Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this has nothing to do with this forum but it just struck me in a refreshingly way to see some herp forums from the UK where folks posting actually put together well written sentences. What's happened here in the U.S.? They really do put us to shame when it comes to writing well written, articulate sentences on reptile forums. I guess in today's OMG and utilization of strange short hand dialects that most young folks prescribe to but most older folks like me fail to understand, I just shake my head and wonder what's happening in our country. Oh well, just ranting and no need for a debate.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Grammar??? In the UK??? Where???

Even at University level, we have great difficulty in persuading students that there is a slight difference in writing style between a scientific essay and a phone text message. I doubt more than 30% realise that the second person pronoun is actually a three letter word spelled y-o-u, not just "u".

Cheers,

WW
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WW Home

Eh? Wot u mean Wolfgang?

C U L8er man

>>Eh? Wot u mean Wolfgang?
>>
>>C U L8er man

LOL! Nice one Al. I must admit that RAUK is a rare oasis of polite and civilised discourse - probably just about the best there is! But the more general herp forums are no better than the average trans-Atlantic ones.

Cheers,

Wolfgang

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WW Home

I must have stumbled on some sort of undeground grammar forum police herp forum. Oh well, nice to know things are not much better on the other side of the pond (my college students tend to write at about the 8th grade level...on a good day; unbelievable). Rob

>>Grammar??? In the UK??? Where???
>>
>>Even at University level, we have great difficulty in persuading students that there is a slight difference in writing style between a scientific essay and a phone text message. I doubt more than 30% realise that the second person pronoun is actually a three letter word spelled y-o-u, not just "u".
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>WW
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>> WW Home
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

>>I must have stumbled on some sort of undeground grammar forum police herp forum. Oh well, nice to know things are not much better on the other side of the pond (my college students tend to write at about the 8th grade level...on a good day; unbelievable). Rob
>

In our state high school students are required to perform a certain number of community service hours in order to be allowed to graduate. Our facility (educational/nature center) tends to be a popular place for teens to want to volunteer as for some unknown reason they seem to think that all they will have to do o is play with animals and goof off - not (they typically spend 36+ hours cleaning and cleaning, feeding, and oh yeah - more cleaning). Sadly, most of these kids can't even fill out a simple application in order to volunteer. Many (just to be legible) are filled out by the parent. It is surprising how many teens turn in applications they filled on their own and could not even spell their own names let alone their address correctly. Over the past couple of years, this problem has steadily gotten worse. For lack of a better term, these teens are functionally illiterate and I can't for the life of me figure out how they managed to make it into high school. If you can't read then it makes it difficult to impossible be able to write and schools no longer put any emphasis on reading or writing skills.
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PHWyvern

Rob, having taught as an adjunct freshman comp instructor for years, I can assure you that it's as bad as -- or worse than -- you suggest. Some have even used the term "post literate" to describe the video/internet age. However, don't give the Brits too much credit; in Europe, 80% or so of the public school student body is tracked onto a vocational rail fairly early on, while the remainder go on the college/university track. I suspect those are the folks you are seeing . . . the ones who can afford a computer. Quite a few of the rest are either not on lone at all or are almost entirely illiterate.

I agree with you Rob. I just joined a South African herp forum in search of info on Telescopus species and I noticed the same thing. In general, much more civil and grammatically correct.

Billy

>>I know this has nothing to do with this forum but it just struck me in a refreshingly way to see some herp forums from the UK where folks posting actually put together well written sentences. What's happened here in the U.S.? They really do put us to shame when it comes to writing well written, articulate sentences on reptile forums. I guess in today's OMG and utilization of strange short hand dialects that most young folks prescribe to but most older folks like me fail to understand, I just shake my head and wonder what's happening in our country. Oh well, just ranting and no need for a debate.
>>
>>Rob Carmichael, Curator
>>The Wildlife Discovery Center
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>>Rob Carmichael, Curator
>>The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
>>Lake Forest, IL

You know what is really sad is probably 75% of the advertisers on KS write "Paypal Excepted" in their ads! Does that mean they take anything except paypal? LOL One guy has been "breading boas" for 22 years. Thats a lot of bread crumbs for sure. Then there are some snakes that "breed last year" or "bread last year". Trades excepted too. But wait I saved the best one for last, the most popular word no one can spell is.....RESPONSE...... everyone writes responce...

"Definately" and "ect." are the two I see the most. When you can't spell an abbreviation, you should really lay off the Quervo.

that would be Cuervo rofl

Oops, can you tell I have not partaken in years? Lol.

That had me laughing as well. I had just finished reading quite a few posts with only a few minor grammatical errors, and I finish by seeing a misspelling on a drink that it not intended you speak English in the first place. I think there is actually a formula in tequila that forces people to speak broken Spanish : )

I certainly agree with the topic in general. However, I am not as frustrated by the use of internet short hand as I am by the use of purposeful misspellings with the same number (or in some cases, more) letters. There are also a few folks out there who have a condition that does not allow them to use punctuation. Don't blame the internet age on this one, my dad is guilty of it. The many years of having a secretary handle all of an executive's paperwork is the problem there.

Maybe I am old enough to have just missed this internet age, maybe I am a lackert, or maybe I am a moron as well, and I just don't know it!