Geezer Prose

[rejectomorph]

Every time I read the message boards at Classmates, I am struck by how poorly most of my contemporaries write. Now, every time I read an article about how bad the schools have become, I think about those message boards. Most of the people posting on one particular thread I've been following graduated from high school between 1952 and 1978, and their writing is almost universally wretched. Grammar, spelling, syntax, punctuation-- it's all one huge disaster. LJ is full of kids who can write better than most of these geezers and near-geezers. Yes, I know that the scores on certain standardized tests have been declining for years, but I suspect that this is because they used to test a smaller percentage of students than they do now. If this is not the case, and kids now actually are less literate than my contemporaries, all I can say is abandon all hope! Civilization is doomed! Grrr. I just want to go through that whole web site with the digital equivalent of a red pencil!

While I was there tonight, I came across a post which mentioned a store which was across the street from my intermediate school. I suddenly felt one of those mushy nostalgic journal entries coming on, so I got out of there. Still, the image of the place is stuck in my mind now, so I'll probably end up writing about it soon. Luckily, there isn't enough time tonight. You are spared, for a while.

I do want to post a couple of pictures, though. So far, none of my picture posts have been replaced by a little red "x", so I am compelled to further test my bandwidth allowance by posting two pictures at once. These were taken a couple of weeks ago, in a field about half a mile from my house. This is not the best time of year to be taking pictures in this particular location in the late afternoon, because the sun is low and the best views are to the southwest. Thus, there is lens flare (filters are not available for point-and-shoot cameras, as far as I know.) Since I took the pictures on a bright, cloudy day when a rainstorm was ending, I just pretend that the lens flare is a rainbow. Again, cut because of their size.




Summerwood Meadow After the Rain


Storm Clouds Breaking Above Summerwood Meadow


Now, there is a blue-grey twilight heralding dawn. I think we may be in for another grey day. Might we hope for just a little more rain? I don't know. I'm going to be sleeping through most of it, anyway.

Comments

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

ooo. beautiful images.

I just want to go through that whole web site with the digital equivalent of a red pencil!

You know, I used to feel the same way. I was very good at making sure everything I wrote was complete in it's punctuation, grammar, spelling, train of thought. I work for a newspaper, for god's sake.

But then, I realized that the coveying the message meant so much more to me, than the superficial stuff of punctuation and spelling ... and even some grammar. I feel much freer because of it. Another rule I've tossed out of my life, only to be picked back up when really needed.

This is no knock to your opinion. Just sharing.

Peace.

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

"it's punctuation".

yes, it is.

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

I believe that period should be inside the quotation mark.

Re:

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

I'll put it in there if you take the apostrophe out.

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

i already did, but you can't see that i did.

so quit squawkin'.

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

Bah! I still see it, throbbing in the sentence like some form of grammar zit!

[rejectomorph]

Comments cannot be edited. THE THROBBING GRAMMAR ZIT IS THERE FOREVER!

Re:

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

Aieeee!

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

oh, jeez ... can't you just let up on this one?

there surly have been many others ... :)

Re:

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

you mean like surly vs. surely?

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

i did that one on purpose. :D

btw, i had something really good to say about grammar, spelling ... something ... but now have forgotten.

my brain is going, going, goooooonnnnnnnnnneeeeeee.

damn. what was it? double damn. damn. damn.

Re:

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

I was fairly sur that you had done that on purepose.

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

i was totally lying. :D

thanks for straightening me out on the spelling of surely.

;^}

Re:

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

That's the kind of thing a spell checker can't catch.

Oy, this English with these crazy rules!

[rejectomorph]

Actually, when a fragment is quoted for reference, I believe that one is supposed to use an ellipsis at each end, thus:

"...it's punctuation...."

Re: Oy, this English with these crazy rules!

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

Why, yes, of course. How could I be so neglectful?

