We Grammar Snobs Are Just So Mean! (article linked)

Status
Not open for further replies.

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 1, 2006
Messages
10,878
Reaction score
5,343
Location
Star to the right and straight on till morning.
A well meaning post, Cassiopeia, but we should see this in the broader context.

There are so few opportunities these days to mock people, so many ways in which mockery is prohibited, that we should use the few remaining acceptable ones while we still can. Just this morning I mocked a lorry driver for poor driving at a roundabout. I'm not stupid, I did it quietly, within the confines of my car, but mocked him not only for his lack of education, but for his questionable parentage, too. I will continue to defend my right to do so.

People who can't spell correctly are winkers.

Cheers,
Rob
oh.my.gosh. I'm supposed to be writing a paper right now for my Intro to Critical Theory in Lit and you aren't helping me be serious enough to approach it. Mock on! Live free! LOL.



Cassi, Dear you are too nice I think in this situation. I disagree. Public school is not only available to everyone in this country, it is a law that children attend. SO I don't buy the opportunity or lack of it argument. How much more must we level the playing field? We've already leveled it to the point that we bring down the students who are bright and/or care and try. LEveling it doesn't raise standards, it lowers them. Children rise the the expectations given to them. We should have high expectations. SO I have to diagree.
I think because of the late hour in which I posted that perhaps I haven't made myself as clear on this subject as I could have.

But first, let me address this business about public education. Yes it's is available to all and is the law. That doesn't mean that everyone's parents makes sure they go and some even prevent it. Some think they can home school their children when they actually aren't qualified to, though many can and others just don't agree with the government telling them what to do so they refuse to send their children or some are actually pulled out of school to go to work so their family can eat while slovenly lazy arsed parents sit at home drinking or doing drugs or even have other issues not of their own making.

There are people outside the scope of what we are talking about. Some who's culture is so strong it prohibits them until they older from breaking free.

I spent an entire month on a group project for a technical writing class and created an entire website dedicated to the issue of Aliteracy. For those unfamiliar with this term, it's those who are illiterate by choice. And they aren't just street kids or wannabe gangstas who do this. There's an entire industry dedicated to making user manuals with pictures only because we are too freaking lazy as a society to read them.

So, just so I'm clear...I'm not talking about any leveling of anything actually. I do have expectations of our educational system and society. I have high standards in fact. By all means someone wants to take a stand by not frequenting a business because it uses a quirky way to spell something, go right on ahead but being a "snob" isn't changing the problem. And that is what I am on about. That's being an elitist but not the right kind.

Snobs are ineffective in their approach. If there is indeed an approach other than to place themselves above others so they can sit and feel smug. So Sassy, I hardly think you are a snob.

PLEASE NOTE: The following is not directed at any one person. You is in the general term.

What I am talking about and yes, I was being too nice...is that I am sick and tired of people who have nothing better to do than point out the faults of others so they can feel better about themselves. They offer no viable solution to the problem they just want to bitch about how they are so much more grammatically correct, literate or smarter than someone else. AND they make no bones about doing it in a humiliating way so the other person is left feeling like shit.

Mocking others, is not an effective way to change anything. It is counterproductive and counter intuitive. If we are so intelligent then certainly we have the means to express our concerns without putting others down.

Hell yes! Let's hold the front lines for grammar accuracy and literacy. Let's keep those standards high. But let's make it appealing to be this way.

And let's be honest with ourselves, to what end do we make fun of others? What purpose does it serve? I can tell you from personal experience that the minute someone uses that condescending tone with me and I've watched the same reaction in others, it doesn't matter one bit if they might be right, I disregard them as complete and ignorant snobs with their heads so far up their ass they can't see the light of day.

Here's a little tidbit from Organization Communications 1010: It isn't what you say, it's how you say it that determines what message actually gets received. Want to be heard, present your message in a non offensive way and people listen. Make it exciting and interesting and you engage them. Offend them and they will never listen to you again because the minute you make it a personal attack, YOU lose credibility.

After all, literate people are meant to be articulate and capable of presenting their ideas without resorting to the demeaning and degradation of others
.
 

katiemac

Five by Five
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
11,521
Reaction score
1,661
Location
Yesterday
By the way, it's a thread about being a Grammar snob. Are you really getting uptight about it?

Thorpey says: use the scroll bar.

It's also a thread about grammar in a writing forum. Derailments of this nature are more readily accepted in Office Party. Thorpey says scroll bar. I say Landfill.
 
Last edited:

MacAllister

'Twas but a dream of thee
Staff member
Boss Mare
Administrator
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
22,009
Reaction score
10,702
Location
Out on a limb
Website
macallisterstone.com
I say Landfill, too.

I also say knock off the derailing crap - it's getting really old.
 

C.bronco

I have plans...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
8,015
Reaction score
3,137
Location
Junior Nation
Website
cynthia-bronco.blogspot.com
Proper grammar ensures that the reader will understand exactly what the writer is saying. I am paid to share this with others! Few know how to use a semi-colon; I can show what a semi-colon is for, baby!

The inability to express a thought clearly can lead to misunderstanding and dismay. I do believe that grammar is important. It is not all that difficult, but it is essential.
 

KikiteNeko

.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
2,380
Reaction score
1,615
Proper grammar ensures that the reader will understand exactly what the writer is saying. I am paid to share this with others! Few know how to use a semi-colon; I can show what a semi-colon is for, baby!

When I was tutoring students in my school's writing center, I would always explain a semicolon as simply "a period and a comma at the same time." It ends one thought and begins another; however the thought is being continued in the next sentence, and the first word is not capitalized.
 

semilargeintestine

BassGirl 5000
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
4,763
Reaction score
1,034
It's also a thread about grammar in a writing forum. Derailments of this nature are more readily accepted in Office Party. Thorpey says scroll bar. I say Landfill.

Or just ignore the posts you don't want to read. The thread is derailed far more by a bunch of people crying out about a couple of off-topic posts (because there are never any of those) than if the couple of posts were just left alone to run their course. The matter would have been dropped a long time ago. It wasn't the steering back on course that bothered me, it was the obvious attitude.

But anyway, my girlfriend is an English teacher, and she is another one perpetuating the preposition rule. She tells me all the time about the deplorable state of grammar in high school, and if the rules aren't short and simple, the kids just won't listen. She knows it's not technically correct, but it's better to keep them speaking somewhat properly with a slight misunderstanding of the rules than to speak and write like morons.

I love semicolons by the way. I use them all the time, and I think more people should. A lot of people in my classes are unsure of when they should be used, and these are upper division English courses.
 

sassandgroove

Sassy haircut
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
12,562
Reaction score
5,327
Age
47
Location
Alabama -my home sweet home.
I saw a birthday card yesterday with two women on the cover. One said, "where is your birthday party at?" The other replied, "Don't end a sentence with a preposition." Inside the first one says, "OK, where is your birthday party at, BITCH." I thought it was funny especially in light of this thread.
 

ideagirl

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
1,039
Reaction score
143
I saw a birthday card yesterday with two women on the cover. One said, "where is your birthday party at?" The other replied, "Don't end a sentence with a preposition." Inside the first one says, "OK, where is your birthday party at, BITCH." I thought it was funny especially in light of this thread.

I've seen that one. Hahahaha. :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.