Students Failing Because of Poor Grammar

innocent_white_lamb writes "30% of freshman university students fail a 'simple English test' at Waterloo University (up from 25% a few years ago. Academic papers are riddled with 'cuz' (in place of 'because') and even include little emoticon faces. One professor says that students 'think commas are sort of like parmesan cheese that you sprinkle on your words.' At Simon Fraser University, 10% of students are not qualified to take the mandatory writing courses."

Comments

And this is how we die

[QuoteMstr]

At this point, is our decline even reversible? I could draw some parallels with history (as I have in past posts) --- but what would be the point? We'll just have more people argue that education is worthless, or say how it's all the fault of teachers' unions, or argue that we need more charter schools.

So, we point fingers, scream, and ape talking points while our society crumbles around us. What's the point?

We're already the laughingstock of the world; the next generation actually looks worse than the boomers do, and that's an accomplishment. Screw this: I'm getting out. There must be some place in the world that welcomes those Americans who manage to not be complete morons.

Re:And this is how we die

[Yvanhoe]

Currently, younger generations have been texting and chatting on internet as soon as they began to be able to write phonetically. To their great joy, communication worked well between them even without this fancy 'grammar' grown-ups brag about. We were told that one should not write unless he writes correctly, because the writing skills we were given have the idea that you always write for some kind of "serious" publication. We never were taught to write for text messages.

I am not sure whether this indicates a lowering of level or just a change in the way the world works. Latin got obsoleted in "serious" scientific publications. Could correct English become obsolete in the same way ? As long as the arguments themselves are well constructed, I see no qualms in that. As long as communication works, the preservation of language for the sake of it serves no purpose, IMHO (if you allow me to use such acronyms, lol).

Re:And this is how we die

[QuoteMstr]

I'm 25. Yes, yes, our history is full of all sorts of calamities and embarrassing transgressions. But after World War II, we'd addressed most of them. We had a recessions here, and red scare there. There were the civil rights battles, and various minor wars. But for the most part, society was stable and relatively prosperous. Income inequality was low, scientific progress rapid, and social mobility high. We were respected throughout the world. The late 1970s saw stagflation, but that was the result of an exogenous supply shock, not domestic mismanagement.

The shit hit the fan around 1980, when our Gini coefficient (which measures concentration of wealth) shot through the roof. The average take-home income stagnated; two incomes become required to achieve the standard of living that could be achieved before with one. Then, finally, our political process became shrill and infantilized, and we lost the ability to respect effective to public crises.

We squandered a system that worked and replaced it with something that resembles, on paper, what we had in 1929: largely unregulated markets dominated by oligarchs with a parasitic banking sector that corrupted the political process.

Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to get a second FDR.

Re:Oh, no...

[jackharrer]

You know what is the most terrifying?
I'm a foreigner in England and found that I know grammar and spelling better than most of my English friends. We're talking about people who passed through basic education system here, and at least half of them also through higher studies.
If you ask them about grammar, apostrophe rules or spelling they will just say they never studied this. Nobody ever though them this. Then you wonder why all this is in total shambles.

Problem is that all kids are prepared to pass those stupid tests and outside them they know jack shit. There are exceptions, but general population is similar to Idiocracy one.

Re:Language evolves with how people use it...

[dfxm]

Yes, language evolves, but in academia, students are expected to use good style (whether it is MLA, APA or something else). No style find emoticons acceptable yet.

I feel like this is less of a problem with literacy, and more of a problem about not being able to adapt your writing style to fit your audience.

Plus, there's nothing wrong with professors sticking up for today's grammar in the face of change.

Re:unpossible

[CountBrass]

I wouldn't feel bad. My personal theory is that when taking part in conversations like this it's the verbal part of our brain, not the usual writing part, that's used. Hence mistakes like writing "it's" when you mean "its" and vice-versa and "there" or "their" or "they're" because to your verbal brain they sound the same and therefore are. People's use of "cuz" and "lol" and "wtf" in sentences is also explained by my theory. I suspect they talk that way as well, they're just morons.

Re:It's the parents

[ihuntrocks]

I am currently the instructor in a high school Chemistry course (at least for the day). From my experience observing the students of today across various subjects, I can say that the fault is with both the students and their parents. Our students have no work ethic, and no desire to learn. They idolize their own ignorance. The writing I see from our high school students is worse than that mentioned in the article. Even among students who score relatively well, I get the impression that I am reading a paper written by someone without native English fluency. This is, of course, when they can be made to work on any assignment to begin with. Presently, the majority of the students I am watching as I write this have elected not to open their book and participate. Instead they have chosen to engage themselves in useless, and frankly, inane and nonsensical conversation.

