Grammar Matters
“People are judged everyday by their grammar.” suggests Lynne Truss, the bestseller of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance approach to Punctuation. People are downgraded in the workforce or just in school if someone uses incorrect grammar. In spite of critics, grammar is critical to learn in school. Even though Brock Haussamen says grammar isn’t important, Mignon Fogarty, Douglas Rushkoff, Lynne Truss, and Kyle Wiens think otherwise. First, Haussamen believes that writing skills don’t show everything about a person when he states, “ A weak writer is not necessarily a weak reader.” (Haussamen) Kyle Wiens, the CEO of Fixit thinks otherwise, “Grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English.... I've found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing--like stocking shelves or labeling parts” (Wiens). A person who make fewer grammar mistakes are more
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“Some public schools teach that grammar is unimportant compared with “expressing yourself” but people are judged everyday on their grammar” (Truss). In reality how can students express themselves without grammar? Grammar is so important and people are judged everyday by grammar. Odds are that person can’t express his or her self because their grammar is so poor. “While it might be stylish in certain quarters to ignore the rules of standard usage, grammar matters elsewhere” ( Fogarty). While texting friends it might be okay to use poor grammar, but if a adult or student is posting something on social media, the whole world can see it! “Everyday, people like us see and hear errors that needn’t be made: In pop songs and movie titles, in television, newscasts, and movie titles” (Fogarty). People see and hear errors that shouldn’t be made. Grammatical errors take away from the main point of writing and
Some teachers, when it comes to a child’s writing, do not want to make a child feel like what they wrote is wrong. Goldstein points out that teens today struggle more on college essays and in college because they are not taught correct grammar. Kathleen Sokolowski said that she went to Catholic school and grammar was a major element in her studies. I went to Catholic school as well and it was the same way. I knew others that were in public schools that did not learn grammar like I
I do not totally agree, nor do I totally disagree, with the point about grammar that Kyle Wiens’ argues in his article. As an employer, Wiens has the right to make any of his potential employees write a grammar test and deny jobs to those with poor grammar. In my own experience, I notice that people who have poor grammar skills tend to be less meticulous in their work, just as Wiens suggests in the article. Good grammar is virtually paramount for businesses such as the ones owned by Wiens, which are heavily language based. As well, especially in the new millennium, quality workers and employees are becoming increasingly harder to find among the expanding, figurative sea of qualified post-secondary graduates. Thus, I agree with Wiens’ policy of making all of his potential employees write a grammar test. His policy seems like an effective way of determining the best possible people to hire.
According to Kyle Wiens, a person must be able to know proper grammar in order to stock shelves or labeling parts (Wiens, p. 500). Wiens is a businessman and writer who is also the founder of iFixit and Dozuki (Wiens, p. 499). He provides an abundance of claims stating why he doesn’t hire people with bad grammar. These claims include good grammar makes a good business and reduces overall mistakes at the workplace (p.500). While reading this essay, I wasn’t moved by his statements and claims that job-seekers must be proficient in grammar for their resume to be a valid applicant. By simply relating his opinions to statistical and factual information, he could’ve easily made me believe he is a credible source. Wiens lacks a credible stance in
To ensure that formal written language is preserved, a clear distinction must be made between formal writing and texting. Students -as well as adults- must also be given sufficient practice in both areas if they are to clearly communicate their thoughts to others through either means. As quoted from Nicole Wood and Becky Wang in their presentation “Is Texting Killing the English Language”, “the most common misuses by students are ... using only the letter ‘u’ … [and] using the letter ‘r’...” These errors in formal essays are often -and in most cases- caused by confusion of the distinction between texting and formal writing, leading to an overlap between the two. The value of formal written language is its ability to clearly and distinctly communicate one’s ideas to another -and because of its overall consistency regardless of time- even those in the future. Texting, in some cases however, loses this ability to clearly communicate thoughts and ideas, and exclusively texting at home could lead to a decline in one’s ability to clearly communicate with others through writing.
In the article by Kyle Wein “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why.” explains reasons as to why the owner of a business only hires educated, employees. If someone cannot tell the difference between simple words such as there, their, and they’re, the manager will not hire that applicant. That’s not the only thing Wein looks for in an employee. He is looking for smart, educated, employees who use good grammar. “Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet.” Grammar is important no matter what the job is. According to the author, without good use of grammar you will not have a job. Without a job you will have no money, no satisfaction, and/or
We’ve all heard the saying “never judge a book by its cover”, but let us be genuine for a second no matter how hard we try we still make judgments about every person we have met. The way they look, dress, hairstyle, and even the way they talk or write. It gives us an idea of how that person carries him or herself. We all know proper English exists so why do we purposely butcher the English language? The words you choose say something about you; are you intelligent or uneducated. The proposal at De Anza College to let students use improper English in their writing assignments is something that should not be passed. Although texting is changing the English language, disregarding Standard English in an academic setting is not a great idea, since everyone needs to understand how to speak English correctly in order to succeed.
