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  3. Wat happened to the English language?

Wat happened to the English language?

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  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

    Hate to brag*, but I'm a published author. Before I handed in a chapter to my editor I double checked if everything was correct. My editor barely made any corrections, and when he did make a suggestion it was often something weird like "maybe you can explain what 'x' is or maybe not, your call." At one point I got another editor and he read the already edited chapters as well, still no corrections. When my book was published and I got the physical copy I was proud. I opened my book on a random page and the first thing I noticed was a #@$&#!@^&^&! TYPO! :mad: :laugh: This was written and double checked by me, two editors, a technical editor and finally someone who does a final check on spelling and grammar. What I think is happening here is that everyone thinks the next person is going to fix it, but that person thinks the same. That sort of behavior happens everywhere. For example, the piles under my house were too short and my house started to sink into the ground (during construction, luckily). The piling(?) company, the construction company, local authorities, some overarching builders group, and I think three more parties looked at a plan to fix it and came to an agreement. The plan failed and in hindsight it never could've worked. Seven(!) parties did no do their job and an entire row of houses had to be demolished in order to get good piles into the ground (they went from 6 m to 21 m, so go figure). If that happens to a row of houses it could sure as hell happen to some book or article that may or may not be read. OK, I love it, but I'm obliged to say that if I don't want to sound like a douche ;p

    Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

    L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #19

    Sander Rossel wrote:

    it never could've worked.

    Most native English (and American) speakers would've written "could of", and do not even understand why it's (i.e. 'it is') wrong.

    Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

      Hate to brag*, but I'm a published author. Before I handed in a chapter to my editor I double checked if everything was correct. My editor barely made any corrections, and when he did make a suggestion it was often something weird like "maybe you can explain what 'x' is or maybe not, your call." At one point I got another editor and he read the already edited chapters as well, still no corrections. When my book was published and I got the physical copy I was proud. I opened my book on a random page and the first thing I noticed was a #@$&#!@^&^&! TYPO! :mad: :laugh: This was written and double checked by me, two editors, a technical editor and finally someone who does a final check on spelling and grammar. What I think is happening here is that everyone thinks the next person is going to fix it, but that person thinks the same. That sort of behavior happens everywhere. For example, the piles under my house were too short and my house started to sink into the ground (during construction, luckily). The piling(?) company, the construction company, local authorities, some overarching builders group, and I think three more parties looked at a plan to fix it and came to an agreement. The plan failed and in hindsight it never could've worked. Seven(!) parties did no do their job and an entire row of houses had to be demolished in order to get good piles into the ground (they went from 6 m to 21 m, so go figure). If that happens to a row of houses it could sure as hell happen to some book or article that may or may not be read. OK, I love it, but I'm obliged to say that if I don't want to sound like a douche ;p

      Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jorgen Andersson
      wrote on last edited by
      #20

      Sander Rossel wrote:

      but I'm obliged to say that if I don't want to sound like a douche

      That's not how it works. :-\

      Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

      Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • J John R Shaw

        I have read books written over a hundred years ago that had no grammar or spelling errors. That is just good editing. I sometimes take a long time in responding to emails or online questiona in an attempt to avoid errors (unfortunately they still occur). The issue I am addressing now has to do with language, syntax/grammar. At first I thought the description of movies/shows (no matter how old) was because someone with English as a second language was writing it (part of the time). Then I started to see a trend, it was not just the people writing movies description, but people writing books and news articles. The most important one being news articles. These where obviously people who grew up with the language and simply do not understand it or are unwilling to put in the effort to do it correctly. With books (and news) I understand; you just start writing and let if flow, but the misspellings and grammar issues should be corrected before publishing. But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are). Sorry, that is my little rant. I just read a news article that was missing words (which required me to fill in the blanks) and also appeared to be incorrect (where's the editor?). And those responsible for verifying the validity of their statements. Technically; I do not speak English, I speak American, but expect people writing in that language to actually understand it or at least have someone editing (verifying) that what we writ makes sense. That's enough, I got carried away (2:59 AM), when I read something, I expect to understand without having to insert missing word, etc.. Have fun taring apart the above, as I had no editor and made now effort to correct mistakes, but I am also not publishing a (so called) professional article.

        INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone

        J Offline
        J Offline
        Jacquers
        wrote on last edited by
        #21

        Professionalism is definitely diminishing. It doesn't seem like proofreading is a thing anymore. Also, things like swearing were not done in articles, but now it is. And some even include memes.

        Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • J John R Shaw

          I have read books written over a hundred years ago that had no grammar or spelling errors. That is just good editing. I sometimes take a long time in responding to emails or online questiona in an attempt to avoid errors (unfortunately they still occur). The issue I am addressing now has to do with language, syntax/grammar. At first I thought the description of movies/shows (no matter how old) was because someone with English as a second language was writing it (part of the time). Then I started to see a trend, it was not just the people writing movies description, but people writing books and news articles. The most important one being news articles. These where obviously people who grew up with the language and simply do not understand it or are unwilling to put in the effort to do it correctly. With books (and news) I understand; you just start writing and let if flow, but the misspellings and grammar issues should be corrected before publishing. But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are). Sorry, that is my little rant. I just read a news article that was missing words (which required me to fill in the blanks) and also appeared to be incorrect (where's the editor?). And those responsible for verifying the validity of their statements. Technically; I do not speak English, I speak American, but expect people writing in that language to actually understand it or at least have someone editing (verifying) that what we writ makes sense. That's enough, I got carried away (2:59 AM), when I read something, I expect to understand without having to insert missing word, etc.. Have fun taring apart the above, as I had no editor and made now effort to correct mistakes, but I am also not publishing a (so called) professional article.

          INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone

          D Offline
          D Offline
          DerekT P
          wrote on last edited by
          #22

          I agree with you completely. I've been a grammar and spelling nerd since birth pretty much. (My English teacher used to have me stand at front of class and would say "Tell them about apostrophes" or something, and disappear for a fag for 20 minutes). Partly, yes of course it's technology. TXT speak, predictive text and all the rest encourages laziness and re-inforces incorrect usage. Partly, of course, languages evolve and I have no real problem with the introduction of new words and the partial loss of others. What winds me up, though, is the use of words that are simply wrong and either give an incorrect message or an ambiguous one. I cannot understand how people routinely make statements that make no sense whatsoever - nor can I understand how people manage to correctly interpret it a lot of the time! One thing I've noticed is that people, now in their 60s, who used to speak correctly are now adopting the ridiculous use of "of" when they mean "have": "I could of broken lockdown". It makes no sense, it doesn't save any time, and I can't see how or why it arose. Maybe people have either damaged their hearing so much, or are just so lazy when listening to others, that they've mis-heard "could've" as "could of" and assumed that "of" has another meaning. When this started, I assumed it was just a pronunciation issue, but of course it rapidly spread into writing as well. Now we're bombarded online and on TV with ads for "Grammarly" - based on the supposition that grammar and spelling are "hard" and take so much effort that you need software to do it for you. However if people just applied some thought to the language they used, plus maybe learned a few simple rules, it should come pretty naturally. Misuse of language particularly irks me when used by the media (especially the BBC) - these are professional communicators, and part of their role (in my opinion) is not only to communicate effectively and accurately, but to act as a role model in communication. (I also get annoyed by full-time professional drivers, e.g. cabbies and lorry drivers, who make the most basic and annoying errors - such as middle-lane hogging and failing to indicate). Perhaps the root cause is the speed with which society moves these days; when replying to a letter, a response wasn't expected for a couple of days (remember when the postman called several times a day?) but with text and WhatsApp there is an expectation of instant reply to everything. We arguably write more than we ever have done, but have less time to do it

