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The Illiteracy of Corporate American E-Mail

Dave writes "There is a pretty amusing/sad article about functional illiteracy when it comes to professional e-mails. Some of the samples are just ridiculous."

34 of 1,267 comments (clear)

  1. Conspicuously... by MoxCamel · · Score: 5, Funny
    This wasn't posted by CmdrTaco. I'm just saying.

    Mox

  2. All because of vatican 2 by yorkpaddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    See what happens when you stop saying mass in Latin.

    --
    "brxref .k.p ,.by xprt. gbe.p.oycmaycbi yd. cby.nci.bj. ru yd. am.pcjab lgxlcj" don'
  3. Re:I'd be happy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, it is not.

    If people could just learn to write their replies BELOW what they're quoting. Top posting is just wrong.
  4. My personal favorite by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 5, Funny

    The subject line email:

    Subject: COULD YOU SEND ME THAT MEMO
    Body: (empty)

  5. In case it's slashdotted: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
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    1. Re:In case it's slashdotted: by interiot · · Score: 3, Funny

      holy, how'd you get that past the slashdot filter?

  6. Very Inprofesional by Lieutenant_Dan · · Score: 5, Funny

    I find it lidicrous how people making 100000$ or more a year, just canot spell or at least use the spelchecker.

    It's a disgracement.

    --
    Wearing pants should always be optional.
  7. Learn Them Some Grammar by Ctrl+Alt+De1337 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It sounds like there are a lot of people who could use some lessons from Strong Bad's Rhythm and Grammar. Though there's a helpful song near the beginning, wait until the end and click on the arm then the CD a few times.

  8. Spell Czech by Easy2RememberNick · · Score: 5, Funny

    Eye halve a spelling chequer. It came with my pea sea.
    It plainly marques four my revue miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

    Eye strike a key and type a word and weight four it two say
    Weather eye am wrong oar write. It shows me strait a weigh.

    As soon as a mist ache is maid. It nose bee fore two long
    And eye can put the error rite. Its rarely ever wrong.

    Eye have run this poem threw it. I am shore your pleased two no.
    Its letter perfect in it's weight. My chequer tolled me sew.

    Sauce Unknown

    (Reader's Digest.)

  9. When corporate email goes bad by Himring · · Score: 3, Funny

    I got this email from our training supervisor one day. He's a cool guy and we joke a lot. His email was like, "how's it going?" And I wrote back, "my ovaries hurt" (I'mma guy btw), and then he writes back, "50 people in the training room just read that.... [he had his desktop pulled up on the big screen]." He was training on email that day.

    Erm, I'mma not sure if that was grammatically correct r not....

    --
    "All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
  10. Holy crap! by wolfemi1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Corporate American e-mail can't read?

  11. 1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d by Triumph+The+Insult+C · · Score: 5, Funny

    s0? irc rul3z. ema!l iz 4 lam3rz n3way

    --
    vodka, straight up, thank you!
  12. Obligory quote by DragonPup · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Me fail english? That unpossible!"

    --
    "Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
  13. Re:Not too suprising by calibanDNS · · Score: 4, Funny

    More amusingly, that's an apostrophe, not a "commar"...

  14. Re:i m a l337 riter! by wfberg · · Score: 3, Funny

    Another one of my pet peeves that is when people write enormously long sentences that run over the entire width of my screen and that have a lot of subclauses even though the same message, that might actually have held my interest if it were presented more succinctly, could have been split up in multiple shorter sentences that are easier to understand.

    --
    SCO employee? Check out the bounty
  15. Too much L33T! by Excen · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think R2-D2 just crapped a rainbow in my brain!

    (With apologies to any Sealab fans out there)

    --
    "No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
  16. Re:i m a l337 riter! by EvanED · · Score: 3, Funny

    After careful consideration of your writing preferences, the new /. book recommending software has concluded that you might enjoy Intruder in the Dust, by William Faulkner.

  17. Re:How they become? by Repton · · Score: 4, Funny

    A man rides into a new town, and needs to get his CV proofread. The town has only two CV proofreaders. So he gets copies of their CVs to help him decide whom to go to. One of the CVs is beautifully presented, with impeccable spelling and grammar and a clear, logical layout. The other is messy, confused, and poorly spelt. There are many obvious grammatical mistakes.

    Which proofreader does the man go to, and why?

    --
    Repton.
    They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
  18. Re:I filtered out all the crap by cephyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, there was a Welsh version of the site?

    --
    Moo.
  19. Re:I'd be happy by cain · · Score: 5, Funny

    If people could just learn to I prefer replying
    write their replies BELOW on the SIDE of
    what they're quoting. what I am quoting, myself.
    Top posting is just wrong. Side posting r00ls, w00t!!

  20. What scares me by mindstrm · · Score: 5, Funny

    is that I can read that quite fluently.

  21. Huh? by Wrexen · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm pretty sure he meant rediculous, unless the hundreds of idiots posting on the internet every day are spelling it wrong too. This is a new spelling error, which confuses me greatly - I swear it's doubled in frequency over the past year.

