Literacy Limps Into the Kill Zone

Ant writes to tell us that Wired has an interesting look at the current standards of writing and the general decline of spelling and grammar in today's "comic book generation." The author blames many of the problems on instant or near-instant communications stating that the slang developed is essentially eroding our ability to formulate coherent thoughts in writing when called upon to do so.

Comments

Not quite surprising!

[metlin]

Indeed. But why does this not surprise me?

Why go far, look right here on Slashdot. These are geeks, supposedly the folks who're "smarter" than the average population.

And even here, instead of accepting grammatical and spelling mistakes, people would rather flame you for correcting them. Not to mention the piss-poor quality of writing that most Slashdotters (and the editors) have. If you can follow the rules in a programming language, why is it so hard to do so for a natural language?

Personally, if folks do not communicate in good English, I'd simply not respond - be it IM, SMS or e-mail. And guess what? Most folks talk a lot better English when they're communicating with me, simply because they know that they'd not get a response - or that they'd get their English corrected.

I do not care if you are using e-mail, IM or SMS, use that period and use that apostrophe. Use appropriate and proper punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar, else I'm simply not talking to you.

That needs to be the general attitude, if we want to see any semblance of Good English (TM) exist in the next few generations.

Seriously, encourage your kids to look up that dictionary. Encourage them to read good literature, aside from the pop crap that exists today. Encourage them to write, to put down their thoughts. The only way you are going to develop writing skills is by writing.

Turning it off and on is the problem.

[Unknown Poltroon]

We all use slang, we all use abbreviations, jargon and impolite ways of speaking, especially with friends and family. The problem i run into is more and more people who cant "Turn it off" when they need to. People who use the same bad grammar when writing an office e-mail that they do when chatting with buddies online or at happy hour. Kids who cant write a coherent written sentence because they are so used to using slang. Its nothing that different from what I say when talking to friends, or get into a flamewar, but i DONT use it in the office, or when meeting someone for the first time, or when applying for a job. Thats the problem.

Re:The problem is consistency

[Lovejoy]

Too right. One of the words that has suffered from this linquistic drift is "unique," which in English means "one of a kind." Now, we Americans, (and possibly Brits, I don't know) often use this word to mean "unusual," "cool," or "neat-o." I actually heard a commercial the other day describing something as "unique and one-of-a-kind."

It's very frustrating.

I don't care that language changes - I'm a descriptivist. I care that language becomes less useful and less precise. We already have lots of words to mean "unusual," but few that mean "unique." Now we have to say "one-of-a-kind," which the folks will probably start using to mean "unusual."

Now, if someone had even a passing familarity with Latin, she would know that the prefix "uni" means "one," and that "unique" probably means, "one-of-a-kind," not "cool." That's the argument the Classicists would make, at least.

Re:They don't realise language changes.

[drgonzo59]

The problem is that sms-speak and ebonics might not be acceptable for a thesis defense or a business proposal even 50 years from now. I suspect one would still need to know how to speak/write/understand English (or will it be Chinese...?) to function well.

It is quite interesting how I did a whole lot better in the English classes at an American university than most Americans, even though English is my third language. At first I thought they were smart but they just didn't care, but it turned out that they really didn't know to write and they didn't care.

I guess I expected everyone to do worse in science only, not in Enlish -- their own language! Oh, well, more jobs for immigrants like me, "Thanks! US primary educational system!"

Re:They don't realise language changes.

[Literaphile]

Perhaps if you weren't so condescending you'd realize that your research is no better than the parent poster's. Speaking as someone who holds a PhD in classical studies, I can tell you that literacy did indeed survive, in a few good way, after the collapse of the Western Empire as you say. Where do you think most of our manuscripts for ancient texts come from? Monks, from this very time period. It's not called the "dark ages" because everyone was stupid, it's been called the "dark ages" for so long because we just haven't known a lot about the period. Beowulf, one of the great epic poems, was composing in this time period, and no doubt many other texts that we have yet to uncover (and probably will never uncover). "Dark" doesn't mean dumb, it means unknown.

Testing for New Hires

[Alien54]

I have decided that when I hire techs, I am going to ask them to write an essay, using pen and ink, giving the intructions on how to use a mouse for someone who is a computer beginner. (Think your grandmother). No internet research allowed. This tests several things.

1. Penmanship. Can I read their writing or their field notes, or is it all garbage?
2. Their technical understanding. Mouse operation is a common and simple task, but elements like right click, down button vs up button actions, etc. are not immediately intuitive.
3. Their ability to communicate. Can they communicate something they understand in a clear and concise fashion? Especially to someone without expertise or substantial experience in the field.
4. Can they get to the point, or is the essay filled with lots of technical fluff, jargon, and assorted filler?

Of course, I'll test for other things as well. Unfortunately, this may be a humbling experience for some applicants.