          Sander RosselS G J J 4 Replies Last reply
          0
          • J John R Shaw

            I have read books written over a hundred years ago that had no grammar or spelling errors. That is just good editing. I sometimes take a long time in responding to emails or online questiona in an attempt to avoid errors (unfortunately they still occur). The issue I am addressing now has to do with language, syntax/grammar. At first I thought the description of movies/shows (no matter how old) was because someone with English as a second language was writing it (part of the time). Then I started to see a trend, it was not just the people writing movies description, but people writing books and news articles. The most important one being news articles. These where obviously people who grew up with the language and simply do not understand it or are unwilling to put in the effort to do it correctly. With books (and news) I understand; you just start writing and let if flow, but the misspellings and grammar issues should be corrected before publishing. But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are). Sorry, that is my little rant. I just read a news article that was missing words (which required me to fill in the blanks) and also appeared to be incorrect (where's the editor?). And those responsible for verifying the validity of their statements. Technically; I do not speak English, I speak American, but expect people writing in that language to actually understand it or at least have someone editing (verifying) that what we writ makes sense. That's enough, I got carried away (2:59 AM), when I read something, I expect to understand without having to insert missing word, etc.. Have fun taring apart the above, as I had no editor and made now effort to correct mistakes, but I am also not publishing a (so called) professional article.

            INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone

            Richard DeemingR Online
            Richard DeemingR Online
            Richard Deeming
            wrote on last edited by
            #23

            John R. Shaw wrote:

            These where obviously people who grew up with the language

            :rolleyes:


            "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

            "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • R Rage

              This is part of world digitalization. The target nowadays is to get the information transmitted quickly, disregarding the formatting. If I tell you that your smart, you got the message, even though I used your instead of your're. Grammar is eventually only important to those who consider it important, and fact is that it is not important to transmit content. Do not get me wrong, I enjoy reading a text free of mistakes, but it is because I am an old fart whom it was taught that writing correctly was as important as the content of the message itself. This is not true anymore : in no times there will be nobody anymore shocked by texts full of mistakes - the checkers will be as ignorant as the writers.

              Do not escape reality : improve reality !

              D Offline
              D Offline
              DerekT P
              wrote on last edited by
              #24

              john where james had had had had had had had had had had had the teachers approval

              Punctuate that - or better still, make sense of it without the punctuation. Punctuation IS content, it tells you so much, and alters - sometimes dramatically - the meaning. Why don't people understand that?? (Thanks Daniel for that example; not seen that one before but shows how a comma can save a life!)

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • R Rage

                This is part of world digitalization. The target nowadays is to get the information transmitted quickly, disregarding the formatting. If I tell you that your smart, you got the message, even though I used your instead of your're. Grammar is eventually only important to those who consider it important, and fact is that it is not important to transmit content. Do not get me wrong, I enjoy reading a text free of mistakes, but it is because I am an old fart whom it was taught that writing correctly was as important as the content of the message itself. This is not true anymore : in no times there will be nobody anymore shocked by texts full of mistakes - the checkers will be as ignorant as the writers.

                Do not escape reality : improve reality !

                D Offline
                D Offline
                DerekT P
                wrote on last edited by
                #25

                The irony being, of course, that our digitized world is driven by software that is 100 times more pernickety about punctuation than the worst/best of us! (Including white space in some cases...) I wonder how some of today's "yoof" react when put before VisualStudio and expected to understand that it actually matters whether you use a capital letter or not, or that a comma and a semi-colon are not in fact interchangeable.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • J John R Shaw

