style that you refer to will have a noticeable, if much less substantial, effect on popular English. I bet that the apostrophe will fall out of use quickly, because it is harder to use on the phone keyboards. Too bad. There is no question that clear technical communication (engineering, legal, historical, etc.) requires competent writing skills, which may well be diminished by text-speak. I love the well crafted sentence, and authors with the highest level of language.

A little late responding...sorry.

I am not terribly upset with spelling as that can happen either through mis-typing (leaving out an "l" in "finaly" for example or having the brain get too far ahead of the fingers. Rather, it is the "choice" made to type in all caps or all lower case, primarily because it is difficult to read. As others have noted, I have got to the point that I just skip over it which, unfortunately, results in my having less information to evaluate and ignoring others' opinions.

As to punctuation, a comma or period is nice as it helps clarify the thought process developed in the statement. Without either of these, confusion and/or incorrect interpretation can easily arise.

J

[MarcusC]

That's hilarious...getting in touch with his inner ee cummings? Now I can officially say I've heard everything-ha ha!

[louie raider]

meh. while i can fully support proper spelling/grammar, i have to say i fall a little short in the caps dept; sorry if my lack of caps offends you, to me it doesn't distract me from the intent of the message as much as misspellings or lack of punctuation (i'm rather fond of semicolons myself).

I find nothing silly in 'getting in touch with my inner ee cummings', he happens to be one of my favorite poets.

[Tacloban]

Bigguz wrote:

Tacobarn however, hits the nail on the head. Lets face it guys, we're old! :laugh:

Hey! I never said that! Being old school is not the same as being old.

Although, in this case, perhaps, relative to the demographics of this forum, some might possibly consider me to be, on balance,...I can't say it...old.