There are many reasons why good grammar is important at work. First of all, if an applicant has bad grammar, then he or she may not even get hired in the first place. Kyle Weins, CEO of ifixit, said in his “Harvard Business Review article” that he won’t even hire applicants who have bad grammar; his company has an English test that all applicants must take. Many other companies also have English tests in the hiring process. He also said that good grammar skills show how serious someone is about they’re work; someone with lazy grammar looks like a lazy worker. Plus, good grammar makes people look smarter; someone with a wide vocabulary and great grammar would do a better job impressing a client (Weins ). In her Frobes article, Susan Adams listed the reasons why she thinks good grammar at work is important. She says that good grammar show that an employee knows when to use context appropriate language. It also shows respect to the person they’re talking to and finally it shows that they’re organized people. Employers value an organized employee because they more dependable (Adams).
According to the Susan Adams and Kyle Wiens article writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Grammar helps people look very intelligent towards life, (Adams). It shows you how to organize your resume for a job, (Adams). The poor grammar shows sloppiness toward an essay or interview for jobs, (Adams). The writer’s integrity determines your reputation, (Adams). Always be serious about your subject matter, (Adams). One rule is to listen and pay attention to others, (Adams). They need to have respect for your readers because it shows that you are thinking about the topic and making an effort, (Adams). Grammar errors make people look unintelligent, (Wiens). People judge a person based on their grammar, (Wiens). Good grammar is credibility because of blog posts, Facebook status, and e-mails, (Wiens). Paints the picture of an employee that need to tell a good report of whom, or what was doing at the job, (Wiens). A person attitude can reflect on the company, business, and agency, (Wiens).
Text messaging is a technology that contributes to the great decline of the English language. The English language is often butchered through the use of text messaging. In Orwell’s essay, he states “An effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form” (446). Main stream society is too lazy to correct any grammar and punctuation in a text message, leading to the assumption that it is not important, after all it is only a text message. Thus, this shows the English language is in decline, when society is to lazy to take a few extra second to correct spelling and punctuation errors . One would not be able to write the same way in an academic essay as they would in a text message. If one would do so, that student would receive an F. No English teacher, or for that matter any teacher, would be thrilled nor impressed reading an essay filled with these common texting erors.
In fact, all education depends on a foundation of good grammar, for this reason, if students cannot understand grammar, they will struggle to develop and use the language as well as native speakers do without any formal grammar training can speak well-formed English sentences and can make grammatical judgments about English sentences. As Chomsky (1972) points out, “a person who knows a language has mastered a system of rules that assigns sound and meaning in a definite way for an infinite class of sentences". Of course, the person who knows the language has neither consciousness domain about these rules nor formal use to put them together in a
In the sources that I found about text message and teen literacy, it showed and also informed me on how teens take the next talk to the classrooms in schools and how it creates bad grammar among themselves. During my research I found out that many kids and kids use shorthanded text and it affects their literacy in so many ways. We as teens don’t think that our findings will benefit anyone unless they want to have a short knowledge in grammar. As teens we don’t really see how doing something wrong can harm us. Such as texting shorthanded, and with silly faces. It affects our literacy by not knowing how to correctly punctuate their words, grammar and speaking. In the research that I looked up, that teens send about one thousand eight hundred
When this is fulfilled, grammar and syntax will become less important for the reader, as they are not the core of what language is. Clear and Concise writing is important because this is the only type of writing that will keep the reader’s attention. In Orwell’s essay, he states, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” (Orwell?). This corruption can take place in many ways for the reader.
So it's so detrimental when someone doesn't practice felicitous grammar because it gives that person the appearance of being uneducated. People will be less liable to heedfully auricularly discern a person if they believe they are not earnest and the utilization of felicitous grammar can very much avail a person in availing them to be professional. Proper grammar is important for many
In grade school I was taught very little grammar. I can think all the way back to Elementary school and I have vivid memories of being taught how to read and write. In fact, the “Letter People” were my idols for a solid three years. However, I have almost no recollection of being taught much grammar at all. I recall some lessons about capitalization
Using Effective Methods to Teach Grammar to the Adult ESL Learners Language is one of the fundamental traits distinguishing human beings from the lower orders of life on earth. Most people agree that the ability of language use has helped mankind to climb the evolutionary ladder; therefore, language use is an essential component to people's life in society. Grammar is a part of language and it plays an important role in language use. According to Weaver (1979: 3), the study of grammar will not only help people become better language users, but also effective listeners, speakers, readers, and writers. As a result, grammar has a traditionally central role in language teaching.