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Aw Grammar Smackdown 08!

Since this seems to be the Nuremberg Rally of Grammar Nazis, I have to point out that the title should be "AW Grammar Smackdown '08".
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
I just spent two semesters teaching an Introduction to Astronomy lab, which requires the students (mostly freshmen) to write one short essay every week. It gave me so much joy to take off points when they wrote things like "u" or didn't bother to write in complete sentences. I'm terrified by the fact that these kids got into college.

Overall, though, I'd say AW is one of the better forums with regard to grammar and spelling.

/threadjack

I HATED my grading job. I got yelled at one time for giving 2 people 0s without consulting my instructor (ya, I know I should have, but I was still right) because the two students' (NOTE the correct grammar there! :D) code was IDENTICAL. I am not talking the same code, I am also talking IDENTICAL code and pseudocode (commentary after code explaining the code WITH IDENTICAL spelling mistakes!). Same font. Not even an attempt to hide the copy/paste job. Professor yelled at me saying "How dare you accuse my students of cheating. I allow them to work together". I didn't challenge him. I took my lumps, but I wanted to ask if he thought having identical spelling mistakes was a bit beyond "working together"?

NEVER AGAIN will I grade unless I have the authority to give 0s to cheaters.

/threadjack
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
The Coherence Gestapo sounds better.
Spelling-DictionaryNazi.gif
 

phrogdriver

More humble than you would understand
pilot
Super Moderator
only because Webster said so (no not the one from different strokes). .

Dammit, Webster was on "Webster." Arnold was on "Diff'rent Strokes."

...kids these days. They don't know one whacked-out '80s child star from another.
 

johnny utah

still bigger than hip-hop
pilot
Dammit, Webster was on "Webster." Arnold was on "Diff'rent Strokes."

...kids these days. They don't know one whacked-out '80s child star from another.

Weren't both the characters played by Gary Coleman? Or am I now gonna get called a racist... cuz really I'm anything but that.
 

armada1651

Hey intern, get me a Campari!
pilot
Anyone who takes themselves particularly seriously while correcting grammar on the internet should be interested in hobbies like holding back thunderheads with a compact mirror and digging stable tunnels by hand in the surf-zone.

Soooo....we're talking engineers then? :)
 

Kickflip89

Below Ladder
None
Contributor
/threadjack

I HATED my grading job. I got yelled at one time for giving 2 people 0s without consulting my instructor (ya, I know I should have, but I was still right) because the two students' (NOTE the correct grammar there! :D) code was IDENTICAL. I am not talking the same code, I am also talking IDENTICAL code and pseudocode (commentary after code explaining the code WITH IDENTICAL spelling mistakes!). Same font. Not even an attempt to hide the copy/paste job. Professor yelled at me saying "How dare you accuse my students of cheating. I allow them to work together". I didn't challenge him. I took my lumps, but I wanted to ask if he thought having identical spelling mistakes was a bit beyond "working together"?

NEVER AGAIN will I grade unless I have the authority to give 0s to cheaters.

/threadjack __________________
//***************************************
//Revenge Subprogram
//***************************************
int Revenge()
{

user ottowrote8.status = "threadjacker"; //sets otto's status
user Kickflip89.status = "bored threadjacker";
user grammaristas.status = "angry with vengeance";

if (ottowrote8.grammar >= Kickflip89.grammer)
grammaristas.attack(ottowrote8);
else
grammaristas.attack(Kickflip89);

//too tired to think of anything more interesting...carry on. Keep in mind
// program was written without reference to code or pubs.

return 0;
}//end of Revenge
 

Swanee

Cereal Killer
pilot
None
Contributor
Fair enough. But when "literate people" decide not to strictly adhere to convention, then convention evolves. This happens for many reasons, but prolly because people are lazy. Look how much English has evolved from Shakespeare until now. English used to have formal pronouns for chrissake. Shakespeare would call your spelling, modern spelling, atrocious. Yet if he sat down and watched "Reservoir Dogs," like the way we sit and watch "Hamlet," he'd eventually figure out the plot (and that they're both great plays/movies cuz everyone dies in the end). So as long as ideas are flowing from writer to reader, I call our language a success.


You are correct to a certain point here. You have to remember that Shakespeare wrote prose in iambic pentameter so that his actors could remember their lines a bit easer. In Shakespeare's day people did not speak in prose, nor did they speak in iambic. In reality what has happened is that screenwriters (and some playwrights) have written in the way that people speak in their normal lives.

If you go see a Shakespearian play performed by a good production company with well trained actors (not some high school or local community college production) you will find that Shakespeare is in fact fairly easy to comprehend.
 
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