  22. spelling and grammar? by Anonymous+Cowpat · · Score: 5, Funny

    clicky
    The geniuses suceeded in publishing a report with a map on the front which just had a gap where Wales should have been.
    Stuff Spelling and Grammar, 3 million people and a few billion sheep just ceased to exist!

    --
    FGD 135
  23. Re:How they become? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    What exectly is a constant-velocity proofreader?

  24. Re:How they become? by Frymaster · · Score: 3, Funny
    prolly?

    hm. makes me think there should be a study on the illiteracy of slashdot posts.

  25. Re:How they become? by glitch! · · Score: 4, Funny


    1. You should have said: "Her problem is that she forgets to proofread."
    2. It is "A lot", not "Alot".
    3. "Disinterested" means one doesn't have a conflict of interest. You should have used "uninterested".
    4. It is "justified", not "justificated".
    5. It is "disenfranchised", not "disenfrenchfried", unless someone took away their French fries.


    Then again, maybe these were intentional and slashdot just removed the <GWB> and </GWB> tags.

    --
    A dingo ate my sig...
  26. Re:How they become? by asr_man · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...bad spelling and grammar can severely impact the coherency of any message, as well as hurting the credibility of the author.

    "Hurting" above is incorrect. To agree with "impact" it should be "hurt":

    Bad spelling and grammar can (do two things...#1:) severely impact...(and #2:) hurt...

    But since this forum doesn't support editing, we'll forgive you.

    The Grammar Nazis

  27. Re:How they become? by Moofie · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think the problem with American schools is related to the fact that they hire teachers that overgeneralize.

    --
    Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  28. Tolstoy?!? by grcumb · · Score: 4, Funny

    From TFA: "It's not like we're trying to hire Tolstoy."

    It's a damn good thing, too. The last thing corporate America needs is a 2000 page corporate org chart in which Alexei Sergeyevich has dotted line responsibility for Sergey Alexeyevich, and both of them are in love with Anya Lamentova (who is referred to half the time as Anyushka, making it look like these two are chasing different women so what's the problem?), and by the time Napoleon finally retreats from Moscow and Sergey Alexeyevich has recovered from the duel with Alexei (Sasha) Sergeyevich we haven't even come close to our quarterly projections and don't give a shit about any of it any more and spend our entire day checking the want ads.

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  29. Re:Not completely bleak by Pinball+Wizard · · Score: 3, Funny
    >> I could give a fuck about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - my hierarchy of needs says that I need this job.


    Of course you don't care - survival is your primary concern! A stable situation, job, regular income. Once you have those things under control, then perhaps you could be interested in learning about someone's hierarchy of needs. But more likely you'll be interested in sex - getting a girlfriend, etc. So first the job, the regular income, the steady girlfriend, oh and that car you've always wanted. Then perhaps you could be interested in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

    --

    No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?

  30. Ode to a Spell Checker by pipingguy · · Score: 5, Funny


    Someone other than me originally wrote this. My apologies to non-native English-speakers, as this is bound to do some brane damage to those that do their best to try to comprehend:

    I have a spelling checker.
    It came with my PC.
    It plane lee marks four my revue
    Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

    Eye ran this poem threw it,
    Your sure reel glad two no.
    Its vary polished in it's weigh,
    My checker tolled me sew.

    A checker is a bless sing,
    It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
    It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
    And aides me when aye rime.

    Each frays come posed up on my screen
    Eye trussed to bee a joule.
    The checker poured ore every word
    To cheque sum spelling rule.

    Be fore a vailing checkers
    Hour spelling mite decline,
    And if were lacks o'er have a laps,
    We wood bee maid to wine.

    Butt now bee cause my spelling
    Is checked with such grate flare,
    Their are know faults with in my cite,
    Of nun aye am a wear.

    Now spelling does knot phase me,
    It does knot bring a tier.
    My pay purrs awl due glad den
    With wrapped words fare as hear.

    To rite with care is quite a feet
    Of witch won should be proud.
    And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
    Sew flaws are knot aloud.

    Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
    Such soft ware for pea seas,
    And why I brake in two averse
    When righting what aye pleas.

  31. Re:How they become? by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Funny
    Great, so we can repeatedly get the same (but not necessarily correct) result every time with very little variance.
    Ah, grasshopper, now you understand the value of ISO 9001 certification.
  32. Re:How they become? by mcrbids · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and where to put periods and commas (overuse of which are probably the most common non-spelling error I see)...

    I, for one, welcome, to the full extent possible, our new, lovely, comma, overlords!

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  33. Re:How they become? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    And why not? If you get the point across to your coworkers, why should you waste an extra 20 seconds checking your grammar? Sure, its only 20 seconds, but the only point in editing your message is to conform to implied social norms - an objective that has nothing to do with getting the job done. Thankfully those silly social norms have not yet been applied to emails yet.

    fuckin a dude!@ who care abuot chikign granner and slpeking anuwsy?? i mesn shit if'n pipul unerstn yo hoo car wut ti look like?

    Get my point?