                  I have read books written over a hundred years ago that had no grammar or spelling errors. That is just good editing. I sometimes take a long time in responding to emails or online questiona in an attempt to avoid errors (unfortunately they still occur). The issue I am addressing now has to do with language, syntax/grammar. At first I thought the description of movies/shows (no matter how old) was because someone with English as a second language was writing it (part of the time). Then I started to see a trend, it was not just the people writing movies description, but people writing books and news articles. The most important one being news articles. These where obviously people who grew up with the language and simply do not understand it or are unwilling to put in the effort to do it correctly. With books (and news) I understand; you just start writing and let if flow, but the misspellings and grammar issues should be corrected before publishing. But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are). Sorry, that is my little rant. I just read a news article that was missing words (which required me to fill in the blanks) and also appeared to be incorrect (where's the editor?). And those responsible for verifying the validity of their statements. Technically; I do not speak English, I speak American, but expect people writing in that language to actually understand it or at least have someone editing (verifying) that what we writ makes sense. That's enough, I got carried away (2:59 AM), when I read something, I expect to understand without having to insert missing word, etc.. Have fun taring apart the above, as I had no editor and made now effort to correct mistakes, but I am also not publishing a (so called) professional article.

                  INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone

                  A Offline
                  A Offline
                  Amarnath S
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #26

                  John R. Shaw wrote:

                  Wat

                  The same thing which happened to the title of your post.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • L Lost User

                    Sander Rossel wrote:

                    it never could've worked.

                    Most native English (and American) speakers would've written "could of", and do not even understand why it's (i.e. 'it is') wrong.

                    Sander RosselS Offline
                    Sander RosselS Offline
                    Sander Rossel
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #27

                    They're, their, there, it's so simple :^) One thing I sometimes struggle with is "it's" instead of "its". For example: Sander's/Sanders book is awesome That's because in Dutch it's "Sander's" while in English it's "Sanders". However, when you say: Chris' website is awesome, you do use that apostrophe and it's the same as in Dutch. Sanders presidential campaign (that would be my presidential campaign) vs. Sanders' presidential campaign (Bernie's campaign). Or in Dutch, Sander's presidential campaign and Sanders' presidential campaign. It's not just an English phenomenon though. Dutch language skills are deteriorating as well. Especially the dreaded "dt" rule (singular second person is singular first person + T). "Ik vind" (I find) and "Hij vindt" (He finds). You see stuff like "Ik vindt" (horribly wrong) and "Hij vind" (less wrong, but still wrong). I must admit I sometimes do it wrong too and I still struggle with the past particle of some words (does it end with a D or a T?) :laugh: Hard to explain to a non-Dutch I guess ;) Let's just say I find such grammar errors in business emails, even the more formal ones.

                    Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

                    L J 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                      They're, their, there, it's so simple :^) One thing I sometimes struggle with is "it's" instead of "its". For example: Sander's/Sanders book is awesome That's because in Dutch it's "Sander's" while in English it's "Sanders". However, when you say: Chris' website is awesome, you do use that apostrophe and it's the same as in Dutch. Sanders presidential campaign (that would be my presidential campaign) vs. Sanders' presidential campaign (Bernie's campaign). Or in Dutch, Sander's presidential campaign and Sanders' presidential campaign. It's not just an English phenomenon though. Dutch language skills are deteriorating as well. Especially the dreaded "dt" rule (singular second person is singular first person + T). "Ik vind" (I find) and "Hij vindt" (He finds). You see stuff like "Ik vindt" (horribly wrong) and "Hij vind" (less wrong, but still wrong). I must admit I sometimes do it wrong too and I still struggle with the past particle of some words (does it end with a D or a T?) :laugh: Hard to explain to a non-Dutch I guess ;) Let's just say I find such grammar errors in business emails, even the more formal ones.

                      Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

                      L Offline
                      L Offline
                      Lost User
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #28

                      Sander Rossel wrote:

                      That's because in Dutch it's "Sander's" while in English it's "Sanders".

                      No, the correct English usage is, "Sander's book"; which is a contraction of "Sander his book". The apostrophe tells us that some characters have been removed. When the word normally ends in an 's' (as in Bernie Sanders or Chris) then we just put the apostrophe and do not add the extra 's'; although, strictly speaking, we should.

