1.

I’ll see your “.“

....and raise you a “?”

Nothing to see here.
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Why are you trying to intimidate the younger people on the forum @Mailman? I heard about people like you on the news this week People who use that punctuation mark known as a "full stop" or a "period" Evidently, the younger crowd, Millennials that is, are intimidated by people who send texts and use the period The full stop users are not to be trusted by the Millennials the news says

I think we should be more inclusive here and stop using the full stop

They didn't say anything about question marks so I think they are still okay :D
 
apparently millennials regard all punctuation and use of capital letters as offensive are you suggesting that we stop using these hostile symbols entirely

in the past have worked with younger colleagues who think its impolite to use a capital i as the first person pronoun

being of a generation that insists on correct punctuation i am easily thrown by absence of punctuation andasforthemoderntrendofusingwebaddresseswhichavoidusingeventhespacetohelpthereaderwelligiveup
 
I know this is all tongue-in-cheek, but it's a subject that annoys me. One of many, admittedly.

I'm also a bit of an elitist about spelling. When I'm looking for information or advice on a subject, responses that lack punctuation and/or spelling tend to get glossed over. I realize there's not necessarily a link between poor writing and knowing what you're talking about, but it's an almost subconscious prejudice on my part.
 
This started as a post that I changed my mind on and abandoned, and since you can’t just click a button and make it disappear, I just wipe it all out and replace it with a single period. But I’m with you guys on being a bit of a stickler when it comes to grammar and punctuation. I used to give my kids a hard time when they would send me text messages filled with all kinds of online slang , acronyms and made up words that have no meaning to me.
Maybe that’s why they don’t text me anymore? :laugh2:
 
I have spent much of my career assessing and correcting poorly written reports. It has become nearly impossible for me to read anything without wanting to mark it up for correction. My wife says I will likely take a box of red Sharpie markers to my grave just in case St. Peter (or more likely, the other guy....:rolleyes:) can't spell or punctuate.

About 30 years ago, the Ontario government introduced a new philosophy of language education called the "whole language" approach. The idea was the children would "discover" the language in their own way and so teachers were forbidden to correct spelling and grammar.

What an utterly idiotic concept.

The result is an entire generation of young people, many of whom cannot spell, punctuate or communicate an idea in a cogent manner and some of whom cannot even read properly. What a crippling lack of ability to have in the modern world. In other countries, young people can read, write and speak in their own language AND usually in several others as well. If you go to Holland, every kid in every gas station can speak English about as well as I can and German too - along with, of course, Dutch.

The point is that there is only one way to spell every word (well, two for certain words like colour, odour and labour if you count the correct and American spellings) - and if you are not spelling them that way - then you are doing it wrong. What the f@ck is the point in encouraging people to learn to to do something incorrectly.

We were all corrected when we were little kids - and we somehow survived the ordeal FFS.

...an increasingly grumpy....
Pete
 
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Preach it, Pete!
When my kids were in school, I'd look at their papers, especially for English and/or writing classes. They'd get pissed because I'd insist they do them over with proper spelling and punctuation. "But Daaaaad, the teacher doesn't care!"

"I don't give a shit. I care!

When this country wises up and makes me Education Czar, proper handwriting, spelling and punctuation will be REQUIRED in every subject. You write a paper for Biology? Spelling counts.

And don't even get me started on the mess they've made of simple math. Or how clueless many teachers are outside of their specialty.
 
RIGHT ON Paul!

I have been involved with the discipline and enforcement branch of our provincial regulator for the engineering profession for more than 20 years and one time about 10 years ago, we had a complaint about an engineering report. The client complained that the report was so poorly written that she could not figure out whether her house foundation was ok - or NOT ok. We, the 15 senior engineers on the Complaints Committee, reviewed the report - and we couldn't figure it out either.

The upshot was that this guy (who had a name like "Smith", "Johnson" or "Macdonald" BTW - he was not a foreign born chap for whom English was a second language) lost his licence as a P.Eng. for six months and had to take a course remedial English grammar and spelling. What a kick in the teeth.
 
As someone who was born on the cusp of the millennial/GenX divide, I should probably be offended by some of the derision here, but I'm gonna have to join the elder statesmen here in the 'goshdang kids today' fist-shaking tirade. I agree with you fellas that there's something being lost in the language arts these days, and even very smart folks that I've encountered are oft to have less-than-stellar grammar/spelling/sentence construction nowadays.

Not to mention, that I think I've also always been a bit of a codger at heart, haha.
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