[rejectomorph]

I'm certainly not a paragon of grammatical virtues, myself, and I don't think I hold everyone to an impossible standard. I'd certainly agree that expression is more important than the mechanical details of writing, but some of the writing I've seen, particularly on the Classmates message board, is so bad that expression gets lost in the wilderness that is the author's appalling prose. I cut casual writers a lot of slack, and not only since I've needed it myself on many occasions, but there is a point of diminishing returns on literary license. Too many people posting on the Internet are past that point.

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

sure. I understand what you're saying.

And as you say, I don't see it heading in a fixable direction. The language is surly evolving much faster today than prior to the internet. It will continue.

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

wut due u meen?

[rejectomorph]

Eye m33n F33R ME! F33R the R4TH 0f teh R3D P3NC1L G33K!

Re:

[leprosy.livejournal.com]

1 4m fux0red!!

The teachers in schools graduated in the time-frame you mentioned

[marseille.livejournal.com]

Schools have teachers who can't spell or speak proper English. Politicians mix their metaphors horribly, changing or losing the meaning of the idiom they try to use. Prolific isn't a synonym for good. Presidents, newscasters and executives say there's instead of there are. When was the last time someone used imply and infer correctly? Some of us even get carried away using italics. Why is everyone saying folks instead of people? Is George Bush really the person we want influencing our speech?
If young people do learn to speak and write well, it's from reading, or from listening to people who speak well. Even if they start out at a disadvantage, they can take the trouble to learn.
Forgive my listing of the errors that bother me the most!

Re: The teachers in schools graduated in the time-frame you mentioned

[rejectomorph]

Have people been using prolific as a synonym for good? I haven't heard anyone do so, but I'm not surprised. I avoid most television and radio, and I think the standards are less debased in written language than in spoken language. Still, even daily newspapers are more likely to contain errors than they once were. I don't think this is the result of a decline in educational standards, though. It is the result of cost cutting measures which have resulted in the disappearance of copy editors. Writers at most newspapers now send their copy directly from the computer to the composing room, and never even learn what mistakes they repeatedly make.

It's true that the current crop of students suffer from teachers of my generation who never learned to use language accurately, but those teachers had teachers from earlier generations who weren't all that good themselves. (Somebody was responsible for teaching Dubya.) My point is that the standards of schools probably haven't declined. They have probably always been low, but in the past the schools had the luxury of being able to discard the least successful students (unless those students had influential fathers, of course), or simply didn't test them, which led to higher average and median scores than are the norm now that almost everyone is being tested. In short, I don't buy the legend of a golden age of American education which has been lost due to (insert reason here.)

Re: The teachers in schools graduated in the time-frame you mentioned

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

what's wrong with saying folks?

and i don't believe i've ever heard nor read the word prolific used as a synonym for good. can't you think of an example?

thanks. :)

prolific

[marseille.livejournal.com]

I think they probably confused prolific with profound. "Wow, that was prolific."
Current use of "folks" all over the place seems weird. For years, it didn't get used unless in a phrase like "just plain folks," "my folks," "the folks back home." Suddenly it was used constantly, and Bush's first grating use was "the folks who did this," referring to the hijackers on 9/11. Just too much indiscriminate use, I guess.

Re: prolific

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

egads. i guess i've follow victim to the overuse of folks. and it seemed so independent of mainstream. i've been brainwashed just like everyone else.

regarding the use of prolific: that's quite scarey. thank goodness, i haven't encountered it ... yet.

The more things change, the more they stay the same?

[marseille.livejournal.com]

Having heard people say, "he's a prolific writer," some people apparently assumed that meant good. I hear people use it that way fairly often, just as they use "pervasive" for bad.
The latter is a favorite of local politicians. "It's just pervasive."
Politicians have always been a source of hysterical quotes. There used to be a column in the Schenectady Gazette (NY State) largely devoted to the weird pronouncements of Mayor Duci. Sadly, he was succeeded by a man who is obsessed with eliminating strip joints, Schenectady's main industry.

Re: The more things change, the more they stay the same?

[lost-tumbleweed.livejournal.com]

whoa. pervasive for bad. wow.