                      Sander Rossel wrote:

                      Hard to explain to a non-Dutch I guess

                      But not to those of us who are fascinated with language and its (belonging to it, as his is belonging to him) usage.

                      Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • L Lost User

                        Sander Rossel wrote:

                        That's because in Dutch it's "Sander's" while in English it's "Sanders".

                        No, the correct English usage is, "Sander's book"; which is a contraction of "Sander his book". The apostrophe tells us that some characters have been removed. When the word normally ends in an 's' (as in Bernie Sanders or Chris) then we just put the apostrophe and do not add the extra 's'; although, strictly speaking, we should.

                        Sander Rossel wrote:

                        Hard to explain to a non-Dutch I guess

                        But not to those of us who are fascinated with language and its (belonging to it, as his is belonging to him) usage.

                        Sander RosselS Offline
                        Sander RosselS Offline
                        Sander Rossel
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #29

                        Sander Rossel wrote:

                        One thing I sometimes struggle with is "it's" instead of "its".

                        Richard MacCutchan wrote:

                        No, the correct English usage is, "Sander's book"

                        I think I've proven my point :laugh:

                        Richard MacCutchan wrote:

                        its (belonging to it, as his is belonging to him) usage.

                        I guess that's where my struggle comes from X| So, Sander's book, Sanders' campaign, its effectiveness and it's hopeless.

                        Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

                        L 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • J John R Shaw

                          I have read books written over a hundred years ago that had no grammar or spelling errors. That is just good editing. I sometimes take a long time in responding to emails or online questiona in an attempt to avoid errors (unfortunately they still occur). The issue I am addressing now has to do with language, syntax/grammar. At first I thought the description of movies/shows (no matter how old) was because someone with English as a second language was writing it (part of the time). Then I started to see a trend, it was not just the people writing movies description, but people writing books and news articles. The most important one being news articles. These where obviously people who grew up with the language and simply do not understand it or are unwilling to put in the effort to do it correctly. With books (and news) I understand; you just start writing and let if flow, but the misspellings and grammar issues should be corrected before publishing. But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are). Sorry, that is my little rant. I just read a news article that was missing words (which required me to fill in the blanks) and also appeared to be incorrect (where's the editor?). And those responsible for verifying the validity of their statements. Technically; I do not speak English, I speak American, but expect people writing in that language to actually understand it or at least have someone editing (verifying) that what we writ makes sense. That's enough, I got carried away (2:59 AM), when I read something, I expect to understand without having to insert missing word, etc.. Have fun taring apart the above, as I had no editor and made now effort to correct mistakes, but I am also not publishing a (so called) professional article.

                          INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone

                          F Offline
                          F Offline
                          fd9750
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #30

                          Nothing really, it is just evolving over the course of time, 100% logical and inevitable. Whatever is attempted to retain how it is totally pointless as the juggernaut of change will crush anything in its path.

                          D 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                            Sander Rossel wrote:

                            One thing I sometimes struggle with is "it's" instead of "its".

                            Richard MacCutchan wrote:

                            No, the correct English usage is, "Sander's book"

                            I think I've proven my point :laugh:

                            Richard MacCutchan wrote:

                            its (belonging to it, as his is belonging to him) usage.

                            I guess that's where my struggle comes from X| So, Sander's book, Sanders' campaign, its effectiveness and it's hopeless.

                            Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

                            L Offline
                            L Offline
                            Lost User
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #31

                            Now you understand everything. :laugh:

