Almost 40 per cent of 11-year-olds fail to reach the writing standards set by secondary schools. Is it any wonder, when many teachers would struggle too?
By Steve McCormack
How many times have we heard people ask why teachers don't teach our children grammar and punctuation any more? The answer may be as simple as it is shocking. They don't teach it because they don't understand it themselves. Put less sensationally, a substantial chunk of school teachers have such a shaky grasp of basic grammar that, at best, they fail to notice and correct their pupils' mistakes, and at worst they pass on their misconceptions. The most frequent way this comes to the surface is when teachers write reports. Most schools have had to put in place an elaborate checking and approval system, to try to ensure that the worst howlers do not get sent home. This sucks in hours of time, and often causes upset, when well-meaning teachers have to be told their reports are littered with mistakes.
Ref. https://education.independent.co.uk/schools...sp?story=645257
I do think that my grammar is very good. Not perfect, by any means, but good enough to clearly make my thoughts understandable.
It is extremely difficult to really measure a persons grammatical ability, as the rules have slowly changed over time. Some rules, for instance, don't make much sense at all. For example, one teacher I had in school would take points off of any paper where contractions were used in any way. She would also correct anyone who used contractions in their speech.
However, that rule is overridden by the simple fact that the LACK of use of contractions can make a person's writing and/or speech sound stilted and excessively formal.
My grammar is not very good. I know that I make allot of grammatical errors when I write. Its not a case of sentence structure as much as it is punctation. My teachers tried all my life to correct my grammar problems. I could pass english grammar tests, but when I start writing, anything past basic grammar is a wash, even to this day.
Grammar is secondary to communication in my book. I hate ending sentences with prepositions, but I would never say, "This is something up with which I shall not be putting!" It is important to know the rules in order to consciously break them for a reason. I can't say my grammatical mind is impeccable, but I can say that I usually realize my errors before anybody else does.
I'm not perfect with grammar (I'm better with spelling, of course), but I think I have a better handle on it than most people. It annoys me to no end to have newsletters sent home with my daughter from her Master's Degree-holding teacher that are fraught with mistakes! It's so tempting to blue-pencil it and send it back, but I fear it would cause problems with my daughter's standing in class -- and, frankly, it seems petty. However, as the article states, how can these teachers teach my daughter if they don't understand it and use it correctly themselves?
After writing and viewing thousands of posts both on this Forum and others I can honestly say that using good grammar and spelling is the best thing to happen on the net, especially within this Community. Communication should be just that - communicating - between the writer and reader, but some people do not see it this way, they are lazy and think that if they place hieroglyphics for you to read then you should be smart enough to have some way of deciphering it. For me, such badly written pieces of blob not only gives a low grade to the person's thoughts, but I simply do not even bother to pay attention to them (in many cases I even delete their membership here immediately).
As for me, I am no expert in either field and many times I catch my mistakes after the fact, but one thing is for sure, once I see it, I correct it as I want what is being said to be taken seriously. I have even been known to edit and edit again my posts to get the correct wording applicable to what I am trying to communicate.
Grammer is vry importent win righting. Nuttin bugz me more thn to c sum1 use bad grammer.
One of my biggest pet peeves is trying to have a discussion with a person and they use all of these little terms that have come from internet slang. It becomes especially problematic when they are trying to convence me of a certain point of view, but they use abbreviations and cut corners. To me, if a person is passionate about a situation or occurance, then they are willing to approach with a more professional attitude. When somebody does not take any pride in how they are writing out their opinion, it sends me the message that they really don't hold much respect for what they are writing about.
I am certainly no grammar expert, but I have always had a higher understanding of it than most of my peers. I was always the little English dweeb that everybody brought their papers to for editting. Once upon a time I was going to be an English teacher, but realized I don't particularly like working with teenagers on an academic level.