Is Proper English Still necessary?
When I was a young pup, all the students immediately grasped reading and writing. It looked so easy, but I struggled despite trying my best. Things began changing in the ninth grade, and I started making peace with grammar, spelling, and writing.
Why was mastering the English language so important? English? They ripped off the word from the name of a country. Lame. The answer is that we no longer solely depend on verbal words to communicate in our modern society. Instead, we write concepts on paper, enter them into a computer, or print them on a printing press. Written words have become the primary means of communication, information, computation, and understanding. Thus, it is necessary to have an agreed-upon format, and education forces students to follow these rules.
And the result is fantastic. “Today, I ate a red apple for breakfast.” There is no ambiguity in that sentence. Every single reader 100% understood exactly what information I intended to convey. And what a great sentence! Did you notice the capital letter at the beginning and the period at the end? How helpful! And that coma? Readers know exactly when to pause while speaking. Genius!
Professionals, employers, teachers, and readers expect/demand good sentence structure to work, communicate, understand, research, record, archive, share, debate, and absorb the content. Even if all the meaning is present, a poorly written sentence trips up the system because readers get confused. Sometimes, the error can be so bad that the confusion can only be resolved by contacting the author.
Finally, a well-written document is so much more impressive. It stands out as the mark of a true professional, and they can be proud of their creation. Proper documents power our modern world and prepare us for a fantastic future.
Well, it seems like I have summed things up neatly. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar are all essential for a functioning society. Nothing more to say. Yet… Some cracks are forming. Let’s start with the with our “solid foundation.” What is the standard set of rules for the English language? That’s easy. The Chicago Manual of Style. Obviously!
Umm, how many kids/adults even know about this book? Did the teacher bring it out in your first-grade class? No. Why not? Oh, it is too complex for kids. Now, hold on. Remember going to Sunday school as a kid to learn about religion? Yup, on the first day, some religious person tossed a Bible/Torah/Koran right at you, and you spent the next 10-100 years trying to figure out the meaning.
Have you read the Chicago Manual of Style? What a confusing mess! But it is perfect, right? Umm. Why is it on the seventeenth edition? Hmm, it sounds like the manual needed improving. And who decided the Chicago Manual of Style was the master default source? I never even heard of the thing until I was 50.
It used to be that when you bought a car, you jumped in and drove off. The Lexus we purchased five years ago has FIVE manuals. The owner’s manual is 907 pages, and the entertainment/navigation system is 416 pages. Is it necessary to read all that? If you want to understand how to navigate, it sure is.
According to Toner Buzz:
• Each year, 500,000 to 1 million new books come out.
• Including self-published authors, the count reaches close to 4 million new book titles each year.
• In 2021, there were about 2.3 million new self-published books in the US, marking a decline compared to the preceding two years.
Why was mastering the English language so important? English? They ripped off the word from the name of a country. Lame. The answer is that we no longer solely depend on verbal words to communicate in our modern society. Instead, we write concepts on paper, enter them into a computer, or print them on a printing press. Written words have become the primary means of communication, information, computation, and understanding. Thus, it is necessary to have an agreed-upon format, and education forces students to follow these rules.
And the result is fantastic. “Today, I ate a red apple for breakfast.” There is no ambiguity in that sentence. Every single reader 100% understood exactly what information I intended to convey. And what a great sentence! Did you notice the capital letter at the beginning and the period at the end? How helpful! And that coma? Readers know exactly when to pause while speaking. Genius!
Professionals, employers, teachers, and readers expect/demand good sentence structure to work, communicate, understand, research, record, archive, share, debate, and absorb the content. Even if all the meaning is present, a poorly written sentence trips up the system because readers get confused. Sometimes, the error can be so bad that the confusion can only be resolved by contacting the author.
Finally, a well-written document is so much more impressive. It stands out as the mark of a true professional, and they can be proud of their creation. Proper documents power our modern world and prepare us for a fantastic future.
