written English

[Guest guest]

I have to laugh at the posts about written English skills. English teachers

can be some of the absolute worst about using no punctuation or

capitalization in email messages. What really strikes me as humorous

though, is the very people complaining here are using improper English

skills that would result in a failing grade for my students, such as

starting a sentence with the word and, or writing a one sentence

" paragraph " . One thing I have learned, though, is that you can miss a very

good message by getting too hung up in the mechanics of how it is written.

Some of the most brilliant minds produce some of the sloppiest mechanical

writing, but the ideas expressed are invaluable.

What annoys me are the journalists who start every sentence with, " He said, "

" ________ said, " or end them with the same phrase. Whatever happened to

mixing things up and varying your sentences so that it makes the reading

interesting? If I wrote a research paper using that kind of phrasing, my

professor would flunk me.

However, the true danger to proper English writing skills is the allowance

that some teachers make for letting a computer program, such as Word, do the

editing rather than requiring the students to know proper syntax, grammar,

and spelling. Also, we are beginning to see email and instant message

shorthand show up in formal writing at school as well as imitations of the

sloppy journalistic writing that students are seeing dailiy in magazines and

newspapers. I personally have begun giving two grades for each writing

assignment, one for the idea(s) expressed, and one for the mechanics of

proper English writing.

Beth

Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is

Liberty.