Poorly educated or just lazy?

[Lady tehMa]

I am a Grammar Purist. I believe that the rules of grammar are there to be followed, and some of the more egregious errors which haunt society are I believe pure laziness (you're/your, their/there/they're) - if you haven't got these by grade 6, why not?

Occasional misspellings will happen to anyone, including those of us who value the English language. I'm talking of chronic misuse. I'm talking about people who ignore the red underlining which indicates a misspelled word because they just don't care.

As for my mechanic, he is constantly busy, constantly upgrading and has the necessary skills to do so because he does have his grammar down. He cares enough to learn what he needs to in order to be better at what he does. Basic grammar is vital to that end.

My husband is an electrician, and a good one. He is also dyslexic. When he needs to write a document that is clear and coherent, he will call me in to help. There are occasions where one can't help but make mistakes, but there is also support too. Suppose you don't have someone conversant with the English language and you need to write a coherent document. What to do? Online support is actually available for those who need it. If you use Chrome, Grammarly has a free app https://www.grammarly.com/nonchrome?&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GrammarlyBlogNL&utm_content=BlogWelcome&utm_source=GrammarlyBlogNL to assist you in you endeavours.

I am not actually as good with grammar as I would like to be. I have, however, learned the basics and learned them well. And I learned them in school. There are many who are far above me in the ability to use grammar well, for example, my favourite authors. Some who attend higher schooling (although some others who attend higher schooling seem to choose to use grammar to obfuscate rather than enlighten - a pet peeve of mine) and some who just enjoy the ability to be clearly understood (especially older folk who learned far more in school than we ever have on this particular topic).

The English language is like a toolbox. Those who take the time to learn and use the different tools are capable of clear and coherent exchange of information. Some choose only to learn the hammer and nail approach, while others become true craftsmen. I value understanding. Understanding comes through the exchange of information. If the information exchanged is lacking or unclear, the purpose of language is defeated.

[Smurf]

Gixxer wrote:

If not is the mechanic that could repair it poorly educated, or just lazy?

Why would you indicate that the mechanic would be lazy, poorly educated or have poor grammar. I know many mechanics who were excellent mechanics, welders, machinists and were also excellent at all the things above. There were a large number of them working on our sites at any time, some with licences in all those trades. I've seen them at night in camp doing the New York Times crossword puzzles and they wrote excellent reports for work. They would have been absolutely insulted by someone making such a statement. I worked with an electrician who had severe dyslexia. Although it was difficult he wrote some of the best reports i have ever read. He went on to be a supervisor at quite a young age and worked with paper much of the time.

I will say it again, I believe much, most of the problem is lazy.

[Gixxer]

Smurf it wasn't a statement, but a question. Thus the question mark at the end.

I'm only using a mechanic as an example. I'm not labeling all mechanics as being poorly educated or just lazy.

[jimmy4321]

Some people just ace certain subjects and skills that they're interested in.
I think it's more important that people find professions that make use of their assets.

[LANDM]

People will have poor language skills or not. It begins with a lack of education but, if they choose not to improve, then they are lazy.
Occasional mistakes are always going to creep in because of the darned autocorrect that most mobile devices use. When I am too lazy to proofread what I write, those mistakes will pop up.
What I do not understand is the refusal to correct a mistake.
There is a Facebook group called "you know your from Kelowna", and the vehemence exhibited, when someone suggested that it be corrected, was incredible. It has survived with the wrong use of your/you're for at least a couple of years and every time I read it, there is an involuntary shudder of revulsion at the refusal to use correct grammar, even when known and pointed out.

What some people wear as a badge of honour is beyond me.

[I Think]

Gixxer writes;

If the engine in your car blew up today would you be able to repair it yourself?

Not many of todays "mechanics could repair a blown engine, (eg broken piston), most of them are just parts swappers, many (but not all) are weak at English as well.

[Smurf]

When I was a supervisor and when I owned my own company proper use of the English language and proper written grammar were both things I/we looked for. If someone had a specific problem that was easily overlooked but if they were just too lazy to care I took that as a trait and it definitely went against them getting employment. I am sure many business's are the same.

[Gixxer]

That's too bad Smurf that you would judge someone because of poor grammar skills. I know some great motivated unlazy people/workers that have poor grammar, and I know some with great grammar, but are very lazy, or unmotivated.

[jamapple]

When I was a supervisor and when I owned my own company proper use of the English language and proper written grammar were both things I/we looked for. If someone had a specific problem that was easily overlooked but if they were just too lazy to care I took that as a trait and it definitely went against them getting employment. I am sure many business's are the same.

When I was a supervisor, and owned my own company, proper use of the english language, and proper written grammar were two things I/we looked for. If someone had a specific problem that was easily overlooked, but were just too lazy to care, I took that as a trait, and it definately went against them getting employment. I am sure many businesses are the same.

Not to rile you up, my friend, just want to point out that based on this post, you wouldn't hire yourself.

[Smurf]

Gixxer did you even read what I said.

If someone had a specific problem that was easily overlooked but if they were just too lazy to care I took that as a trait

I/we were willing to overlook good reasons, but without good reason I did and still do consider it lazy and would definitely judge someone by it. Lets say I was hiring a young person to run the till, pump gas etc., basically very boring jobs. It got even more boring when they had to clean the lot, clean floors and stock shelves. I wanted a motivated person who would do those jobs on their own without supervision. In my mind if someone can't take the time to learn good grammar etc, they probably won't take the time to do those jobs properly. I had that proven to me more than once. I even saw good electricians that were too lazy to clean up after themselves. I did not need people like that on my crews. Good grammar, cleanliness, neatness were all traits we looked for when hiring. These people were representatives of our business.

[Smurf]

Jamapple wrote:

Not to rile you up, my friend, just want to point out that based on this post, you wouldn't hire yourself.

Probably wouldn't any more because as I said earlier, I make lots of mistakes. I have let myself slip badly since I retired 15 years ago. No excuse, I am lazy and getting worse everyday. I used to have excellent handwriting, but as of late I can hardly read it.

[jamapple]

Join the club!! I hear you. There are levels of acceptable grammar, and the majority of us fall in there. Then there are ones who don't use Upper case to start a sentence, zero punctuation, lower case proper nouns, etc. Just one big, long run on sentence!That to me is chilling. We are not perfect, but if your grammar is really that bad, get some help with it so when you write on public forums, you come across as a little more educated.
(not referring to you, smurf). I think we all know who I'm talking about.

[Mama]

some of the more egregious errors which haunt society are I believe pure laziness (you're/your, their/there/they're) - if you haven't got these by grade 6, why not?

I agree. I am not talking about the slips and shortcuts we all tend to make. I am talking about the fact that there are just so many people that don`t seem to know the difference.... I see teens writing No instead of Know. I hear adults saying they " really like them nachos" and my pet peeve is people that say " Me and Jimmy " not Jimmy and I. These are basics that we learn in elementary school. I understand strengths and weaknesses, and moving in the directions that you excel at, but can there really be THAT many kids out there that couldn't get the basics of a handful of words before high school?

[Smurf]

I also don't think computers, Ipods, Ipads, smartphones etc. help. People just type indiscriminately. Get the message out who cares what it looks like. I know I can be guilty of that some times. I hit submit and look back at it and say to myself "did I actually write that?"

[I Think]

Why dunt youse lot talk proper like wat I does!