Well, it seems like I have summed things up neatly. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar are all essential for a functioning society. Nothing more to say. Yet… Some cracks are forming. Let’s start with the with our “solid foundation.” What is the standard set of rules for the English language? That’s easy. The Chicago Manual of Style. Obviously!
Umm, how many kids/adults even know about this book? Did the teacher bring it out in your first-grade class? No. Why not? Oh, it is too complex for kids. Now, hold on. Remember going to Sunday school as a kid to learn about religion? Yup, on the first day, some religious person tossed a Bible/Torah/Koran right at you, and you spent the next 10-100 years trying to figure out the meaning.
Have you read the Chicago Manual of Style? What a confusing mess! But it is perfect, right? Umm. Why is it on the seventeenth edition? Hmm, it sounds like the manual needed improving. And who decided the Chicago Manual of Style was the master default source? I never even heard of the thing until I was 50.
It used to be that when you bought a car, you jumped in and drove off. The Lexus we purchased five years ago has FIVE manuals. The owner’s manual is 907 pages, and the entertainment/navigation system is 416 pages. Is it necessary to read all that? If you want to understand how to navigate, it sure is.
According to Toner Buzz:
• Each year, 500,000 to 1 million new books come out.
• Including self-published authors, the count reaches close to 4 million new book titles each year.
• In 2021, there were about 2.3 million new self-published books in the US, marking a decline compared to the preceding two years.
Plus there is internet information, prior published books, newspapers, magazines, textbooks, journals, letters, and advertisements. They even have entire buildings filled with books, called libraries. What is a library? Dang, you will have to go to the library, to get a dictionary to look up that word.
It is all too much, and something must give. Quality. Yes, the effort we put into writing quality has begun to slip. Now, English errors are more common and get less attention.
Speaking of introducing errors, we now have a new player. Yes, Artificial Intelligence is now in the typeset seat. Yay! Need to create a 1000-word report about George Washington? ChatGPT: Create a 1000-word report about the life and history of George Washington. Done! And the result will read well. Very well! But… ChatGPT is not a person. It makes weird mistakes, gets repetitive, confusing, wordy, and produces incorrect results. But the grammar/spelling and punctuation is fantastic. Right?
ChatGPT created sentences that look good with a quick review, but I see flaws when I study sentence structure. (Note: I do not use ChatGPT for writing. I do use it for a story idea sounding board.) The funny thing is that ChatGPT is getting worse. It blabbers on about nonsense and gets into strange side tangents. I have spotted two glaring spelling mistakes.
We have another problem: Spell/grammar checkers. Wow, they have changed my life. I love Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Thesarus.com, Dictonary.com, Wikipedia, and random name generators. Astounding! And I can even hire a ghostwriter, beta reader, or copy editor. They charge by the word. Just like Uber charges by the mile!
What happens when these incredible resources disagree? All those tools are synchronized to the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, The Modern Language Association of America handbook, and the Oxford Dictionary. Right? They are not? What? How can that be? They do their own thing because nobody can agree upon the rules. Know what is worse? Besides America, other countries speak English, and their rules differ.
Plus, there is a new player: social media and streaming sites. We used to get all our essential information from written sources like textbooks, manuals, guides, reference books, or data sheets. Let’s say I want to remove the engine from my car. I used to go to the library and check out one or more books on automotive repair. Then, I would search for the chapter on engine removal and follow the steps. The manual will include important cautions, tips, warnings, and pictures/diagrams.
Now, I search YouTube for “engine removal” and then watch the informative video. If I do not like the video, I click on another. What is the problem? YouTube viewers will listen to a person naturally speaking without a script, and there will be many grammatical errors. This means that hearing verbal errors is becoming more acceptable, which translates to writing errors being more acceptable.
Now for the most significant attack on the English language. Kids text all day and night. Punctuation is actively frowned upon, and kids intentionally misspell words. Teachers are completely overwhelmed, and they have another problem.
