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Grammar and spelling
I'm Joe Nobody, from Nowhere. I'm a high school graduate, no college.
I get so tired of carelessness.
I've decided to rant about carelessness in print. If you don't like what I have to say, and you think it's perfectly acceptable to litter posts with misspelled words, horribly improper grammar, lack of punctuation, start your own thread. This is my personal appeal to clean things up.
I get a headache from trying to figure out what someone means, when "there" is used instead of, "they're", or, "their". Maybe it's a minor point to you, but I have to stop and decipher what's been printed. The problem is only getting worse, as it seems that no one cares.
Spellcheck is your friend. Please, use it.
Please, learn the differences between "your" and, "you're", "there", "their" and "they're".
"Two", "to" and, "too": please learn the use of each.
"Etc." is the abbreviation for, "et cetera", which means, "and so forth". It's Latin. I don't know what, "ect" is.
It's, "used to", as in, "I used to have no trouble reading the printed word."
The apostrophe has its uses, but please learn where it's used and where it's not.
It's properly used to denote possession, such as, "Gary's" or, "Pat's". It's not necessary in words that already denote possession, such as, "hers", "ours", "his" or "theirs".
It's unnecessary, and even confusing, when used in words that are plural, but are not possessive, such as, "truck's", or "pike pole's". I don't know who started that.
It's also used in contractions, such as, "it's" which is the contraction of, "it is".
It's, "definitely", not , "definately". Think of the word, "finite", if it helps.
Typographical errors are one thing. Blatant spelling errors that have become far too common have just become a sign that we've become lazy, and that bothers me.
I'll be blunt. When I read a post that is full of common errors, I form an impression that it was written by a dummy, or someone who is just too lazy and careless to take the time to learn the language we use every day. Some posts are so bad that I skip past them. I'd be willing to bet that there are others who have the same reaction.
C'mon folks, let's clean it up, please.
Thank you.
I get so tired of carelessness.
I've decided to rant about carelessness in print. If you don't like what I have to say, and you think it's perfectly acceptable to litter posts with misspelled words, horribly improper grammar, lack of punctuation, start your own thread. This is my personal appeal to clean things up.
I get a headache from trying to figure out what someone means, when "there" is used instead of, "they're", or, "their". Maybe it's a minor point to you, but I have to stop and decipher what's been printed. The problem is only getting worse, as it seems that no one cares.
Spellcheck is your friend. Please, use it.
Please, learn the differences between "your" and, "you're", "there", "their" and "they're".
"Two", "to" and, "too": please learn the use of each.
"Etc." is the abbreviation for, "et cetera", which means, "and so forth". It's Latin. I don't know what, "ect" is.
It's, "used to", as in, "I used to have no trouble reading the printed word."
The apostrophe has its uses, but please learn where it's used and where it's not.
It's properly used to denote possession, such as, "Gary's" or, "Pat's". It's not necessary in words that already denote possession, such as, "hers", "ours", "his" or "theirs".
It's unnecessary, and even confusing, when used in words that are plural, but are not possessive, such as, "truck's", or "pike pole's". I don't know who started that.
It's also used in contractions, such as, "it's" which is the contraction of, "it is".
It's, "definitely", not , "definately". Think of the word, "finite", if it helps.
Typographical errors are one thing. Blatant spelling errors that have become far too common have just become a sign that we've become lazy, and that bothers me.
I'll be blunt. When I read a post that is full of common errors, I form an impression that it was written by a dummy, or someone who is just too lazy and careless to take the time to learn the language we use every day. Some posts are so bad that I skip past them. I'd be willing to bet that there are others who have the same reaction.
C'mon folks, let's clean it up, please.
Thank you.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Firewriter on
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Jack/dt, during the time I have been on FFN, I have seen many posts which made me wonder about the possible illiteracy of the writer. However, I am not presumptuous enough to feel it is my place to point out their errors. It has nothing to do with being, "warm and fuzzy", and everything to do with respect. If that person is unable to write a report in a clear, concise manner; then it is up to his, or her, senior officer to point out this fact and do something about remedial lessons; not those of us here on FFN.
I do not "decree" anything. I, along with others on FFN, state our opinions or feelings on a topic; nothing more. Also, I am very glad you know me so well, and can thus make such sweeping generalizations about me - however wrong every one of them might be. Time at fire halls? Time writing/reviewing reports? "No Child Left Behind"? Wow! Are you the Great and Omniscient Oz? If so, your powers are failing ... you are mistaken on all three.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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FW,
It has nothing to do with being presumptuous or disrespectful, as it's little more than pointing out to people that their spelling sucks. It really is that you wouldn't dare to hurt someone's feelings by embarrassing them about their spelling; warm and fuzzy. If you want to operate as though this were a kindergarten that's your prerogative but it only more clearly shows that you have no experience in a firehouse. [yeah yeah, you've been IN a fire house, you just haven't WORKED in one. Big difference.]