                            Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                              Hate to brag*, but I'm a published author. Before I handed in a chapter to my editor I double checked if everything was correct. My editor barely made any corrections, and when he did make a suggestion it was often something weird like "maybe you can explain what 'x' is or maybe not, your call." At one point I got another editor and he read the already edited chapters as well, still no corrections. When my book was published and I got the physical copy I was proud. I opened my book on a random page and the first thing I noticed was a #@$&#!@^&^&! TYPO! :mad: :laugh: This was written and double checked by me, two editors, a technical editor and finally someone who does a final check on spelling and grammar. What I think is happening here is that everyone thinks the next person is going to fix it, but that person thinks the same. That sort of behavior happens everywhere. For example, the piles under my house were too short and my house started to sink into the ground (during construction, luckily). The piling(?) company, the construction company, local authorities, some overarching builders group, and I think three more parties looked at a plan to fix it and came to an agreement. The plan failed and in hindsight it never could've worked. Seven(!) parties did no do their job and an entire row of houses had to be demolished in order to get good piles into the ground (they went from 6 m to 21 m, so go figure). If that happens to a row of houses it could sure as hell happen to some book or article that may or may not be read. OK, I love it, but I'm obliged to say that if I don't want to sound like a douche ;p

                              Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

                              D Offline
                              D Offline
                              DerekT P
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #32

                              To be fair, I doubt that any editor would "skip over" an error assuming a later editor would fix it. It's more likely that having skim read the proof and found it to be generally good that they don't bother with a proper proof-read. The other issue is that it's actually really hard to proof-read your own work. Of course you'll find many issues, but when reading it a lot of the time you're really just "re-playing" in your head what you intended to write, rather than reading the characters on the page. A service I provide is proof reading websites (including checking for consistent terminology, consistent capitalisation etc) and I frequently find errors which the authors are really embarrassed about, having read, re-read and read again looking for - and missing - typos. I'm aware that having set myself up as a "proof reader" I am very much at risk when making changes to my own website! This is quite a thread now and I'm wondering whether the OP really intended the typo in the subject line... (though I'm fairly sure that's a typing error rather than a language error, if it wasn't deliberate)

                              Sander RosselS J 2 Replies Last reply
                              0
                              • J John R Shaw

                                I have read books written over a hundred years ago that had no grammar or spelling errors. That is just good editing. I sometimes take a long time in responding to emails or online questiona in an attempt to avoid errors (unfortunately they still occur). The issue I am addressing now has to do with language, syntax/grammar. At first I thought the description of movies/shows (no matter how old) was because someone with English as a second language was writing it (part of the time). Then I started to see a trend, it was not just the people writing movies description, but people writing books and news articles. The most important one being news articles. These where obviously people who grew up with the language and simply do not understand it or are unwilling to put in the effort to do it correctly. With books (and news) I understand; you just start writing and let if flow, but the misspellings and grammar issues should be corrected before publishing. But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are). Sorry, that is my little rant. I just read a news article that was missing words (which required me to fill in the blanks) and also appeared to be incorrect (where's the editor?). And those responsible for verifying the validity of their statements. Technically; I do not speak English, I speak American, but expect people writing in that language to actually understand it or at least have someone editing (verifying) that what we writ makes sense. That's enough, I got carried away (2:59 AM), when I read something, I expect to understand without having to insert missing word, etc.. Have fun taring apart the above, as I had no editor and made now effort to correct mistakes, but I am also not publishing a (so called) professional article.

                                INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." - Edsger Dijkstra "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks. " - Daniel Boone

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                                Marc Clifton
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #33

                                John R. Shaw wrote:

                                But it is reaching a ridiculous extent; are their employers just ignorant or just don't care (more likely they are just as ignorant or think we are).

                                In the day of grammar and spell checkers, it's unbelievable. Personally, I think it comes down to lack of education. BTW:

                                John R. Shaw wrote:

                                Have fun taring apart the above

                                "tearing" ;) taring: to adjust (a scale on which an empty container has been placed) so as to reduce the displayed weight to zero Also, some interesting definitions I didn't know about regarding "tare": a weed of grain fields especially of biblical times that is usually held to be the darnel

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                                • F fd9750

                                  Nothing really, it is just evolving over the course of time, 100% logical and inevitable. Whatever is attempted to retain how it is totally pointless as the juggernaut of change will crush anything in its path.

