There’s a pattern to the amount of commercial vehicles attempting to gain access to a military base using the main gate. It’s written very plainly miles before and upon entrance to this gate “No commercial vehicles authorized. Please use xxxx gate.” As I eventually drove up to have my ID checked after once again waiting in line behind a semi-truck at the main gate, I made a joke about the sign. These are the responses I received –
1. English is a hard language. – no doubt
2. Readin’ is cheatin’ – please see #1
3. Reading is for the rich. I have no words.
In other news, at the time of this post, I’ll be in week two of my doctorate program. Week one was interesting.
I’m seriously amazed at the writing skills, ahem lack thereof, of my post-graduate classmates. Appalled would be a better description. Perhaps I should fear one of them reading this and being offended, but I’m not. As I’ve been out of school for 10 years there was concern I wouldn’t be able to do it. All the what ifs. What if I was so out of touch with technology I couldn’t navigate the sites? What if ideas don’t flow and I can’t write? Geez, if this class is the bar then I’m in space.
I wish this didn’t sound so selfish and self-absorbed. Probably should be ashamed now. But there are posts with bad grammar, misspellings, and an obvious lack of citations. Ramen Catholic Church anyone? Proofreading goes a long way in writing. Maybe they expected their word document to autocorrect like text. If I was the professor I’d cry.
You’re welcome, friends. These are the people who might, one day, spell checker-willing, be called doctor. Ugh. Help me.
______________________________________
I ask you –
Have you heard any of the phrases mentioned at the beginning of my post?
Did I go too far in pointing out my classmate’s misgivings? If so, I am sorry.
Ramen Catholic Church – I bet they have an abundance of seasoning packets.
(The post Excuse Me, Have You Heard of Grammerly? first appeared here at Running on Fumes.)
© 2022 Running on Fumes
Running on Fumes 
I criticize EVERYONE’S writing, so don’t feel bad. I worked on a group project final research paper for over eight hours before the deadline because the other three members of my group couldn’t write. Who takes bulleted notes and turns them into sentences without rewriting them?! Is the entire state of Rhode Island really an island partially surrounded by water?! Aaaaaahhhh! 😂
LikeLike
Hahahaha! Happy to hear it’s not just me. What happened to integrity and pride in one’s work?!
LikeLike
I blame text messaging. I’m probably old, but I refuse to write like an idiot even in text messages, lol. Proper punctuation, whole words, apostrophes, everything.
LikeLike
Funny you say this because I had the same conversation with someone yesterday. I don’t care how old I am – good grammar and etiquette are everlasting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
English is a hard language. That one I totally get and agree (as is the case with learning any new language, really) but not the other two at the beginning of your post. All of the people that seemingly have little if any grasp of proper spelling and grammar is astounding to me. I see things like “your welcome” all the time and just cringe.
LikeLike
My brain is constantly cringing!
LikeLike
1. Not those, but plenty more. I love the sign at the register in the old movie “Clerks”: “If you’re going to steal, please let us know.”
2. They deserve your wrath. Crazy thing? I worked with two guys–different generations different lines of work, that were functional illiterates…and these two dudes were among my favorite people to work with in the history of Larry. Smart dudes that weren’t book smart, and funny as hell.
3. Ramen Catholic Church sounds great. They probably would have awesome Lenten fish fry fundraiser events. Good fish, good Ramen, good times.
LikeLike
I can’t think of anything good to reply with here because you said it all!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Ramen Catholic Church sounds delicious.
I have my own issues with writing on WordPress and other forms of social media because I don’t proofread. For my college and grad school assignments, I proofread my documents multiple times.
I’ve notice your concerns in some of my college students. I think the increased use of text messaging has hindered many folks’ writing. Also, I do not think that essays are assigned too frequently in high school (of course, this depends on the school system). In my General Bio course, you should have seen the faces of the 1st year students when I mentioned that their first exam would include short answer questions. Quite a few students told me that they had only multiple choice quizzes and test throughout high school. Back in the day, I lived for short answer and essay questions because you could receive partial credit. Speaking of the Ramen Catholic Church. In one of my high school religion classes (I think History of the Catholic Church), we only had essay exams. I always received As because my teacher (or rather, his admin assistant) couldn’t read my handwriting and assumed that I knew the material if I could write 3 front and back pages on a topic in 45 minutes.
This could be hit or miss depending on the age of your classmates. However, I think these issues can be linked today’s ‘everyone gets a trophy’ mindset. I personally know some educators who give high marks because they do not feel like dealing with their students’ and/or parents’ complaints. As a side gig, I used to grade NYS State Regents exams. During orientation, we were told on multiple occasions to “find” points in the free response sections if a student failed, but was close to passing (eg between 50 – 59%).
I could go on forever, but I’ll stop here. Perhaps, I should write a blog entry about this topic.
LikeLike
You should absolutely write a whole post about these issues! Honestly I considered not saying anything – thought maybe I was too stuck up or had unreal expectations – but I’m not the only one who sees this.
It makes me sad and angry at the same time!
LikeLike
I hear you, sister! I started a doctoral program and then decided not to continue for a variety of reasons. Partly, I think it was because of the evident “dumbing down” of the material and the expectations. And then there was that masters level class I took one time, in which none of the students could figure out how to write their posts in third person. Except me, of course. 😦 I wish I knew the answer. I don’t know anything about your particular program, but I hope they will hold their standards high where it counts.
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment, Evelyn. It’s incredibly frustrating!
LikeLike