Time at fire halls? I addressed that above, based on what you indicate in your profile, at best you've "visited" fire houses.
Time writing/reviewing reports? Where did I mention you in regard to writing/reviewing reports? Now you're just making stuff up.
"No Child Left Behind" Uh huh, I wrote that...what of it? I mean, you quoted me on that but didn't bother to address it. You could have just as easily quoted this, "I've found errors..."
Finally, what I wrote earlier was not about you, it was about spelling and grammar in FFN. You seemed to (want to) take it personally and make THAT an issue with me, rather than about spelling and grammar. I think you're treading closely to making a personal attack on me, let's hope that's not the case.
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Permalink Reply by David Wayson on
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Greetings fellow fire fighters...
At first blush I have to agree with the general feeling of these replies and say, "What are these people thinking when not paying attention to how words are used?" And, secondly, even if the thought process is slim to non-existent, those using in appropriate language, punctuation, etc. should be made aware that, yes, in the realm of today's legal maneuverings, language and its use can have far reaching effects on the outcomes of legal proceedings. A single misuse of a word or phrase can change the outcome of any given situation.
All of that aside it is my humble opinion some of the fault lies with we, as parents, in not insisting our young people who are now in the forefront of generation whatever were not supervised by us, their parents, at the time when they were most susceptible. This fault, of course, is not ours alone but was also allowed by a great majority of those who were responsible for ensuring the end result of their education.
Now, what do we do about it? As has been mentioned many times in these posts one thing we can do is to educate! And that education should not be limited to only those superiors in our various departments. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to those following in our footsteps to ensure our language and all of its ramifications are promoted as an important and vital part of our way of life.
Please, be aware of your use of the language. Set an example and be responsible for ensuring our language is preserved, in its best form, for generations to come.
Respectively submitted to you all from someone who dearly loves this job. Thank you.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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"Maybe if we were to tell people to try to remember, "define" for correctly spelling, "definitely", it might be more effective?"
Maybe people should pay attention in school when they're supposed to be learing how to spell so they don't look ignorant to the rest of the educated world! Just my 2 cents.
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If we were to submit Patient Care Reports with "text type" entries, it would get kicked back and have to be rewritten and resubmitted! Especially since the computers we use to do our PCR's have spell check on them!
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My Chief is big on building up the person next to you. In a way, the "Grammar Nazi's" are trying to do just that. It's not a matter of belittleing a person for their bad spelling and grammar, but getting them to understand that in the real world bad spelling and grammar are often perceived as ignorance, and perhaps they'll make an effort to proof read and use spell check when they post something in written form.
Think of it like this:
Your friend mispronounces words like "nuclear". You can let them continue to go through life sounding ignorant, or you can help them learn to pronounce the word properly. Again just my 2 cents.
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Perhaps the person writing the report was a practitioner of the Hinduism and was making reference to the "third" eye! lol
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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Yarborough on
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I have read the article and a couple of pages of posts. I agree that grammar is a rampant problem. In my fire service experience, those who have trouble with spelling and grammar are those with little education beyond high school.
I have begun teaching a class on report writing due to concerns with incident and training report narratives. There is nothing more embarrassing than to give a citizen a report with the word fire spelled “fyre.” Or to have a firefighter go to court and testify in a case, such as arson, where part of the evidence depends on what s/he has written (or not written because they were not comfortable with their skill level).
The report writing class also deals with those issues that you all spoke of: using to vs. two or too, they’re vs. their or there, etc. I am really hoping to see it make a positive difference. But my supervisors will have to understand that it takes more than 2 hours to change a person's grammar and spelling.
If anyone is interested in company level training to address this problem, here is a great book:
For The Record: Report Writing For Fire Services 2nd. Edition (Hess and Wrobleski)
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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No one expects that a person that uses English as a second language will know all the nuances. We just appreciate your input. It is the people who can't use their first language that is so sad and irritating.
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@ Laurence-my African co-worker is an expert on the English language. He corrects me on who and whom! And is impatient with those of us speaks English as a first language and do not take the time to learn it properly.
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Permalink Reply by John L. Odom on
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Poor grammar and spelling is the result of sloppy lazy thought processes and indicate laziness. We do not tolerate lazy sloppy work on the fire scene, and should not tolerate it elsewhere. It is too widespread, indicative of problems in our whole society. Our local newspaper wrote me saying they would not publish any more letters from me that complained about grammar or or use of the inappropriate word!
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