Equally disturbing to me is the lack of command in spoken English. These students, with few exceptions, are native English speakers, but it would be difficult to tell this from observing them. I was raised in the same town as these students, and progressed through the same education system under most of the same teachers. The curriculum has changed in the intervening time, but not enough to account for the disparity in abilities. It is honestly as if I speak different language than these students when I speak English properly. As a matter of fact, English is an entirely differently language from what they speak, and that appalls me.

Having working experience in the public education system, I can say that our problems are arising from our youth culture. The problems with our youth culture are largely due to a lack of interest or parenting ability on the part of our parents. Our students are held to no standards at home, or at least, very low standards. They have no desire to learn, and no desire to work. I try to inspire students when I have the opportunity, but results are highly limited. It is shocking and sickening when I consider that in short order these students will be adults, with responsibility in society. The difficulty with language is a symptom of the deeper problem: our students idolize willful ignorance and have chosen to be intellectually spayed. I feel that only the sobering reality we will face when we become dependent on this generation for their participation in society will shake us from our complacency and help us to insist upon higher standards for education. This effort should be maintained not only within the education system, but at home.

Answer:

[flogger]

The answer is really two fold with a lesson.
Answer one:

Dear John,

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind,
thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior.
You have ruined me for other men! I yearn for you. I have no feelings
whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy. Will you let me be
yours?

Gloria


Answer two:

Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind,
thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior!
You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings
whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,

Gloria


Lesson: You think Punctuation is unimportant? You are wrong. Punctuation carried the Entire meaning of what we write. We do not have voice inflection, hand gestures or eye contact as we do when we communicate vocally. In the first letter, John is going to get laid. In the second letter, John is going to get a restraining order against him. Wouldn't it be nice for John to know what he is getting into?

Re:unpossible

[outlander]

I spent a number of years teaching first-year composition at a small university where significantly more than 30% of the incoming first-year students simply couldn't write sufficiently well to merit their attendance in an advanced academic setting. I also worked in the writing lab, where I routinely counseled students in pursuit of advanced degrees....it was astonishing to find the quantity of Ph.D candidates who simply didn't pay attention to basic writing skills.

I suppose I'll be labeled as unduly strict, but in my classes, the first thing I told students was that certain mistakes merited an automatic 0, return of the paper to the student, and a mandated rewrite for a grade - and the error would *not* be pointed out on the returned paper.
- misuse of homophones
        - it's/its and the inexcusable its'
      - here/hear
      - lose/loose
      - where/we're/were (which aren't homophones but get misused)
      - there/they're/their
      - effect/affect confusion
      - your / you're
      - then/than
      - could of/would of for could have, would have
      - alot for a lot
- incorrect possessives

I also graded rather harshly on comma splices and other mispunctuation. The rationale stemmed from a long-held conviction that states that by the time a student is accepted to a college, esp a name-brand school, they need to have mastered basic competency when writing. If they haven't done so prior to the start of their college education, they need to be rudely disabused of the notion that slipshod writing is acceptable. They need to adapt quickly or fail and leave the university to those people who respect the basic precepts of scholarship - the first of which is the ability to express their positions in expository prose that is coherent and concise. Academic prose needn't be perfect (cf Muphry's Law), but when it's so riddled with basic usage errors as to detract from the content, then it fails to serve the purpose, which is (usually) the presentation and exposition of abstract concepts.

note: I do NOT claim that my own writing is perfect. However, at the time I was teaching, my job was to raise the standard for my students' writing to a minimally acceptable level, and (hopefully) better than that.

Re:It's the parents

[outlander]

Um, not so much. I have taught students (college level) who failed to attend classes, handed in substandard work, and subsequently had parents call and yell at me that they were paying my salary, and consequently that their kid was entitled to pass my class.

In *college.* At a name-brand Eastern school that did OK in basketball.

At one point, I received a rather well-written communication from a parent regarding his child's grade (comp 101). I replied to his letter with a note asking him whether he considered the writing in the enclosures (copies of his child's work) acceptable.

I received an apology and encouragement to fail his child if said child continued to perform work that wouldn't be acceptable in a job setting.

It was far and away the most vindicating moment of my teaching career.

Some parents have common sense and want their kids to be smart. Some want their kids credentialed. The latter drive me crazy, esp after I received an email explaining that their child has to "get his BS at any cause." (e.g., get his degree at any cost).