Nothing to loose

Two people who share my disdain for the sorry state of grammar and usage in the English language happened to e-mail me on the same day, both inadvertently inspiring me to write.

Leigh (author of Flipper and Me and a fellow blogger on Mom2Mom) is dumbfounded that the confusion of homonyms and similar words has become practically accepted. We commiserated on the use of "loose" (rhymes with "goose") for "lose" (rhymes with "chews"). I was recently doing some work that required me to read college entrance letters from high school seniors and I found that the loose/lose confusion was rampant. It bothers me that the confusion exists in the first place. But what bothers me more is that these kids didn't feel it necessary to have their letters proofed before sending them to people they should be trying to impress!!!

Amy sent me an article from The Amateur Gourmet concerning dress codes in restaurant. I think she thought I would be inspired to weigh in on this matter, but what I ended up noticing was the poor usage in this phrase in one of the comments:  "if you'd like to be apart of what they are trying to convey, be apart of it." It should be "a part" instead of "apart."

This got me thinking about the people who use "alot" or, worse still, "allot" in their writing when they mean to convey "many." First of all, when I was growing up, I was taught that "a lot" was OK for the spoken word, but in writing, one should explore other words to convey the same meaning. Obviously, this was a rule that went the way of the serial comma, and I can handle that. But if you are going to use "a lot" in your writing, please bother to spell it correctly.

Maybe my concerns about the status of grammar and usage of English put me in the same category as the commenters in The Amateur Gourmet's Anti Dress-Code Violation article who insist that men wear suits and women wear dresses to certain restaurants. Maybe I am headed toward becoming part of the new older generation, steadfastly embracing the "old days" when good writing skills were required and people cared enough to proof their work before sharing it. Maybe I need to lighten up...

What do you think?

Di

Comments

[JoAnn]

"This got me thinking about the people who use "alot" or, worse still, "allot" in their writing when they mean to convey "many." First of all, when I was growing up, I was taught that "a lot" was OK for the spoken word, but in writing, one should explore other words to convey the same meaning. Obviously, this was a rule that went the way of the serial comma"

....except that the serial comma rule has NOT gone away! LOL If I had proofread/edited those high school college entrance letters you were looking at, the serial comma would have been in them. I do that for medical papers (for publication) that I edit and those publications are prettttty picky.

You would think that Martha Stewart, of all people, could afford to hire someone to proofread her blog. Alas, this is not the case. I find mistakes there all the time, almost daily. Blatant errors. I find this to be very discouraging.

How much of this (with our youth) do you attribute to poor teaching, including not teaching students how to proofread?

[leigh]

I think people should dress decently to eat at nice restaurants. I long to have the nerve to slap baseball hats off stranger's heads when they are not outside at all, but INSIDE. I pant to eradicate T-shirts with huge words advertising god-knows-what on almost every human out there; I mean, when did becoming a walking billboard get so acceptable? No sporty stuff in public, unless you are actually exercising, no huge bulky cargo shorts...with all the massive pockets EMPTY...I could go on and on, but I won't. You don't have to wear a suit to look nice, khakis and a decent (no words) shirt will work.

[Jenn @ Juggling Life]

I feel you. A lot.

[raych]

I AGREE WITH YOU!!! SO much, I agree with you. Seriously, learning to read and write used to be a NECESSARY skill. I even just spell-checked this page to make sure I'd spelled 'necessary' right, because this is so important to me.

But no one cares anymore. It's time to put in my false teeth and go sit on the porch in my rocker, so I can tell those damn kids to stay off my lawn.