Popular social agendas have ruined the education system, and politicians are introducing programs without trials or public input. For example, my daughter graduated from a high school with the “No Child Left Behind” program. Wow, that sounds impressive.
What did this program replace? They used to have an Advanced Placement class for the smart kids, a regular class, and a class to help the struggling kids. Now, they throw them together with the idea that the smart kids will help struggling kids.
Result? Group tests, projects, and homework. My daughter was placed with three average kids and two struggles. So, she would do the work while the others play on their phones. Even when she asks for their input, they refuse to help. A+ for everyone! What does this mean? This means that chimps learning sign language get a better education than five out of six kids.
It gets worse. Because the administrators at her high school spent all their money on giving themselves raises, they must cheap out as much as possible. So, they use open-source (free) software instead of industry-standard programs. Do companies use open-source programs? No, because they must administer their employees, open-source programs are nearly impossible to control, secure, or maintain.
Now, I must pivot. I got my latest book back from my copy editor and have been reviewing the edits. My guy is fantastic and uncovered so many errors I never would have spotted. Wonderful!
Well, I found a significant error that the copy editor missed. See if you can spot it. This is a dialog between two characters:
“I try.”
“Stop being so modest and take the compliment,” Kim chided,
“Alright.”
I ended a sentence with a comma and not a period. This mistake is easy to miss because a comma and a period look similar. Side note: Grammarly, Microsoft Word, and ProWritingAid also missed it. Boo!
This error is big enough for a bus to drive through. And I was even more upset because I caught the mistake after reviewing the document several times. But then I thought about the reality of the situation. Was my mistake that bad?
I see spelling mistakes on massive billboards, gobbledygook from bestselling authors, and text messages that are so bad that I cannot make heads or tails of them. My comma mix-up was a minor boo-boo—no big deal.
Yet, I remained angry. “I should have caught this! My editor should have caught this! Hey, you messed up, Grammarly, Microsoft Word, and ProWritingAid!”
Am I writing this article to give myself a pass? No, quite the opposite. Today, there are more tools than ever to correct English flaws. Plus, the internet provides a vast resource for properly learning English, and the rules are better documented than ever. So, there is no excuse for improper English.
Yet… Have you read a book review lately? I often see comments like: “Needed editing.” “I spotted six spelling errors in the first chapter.” “Did a sixth grader write this?” “They used ChatGPT to write the entire book.”
And there is a final smack in the face. It has taken me a lifetime of struggling to attain basic English skills. Now that I can appreciate finely crafted sentences (I love you, Neil Gaiman!!!), everything has turned to junk.
My question remains. How upset should I be by my comma mistake? So many people discourage proper English, and a well-written sentence looks out of place. My answer is that I will try my best, but this feels like a battle where I am the only one who cares about the outcome.
You’re the best -Bill
September 11, 2024
It is all too much, and something must give. Quality. Yes, the effort we put into writing quality has begun to slip. Now, English errors are more common and get less attention.
Speaking of introducing errors, we now have a new player. Yes, Artificial Intelligence is now in the typeset seat. Yay! Need to create a 1000-word report about George Washington? ChatGPT: Create a 1000-word report about the life and history of George Washington. Done! And the result will read well. Very well! But… ChatGPT is not a person. It makes weird mistakes, gets repetitive, confusing, wordy, and produces incorrect results. But the grammar/spelling and punctuation is fantastic. Right?
ChatGPT created sentences that look good with a quick review, but I see flaws when I study sentence structure. (Note: I do not use ChatGPT for writing. I do use it for a story idea sounding board.) The funny thing is that ChatGPT is getting worse. It blabbers on about nonsense and gets into strange side tangents. I have spotted two glaring spelling mistakes.
We have another problem: Spell/grammar checkers. Wow, they have changed my life. I love Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Thesarus.com, Dictonary.com, Wikipedia, and random name generators. Astounding! And I can even hire a ghostwriter, beta reader, or copy editor. They charge by the word. Just like Uber charges by the mile!
