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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

grammar

Time to clean things up!

March 27, 2015

I’m going over there.

It’s a pretty simple statement, isn’t it?

I’m going over to their house.

That’s simple, too, right?

I’m going over to there house.

Does that become confusing to you? I hope so.

I’m going over their.

Yeah, hopefully if the first one didn’t get you, this one did.

In the age of digital and social media, the use of words seems to be coming to an end. It’s what I like to refer to as lazy writing. I’m sure you’ve seen it on all of your favorite Facebook posts.

R u comin over tonite? i’ll be their at 7. I cant believ there havin a party. See u l8tr.

If you’ve not been in a box, you’ve seen something like this on Facebook, or in a text, or on one of a zillion other social media sites.

And look, I’m not some perfect speller – far from it, in fact. When I was in high school and my early college days, before the onset of what we now have in this world, I was much better. But with spellcheck, I think everybody has something of a crutch.

That still doesn’t eliminate the misuse of words.

Their vs. There. Its vs. It’s. Your vs you’re. Heck, scratch it’s and just put “any word that requires an apostrophe.”

The thing that kills me most is when it goes beyond a personal e-mail or text. Such as when you get a professional e-mail and these types of items are in there. I realize spellcheck won’t pick up misuse of words, but when I typed this post in Word before transferring it to the blog, every grammatical error or misused word had a blue line underneath. That means something’s wrong.

Not every e-mail or word processing program probably does this, and I have a feeling it’s something one needs to turn on or off.

Where did we all go wrong?

Is it the lack of care of coming off in a professional manner?

I liken it to professional dress.

Look, I’m not a tie guy. I never have been. When I need to wear them, I do. But I don’t on a regular basis, and a lot of that is because I’m a vest guy. Wearing a tie under a vest doesn’t always make sense as you barely see it. If I didn’t wear vests, I’d probably be in a tie 80 percent of the time when it comes to work.

But one needs to “dress” the part. If you are a mechanic, you aren’t dressing business casual. But if you work in a corporate setting, suits might be necessary.

Where did that change?

A couple of years ago, when I was unemployed, I went to job fair that a local baseball camp put on. They hire about 700 seasonal employees for 13 weeks during the summer. This work covers all aspect of a camp, from maintenance, to customer service, to retail, to photography, to operations. So many things are covered.

Still, if you are going to the job fair, wouldn’t you want to go presentable?

This job fair is set up with tables throughout the room. You go to each one where you have interest and basically have an interview on the spot. So you might get there and decide to interview somewhere else.

When I went, I didn’t go full suit, but I did the tie and all that. I was shocked at how many people went in jeans, or shorts, or wind pants, as well as hoodies, or logo shirts. Heck, there was one guy walking around with a shirt that said “Why U mad, bro?”

Seriously.

There were hats, and piercings, and showing noticeable tattoos (note: to work at this place, all tattoos need to be covered), as well as people just looking unkempt.

And that seems to be the way we are going in society.

I have no issues with a “dress-down” approach. I truly believe that, sometimes, you need to dress a little more casual. I feel the same way with language. If I get a text that says “R u goin out later?” I don’t freak out. I don’t personally do it – but I can live with it.

In an e-mail, I get a little more irritated. In people’s Facebook posts? I move on and don’t read. I figure if you don’t care enough to make it readable, why should I read it?

And if it’s in a professional setting, it’s the worst possible scenario.

We all make mistakes when writing. I’ve done it and I’ll do it again. But basic grammar and spelling is very important in life. After all, there are people who watch and cringe at these things and their days will be better knowing things are correct!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Filed Under: My world Tagged With: grammar, spelling, testspeak, text speak, their vs there, writing

4 Comments

R u 4 real?

July 21, 2011

Ugh.

When I was an adjunct instructor at a local college, I detested when students used textspeak.

U. u’re. U R kewl. Y? Y r u 2 kewl?4 real!

Get the picture?

I got so annoyed with it that I gave something at the beginning of the semester for them to see how silly it can look when written.

There is something like 100 errors in this little “story,” that I wrote. But that also includes bad spacing, punctuation, spelling and capitalization as well as silly grammar mistakes.

I submit this wonder to you now:

So, r u ready to rite this semester?

this class will require alot of writing, so u need 2 come 2 class and pay attenshun.

Details r things u need 2 work on. remember that u r graded 4 every thing u hand in. this is u’re work and what u will be graded on.

so when i wuz reading the cyllabus i was so like u have got 2 be kiddin me. but i kno that i have 2 write in i will do it my way.

but OMG, remember that u have 2 write in english !

that means proper puncuation , spelling; n nething else. so nvm the crazy txt talk or IM with my freinds. That iz SO lame. but thats what I have 2 do i guess. lol.

btw, it wouldnt b good 2 put this off 4 2nite as if u hand this in i  b all like wtf n u will fail it 2moro. 🙂

See how silly that is?

The amazing part was how many items were picked out by the students. Even the smallest errors were figured out by someone. I loved it! I then, always, followed that up with noting that if these items were in a paper, it would be an automatic F. I wouldn’t tolerate it because it’s not an acceptable way of writing, especially in a college paper.

After we did a day or two of grammar, I gave a quiz. One of the questions is as follows:

What will happen if a student uses the following “words” in a story: u, r, 2, u’re, etc.

  1. points deducted
  2. Given a star for good work
  3. Fail the paper
  4. A high five

People actually got it wrong. Seriously.

Considering I didn’t teach a class this past semester, why do I bring this up now?

Because I’ve seen it more and more in posts on Facebook. On Twitter. On blogs.

Everywhere.

It’s ridiculous. Some of the people I’ve seen do it on Facebook are educated people. I don’t use these things anywhere. Not texting. Not on Twitter. Not on Facebook. I’ll use a “hahaha” or a smiley in an instant message, but it’s hard to convey how you feel or if you are laughing in other ways.

It’s lazy and it looks stupid.

Facebook is the worst offender. To a point, I can understand on Twitter with it being 144 or fewer characters. But even then… do more than one Tweet! Texts just make me scream. There are some reporters for big papers I follow who do it in Tweets, however, and it drives me nuts.

So, I’ll end with this — srsly ppl, think b4 u rite silly things n look all stoopid. That wuld b gr8. K thanx bye.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

 

 

Filed Under: My world Tagged With: bad grammar, bad writing, blog, blogging, blogs, facebook, grammar, instant messaging, internet shortcuts, texting, textspeak, twitter, writing

4 Comments

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