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

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: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: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).