What happens when these incredible resources disagree? All those tools are synchronized to the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, The Modern Language Association of America handbook, and the Oxford Dictionary. Right? They are not? What? How can that be? They do their own thing because nobody can agree upon the rules. Know what is worse? Besides America, other countries speak English, and their rules differ.
Plus, there is a new player: social media and streaming sites. We used to get all our essential information from written sources like textbooks, manuals, guides, reference books, or data sheets. Let’s say I want to remove the engine from my car. I used to go to the library and check out one or more books on automotive repair. Then, I would search for the chapter on engine removal and follow the steps. The manual will include important cautions, tips, warnings, and pictures/diagrams.
Now, I search YouTube for “engine removal” and then watch the informative video. If I do not like the video, I click on another. What is the problem? YouTube viewers will listen to a person naturally speaking without a script, and there will be many grammatical errors. This means that hearing verbal errors is becoming more acceptable, which translates to writing errors being more acceptable.
Now for the most significant attack on the English language. Kids text all day and night. Punctuation is actively frowned upon, and kids intentionally misspell words. Teachers are completely overwhelmed, and they have another problem.
Popular social agendas have ruined the education system, and politicians are introducing programs without trials or public input. For example, my daughter graduated from a high school with the “No Child Left Behind” program. Wow, that sounds impressive.
What did this program replace? They used to have an Advanced Placement class for the smart kids, a regular class, and a class to help the struggling kids. Now, they throw them together with the idea that the smart kids will help struggling kids.
Result? Group tests, projects, and homework. My daughter was placed with three average kids and two struggles. So, she would do the work while the others play on their phones. Even when she asks for their input, they refuse to help. A+ for everyone! What does this mean? This means that chimps learning sign language get a better education than five out of six kids.
It gets worse. Because the administrators at her high school spent all their money on giving themselves raises, they must cheap out as much as possible. So, they use open-source (free) software instead of industry-standard programs. Do companies use open-source programs? No, because they must administer their employees, open-source programs are nearly impossible to control, secure, or maintain.
Now, I must pivot. I got my latest book back from my copy editor and have been reviewing the edits. My guy is fantastic and uncovered so many errors I never would have spotted. Wonderful!
Well, I found a significant error that the copy editor missed. See if you can spot it. This is a dialog between two characters:
“I try.”
“Stop being so modest and take the compliment,” Kim chided,
“Alright.”
I ended a sentence with a comma and not a period. This mistake is easy to miss because a comma and a period look similar. Side note: Grammarly, Microsoft Word, and ProWritingAid also missed it. Boo!
This error is big enough for a bus to drive through. And I was even more upset because I caught the mistake after reviewing the document several times. But then I thought about the reality of the situation. Was my mistake that bad?
I see spelling mistakes on massive billboards, gobbledygook from bestselling authors, and text messages that are so bad that I cannot make heads or tails of them. My comma mix-up was a minor boo-boo—no big deal.
Yet, I remained angry. “I should have caught this! My editor should have caught this! Hey, you messed up, Grammarly, Microsoft Word, and ProWritingAid!”
Am I writing this article to give myself a pass? No, quite the opposite. Today, there are more tools than ever to correct English flaws. Plus, the internet provides a vast resource for properly learning English, and the rules are better documented than ever. So, there is no excuse for improper English.
Yet… Have you read a book review lately? I often see comments like: “Needed editing.” “I spotted six spelling errors in the first chapter.” “Did a sixth grader write this?” “They used ChatGPT to write the entire book.”
And there is a final smack in the face. It has taken me a lifetime of struggling to attain basic English skills. Now that I can appreciate finely crafted sentences (I love you, Neil Gaiman!!!), everything has turned to junk.
My question remains. How upset should I be by my comma mistake? So many people discourage proper English, and a well-written sentence looks out of place. My answer is that I will try my best, but this feels like a battle where I am the only one who cares about the outcome.
You’re the best -Bill
September 11, 2024
