StanMac Loc: Tennessee

At one time in my early life, using the word “snuck” would get you a firm rap with a ruler with the admonishment that “snuck” is not a word! ever since then whenever I cringe whenever I hear someone use it!

Stan

Ron Krause

like in Nebr. its MALK not milk LOL!

shelty Loc: Medford, OR

I have that same gripe.

Angel Star Photography Loc: Tacoma, WA

In some schools they have also stopped teaching cursive handwriting.

Angel Star Photography Loc: Tacoma, WA

Years ago I confronted my daughter's teacher who had given her an A+ on her paper. The paper had misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, improper grammar, and poor sentence structure. The teacher very assuredly explained that she was not concerned about any of those issues but rather that she had the concept of her thoughts on paper. This was tenth grade. I recall from my days in school that no matter the class, points were taken for misspellings, improper grammar, and advice given on sentence structure. A science teacher would correct a student's writing no less than an English teacher would.

With regards to news articles, yes, I am surprised and concerned about the poor writing skills that seems to permeate the articles. It is also disconcerting that people will read these articles, and over time, the inferior communications skills will propagate to be normal as people repeat and copy the articles as references within their own writings and discussions.

trapper1 Loc: Southside Virginia

Remember in the movie "My Fair Lady" Professor 'Enry 'Iggins lamenting about "..the cold-blooded murder of the English language."? Sports writers and TV news readers vie for the "Worst Grammar Of The Year " award, with local newspapers snapping at their heels in third place. I, very fortunately, have a perfect source of English grammar rules - my wife. She taught English grammar for 19 years and nothing in the way of grammar error gets by her. Getting a grammar error by her is like sneaking dawn past a rooster. Me, I still have trouble remembering what is a predicate normative. One of my heroes is Winston Churchill who attributed his skills as a writer to having to repeat, in grade school, the English grammar courses several times because he could not pass the courses in Greek or Latin.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

And what the heck is “prolly?”

danbir1 Loc: North Potomac, MD

Absolutely! How about "You know", "I mean" "Uhm" "Like" etc. that creep into speech absolutely unnecessarily and have no meaning whatsoever?
How about this sentence (I swear I heard it...) "Well, you know, I mean, uhm, like yesterday I was.......
How about people talking loudly on their cell phones in public with a total disregard?

Huggins36

"He slud into third base". Dizzy Dean

Angel Star Photography Loc: Tacoma, WA

Slang for "probably"...

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Oh, I knew that. I just wonder where “prolly” came from. Likely lazy English speakers and people who didn’t do well in their high school English grammar classes. Or does it reflect the quality of the American education system.

Angel Star Photography Loc: Tacoma, WA

I thought you probably (prolly) knew that...

I almost continued my reply with "...due to laziness..." but I think it is really a mixture of things to which laziness and the education system are parts to the whole---lowered expectations, feel-good mentality (building of a false sense of self-esteem; feelings versus logic, responsibility, and accountability), culture, political correctness, role models (celebrities versus scientists, mathematicians, good writers, artists, etc.), ad infinitum.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I’ve been around long enough to see that our language is slowly morphing into something else. We speak and write in partial words and (pardon the use of this word) bastardized phrases and in terms that never existed 20 or 30 years ago. Formerly we had Webster’s Dictionary and the Collegiate Thesaurus, now we have the Wiktionary and some sort of “dictionary” of street words and terms. In school I was taught English grammar and spelling. I took that seriously. Nowadays, I don’t think a lot of people even know what that is.

I was a State Trooper for 22 years, and as a shift supervisor, I had to read troopers’ reports. I would tear my hair out at the way some reports were written. Don’t even talk about the written statements we’d get from people! How did they graduate school? Perhaps I date myself, but I cling to proper spelling, grammar, and writing. I guess it’s just a thing with me, but some of the things I read, yes, even here on UHH, make me go “Huh?” Oh well, it’s 20 degrees below zero, so I rant. Please excuse this old guy. (Old guys rule)

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

It's what College learned them!

So it is warm now. I spent 7 months working at Ft. Greely back in '03 during the big build.
We must of done a great job because they sent us to Shemya for 3 months.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Oh man, that’s a grim thought. Shemya is not on my list, short, long, or otherwise, of places I’d like to go. Talk about remote. Great reward for doing a good job. NOT!