Priorities

[ladysprite]

I received a vivid example today of just exactly how I differ from my coworkers. I should have realized this before - I read books, they read package inserts. They minored in Chemistry or French, I minored in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. But while those things give me an intellectual understanding, they don't quite drive the point home on a visceral level.

Our practice is part of a mentoring program with the local high school - students interested in learning more about animal care professions can apply to spend time shadowing the doctors, for class credit. Among other things, the potential students have to send in a little essay about what their interests are, and how they came to be interested, and suchlike.

We all passed the essays around and read them. The other doctors pointed out particularly cheerful bits of naivete and optimism. I pointed out run-on sentences. They cheered at personal anecdotes. I nearly gave myself hiccups when I found that one student ended a sentence with both a question mark and a period. They marveled at the student's interest, I marveled at the fact that, at some point in the essay, they all used the *SAME* *EXACT* *SENTENCE* to portray that interest. Funny, that....

They said that the students all seemed like fine prospects. I said that none of them should have been allowed out of eighth grade. They said I was too picky, and that this wasn't about little things like grammar.

I suppose I should feel old, but this goes beyond age. I feel archaic. And frustrated, and mildly tinged with concern at the thought of a world where grammar *is* a 'little thing.' I should probably start brushing up on my slang....

Comments

[tpau]

such is the reality of a high school education these days...

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Haunt thee the used book stores until you find a copy of

Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and Its Decline
by John Simon

I think you will love this book as much as I do.

Love,
-R

[mrpsyklops.livejournal.com]

I work in a field that is dependent on the ability of staff members to write clearly and well. An effective grant proposal requires a simple, understandable story of how the funds will be used and what the agency will accomplish. Community development partially depends on placing information and articles in newspapers, magazines, and on the 'Net. Yet when I interview for open positions, I frequently receive cover letters and resumes from college graduates (and even from individuals with graduate degrees) that are poorly written, or incoherent, or contain grammatical errors. Spell checking *has* cut down on the spelling errors....

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Hey, baby, is this guy bothering you? I can spell "onomatopoeia".

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I know JUST what you mean. One of the many things that delighted me yesterday was discussing the theory of science with a teacher; that SO would not have happened at my last job.

Just because you find yourself in the minority there so doesn't mean you're wrong.

A.

[mrpsyklops.livejournal.com]

I really like the line "Just because you find yourself in a minority *so* doesn't mean you're wrong." I think you have just put one of my current operating aphorisms into words! (g) Thanks!

My intention in the edits I made is to generalize and emphasize the message. Do you mind if I steal the edited line, if I still credit it to you?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*blush* I'm flattered. :) Go right ahead and make it your own. :)

A.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

After 15 years of reading college-student writing at five different institutions, I am delighted whenever I see forceful, lucid writing. I have no illusion that there was ever a Golden Age of College Student Skills, but I yearn for just a little more skillful writing. I still hope to add a writing-skills tutorial to go beside my existing lemonade plagiarism tutorial (http://www.coedu.usf.edu/~dorn/Tutorials/plagiarism/plagiarism.htm) (guess why it's called a "lemonade" tutorial). But I have yet to find the time in the last year.

Oh—if you ever wish to see birds of prey in an urban setting, come to Florida. There are vultures galore in every city on the peninsula, year-round.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

The Lemonade Plagiarism Tutorial is just lovely. :)

This bit brought tears to my eyes, because in school I wrote well and am someone who some people don't expect to write well, so there were a couple of times I had to prove I hadn't plagiarized. Once a teacher thought I had plagiarized *myself* (we had to hand in our drafts, and she remembered a turn of phrase from the draft but misremembered that I had written it). It was very fair of you to include that; thank you.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'd have done the same thing you did.

I write in my day job, and I write on the weekends in my radio news job. In the latter I often see horrible writing.