What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence

New York Times ^ | December 7, 2004 | SAM DILLON

[Mr. Jeeves]

"E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited," Dr. Hogan said.

Public schools are the party to which English teachers have not been invited. E-mails are just a symptom. ;)

[kitkat]

***I don't understand why the semicolon gets no respect anymore; it's such a handy tool..***

Probably because some pop-magazine editors tell writers not to use a semicolon. It confuses their brilliant readers.

[Aquinasfan]

I think its a combination of time and fear of being nailed down to something in writing.

Bingo.

[P.O.E.]

On the other hand, you've got bureaucrats churning out pages and pages of documents with correct grammar and punctuation, but serve no real purpose other than to keep each other employed.

There's some beauty in conciseness, of which e-lingo is perhaps the most egregious exception.

[Gefreiter]

J,
I bet English speakers have the same problem when speaking German.

Errm, or maybe it's just me!

[TomGuy]

In the early 90's a lady whom I supervised would leave me 'reports' on post-it notes.

One day, I came in to work and found some 20 of the smallest-sized post-its, with arrows to show the flow, with some lines written along the edges and on backs. It was like trying to follow a treasure map. I finally gave up and waited for her to arrive before I could understand.

I told her---no more post-it reports----ever!

That was before email. I could only imagine what she would do with email reports.

[azhenfud]

Gee. You'd think someone could possibly get a job teaching English.

[freedumb2003]

Why do I suppose that there are ANY NUMBER of FReepers who could offer their services, no doubt quite profitably, to these beleaguered corporations?

If you want your email message checked for grammar, punctuation and style, just post it on Free Republic. In nanoseconds it will be dissected, sliced, diced and julienned.

[SuziQ]

Colleges are testing incoming students on their writing skills as well as their English and math skills. Many of them have to take remedial classes.

The new SAT, which will be given for the first time in the Spring, includes a Writing component to test student's skills. Colleges were finding that kids with outstanding essays were lacking in writing skills once they arrived on campus. They suspected these students had had someone else write their application essays, so now they'll be able to compare the writing sample from the SAT to the essay submitted by the student.

Our daughter is homeschooled (Jr. year), but that's one subject I've never been able to teach her well, though I finally found a curriculum that she likes and is using. We just registered her for an English Composition class at a local Community college, and she's looking forward to that.

[AppyPappy]

Huh. I'm a cubicle monkey. I get a ton of emails every day, and I don't get any which stand out as strikingly illiterate.

95% of mine are OK. The worst one are the confusion of "there" and "their" and using "loose" instead of "lose".

[freedumb2003]

Another vote for semicolon.

When you can't afford a full colon.

[Aquinasfan]

I work for a large insurance company and probably about once per quarter we are told that we should NOT reply to an email with an "okay" or "thanks," because each email we send costs the company a certain number of pennies. Isn't that nice?

LOL! Check out this corporate guru's advice (pay attention, he makes $20k/gig). Here's a testimonial from a satisfied customer:

"I have integrated many of his views and especially the idea of not saying or writing "No problem" or " That wasn't hard to do, it took no time at all"

What I now say or write is "That was my pleasure, glad to be of help. I know you will return the favour someday."

T-Jay Critch, HR Advisor - Training
Dell Financial Services

[SuziQ]

I particularly enjoyed "Persuasion".

For me, reading Jane Austen is tiresome. I'm forever thinking, "Get to the point!!" I have the same reaction reading Thomas Hardy. I've truly enjoyed the film and video adaptations of her work, though, with "Persuasion" being my favorite. I also liked "Sense and Sensibility" and thought Emma Thompson deserved the Oscar for her Screenplay adaptation of the work.

We're fixing to get "Emma" from Netflix, and I'm looking forward to seeing that again. I'll have to see if Netflix has "Persuasion". I just love Ciaran Hinds, and particularly enjoyed his portrayal of Rochester in "Jane Eyre" for TV a few years back.

[freedumb2003]

The new SAT, which will be given for the first time in the Spring, includes a Writing component to test student's skills.

Yes, but who will grade the papers? Today, college English professors do not seem to be able to grasp simple grammar. I saw "mediums" the other day in a letter to the editor from a supposed english professor. This one always gets me. Now that they finally realize "media" is plural for "medium" they then go back to the singular, then pluralize incorrectly.

Idiots (Idia?)

[AppyPappy]

I was cured of writing problems on Fidonet Flame. Those guys pounced on everything. It was good training for email. But I still know several people who avoid using email because of the their fear of mistakes.

We should avoid bad metaphors like a monkey avoids a cacther's mitt.

[banjo joe]

Writing skills are not the only thing missing from corporate America. Common courtesy is gone, too.

I'm tired of corporate BS-speak.

[Aquinasfan]

Maybe a little Hemmingway might help - forget Tolstoy!

We need a facilitator...

[freedumb2003]

We should avoid bad metaphors like a monkey avoids a cacther's mitt.

Hey, you buttered your bread, you sleep on it.

[saveliberty]

Sad, because businesses will pay a premium for good writing and articulate speech. This is the edge that a college education no longer provides.

[Socrates1]

Catch phrases and slogans?

Yeah, but what's the bottom line?