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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Credibility
Message-ID: <1537@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 14:55:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.1537
Posted: Thu Jun 27 14:55:33 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 01:29:50 EDT
References: <271@sri-arpa.ARPA>, <1473@ecsvax.UUCP>
Organization: Duke U Comp Ctr
Lines: 36

In 1473@ecsvax.UUCP, phco@ecsvax.UUCP (John Miller) writes...
> I've always been a good speller and have never managed to understand how 
> someone could master the attention to details required by programming and the
> arcane intricacies of some programming languages but still spell at a sixth
> grade level.  Whenever I start to read an article that is badly spelled and 
> grammatically incorrect, I can't avoid being suspicious of the content of the
> article as well.

Well, I've been a good speller (and sometime professional writer) for a
long while.  I go into rages when I see "to comprise" misused, or
"i.e." written when "e.g." is intended.  But I think it's going a
little far to expect everyone to be an expert at the incredible
complexities of English.  I have learned to suffer silently, most of
the time.  The mere fact that someone misspells words or commits other
errors doesn't mean that person is a fool.  For one thing, that person
might well be using English as a second language.  Would you like to be
thought an idiot because your French lacked absolute perfection?  (If
not, stay out of France :-).)

What really drives me nuts is the practice, common among victims of high
school English teachers, who attempt to write in "formal English" - that
substandard, contractionless dialect of the language popular with the
term paper crowd.  People wouldn't even think of saying "is comprised
of" if they weren't out to impress somebody by using what Michael
Atkinson calls "them 75-cent words like 'mayonnaise.'"

And while I'm enflamed, does anybody else vomit when newcasters insist
on emphasising the words that would never be capitalized in a title?
"We're looking INTO the matter, but BY 11 there should be A clearer
picture."  That sort of rot.  Thought so.  Bye now.
the time.
-- 
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-3695
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