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                                  DerekT P
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #34

                                  I don't think some things are evolution (like, specifically, "could of"). Evolution is a refinement, a honing, of something. The use of "could of" is an illogical regression in that it unnecessarily creates a new meaning for the word "of" that has no logical etymology other than "sounding a bit like" a contraction of another word. It breaks well-established rules about grammar, tense, verb forms and contractions. It makes the sense of a sentence harder, not easier, to understand. It's just foul and those who use it should be summarily put out of their misery. Not that I've got strong feelings about it of course. :laugh:

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                                  • D DerekT P

                                    To be fair, I doubt that any editor would "skip over" an error assuming a later editor would fix it. It's more likely that having skim read the proof and found it to be generally good that they don't bother with a proper proof-read. The other issue is that it's actually really hard to proof-read your own work. Of course you'll find many issues, but when reading it a lot of the time you're really just "re-playing" in your head what you intended to write, rather than reading the characters on the page. A service I provide is proof reading websites (including checking for consistent terminology, consistent capitalisation etc) and I frequently find errors which the authors are really embarrassed about, having read, re-read and read again looking for - and missing - typos. I'm aware that having set myself up as a "proof reader" I am very much at risk when making changes to my own website! This is quite a thread now and I'm wondering whether the OP really intended the typo in the subject line... (though I'm fairly sure that's a typing error rather than a language error, if it wasn't deliberate)

                                    Sander RosselS Offline
                                    Sander RosselS Offline
                                    Sander Rossel
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #35

                                    DerekT-P wrote:

                                    I doubt that any editor would "skip over" an error assuming a later editor would fix it. It's more likely that having skim read the proof and found it to be generally good that they don't bother with a proper proof-read.

                                    Yeah, they won't ignore an error if they find it, but they won't do as much trouble finding it because someone else will (hopefully) do that already.

                                    DerekT-P wrote:

                                    checking for consistent terminology

                                    This is so important and hard to do! I often find myself starting an article talking about, for examples, "releases", but when I continue the next day, or after lunch or whatever, I continue with "deployments". You won't even notice it when reading the entire work. It's also very important to stick to the terminology of the tools you're using. For example, Azure DevOps has "release pipelines", so call them that and not "deployment pipelines". Most editors probably wouldn't even notice, but for someone going through your article and looking for "deployment pipelines" it can be really confusing! Capitalization is also a thing. For example, when I first mention something, I often capitalize it. Example: "You will find Pipelines in the left-hand menu. This is where you can create and manage pipelines. So go to pipelines and you will see..." Or: "You will find 'Pipelines' in the left-hand menu. This is where you can create and manage pipelines. So go to 'Pipelines' and you will see..." Pipelines doesn't have to be capitalized, but when I'm talking about an actual caption on a button, I like to be very specific by using the exact capitalization the button uses, but that looks weird so I quote it too. "Click the 'Post Message' button at the bottom of the screen, this will post the message in The Lounge." Consistent writing is probably the hardest part about writing. One more thing that's really a bitch, British English vs. American English. The media I get to see, read, play and hear is mostly American, so it's capitalization and not capitalisation. Google will even mark the S as a typo :D As a non-native English speaker I really don't know which is what and I can be found writing the proper capitalization of different colours ;)

                                    DerekT-P wrote:

                                    the typo in the subject line

                                    What typo? :^)

                                    Best, Sander sanderrossel.com

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                                    • L Lost User

                                      Now you understand everything. :laugh:

                                      Sander RosselS Offline
                                      Sander RosselS Offline
                                      Sander Rossel
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #36

                                      Yes, the English language has no more secrets for I! :D

                                      Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

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                                      • J Jorgen Andersson

                                        Sander Rossel wrote:

                                        but I'm obliged to say that if I don't want to sound like a douche

                                        That's not how it works. :-\

                                        Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                                        Sander RosselS Offline
                                        Sander RosselS Offline
                                        Sander Rossel
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #37

                                        Yes it does. Check this out. WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, I think you're an idiot! Were you offended? No you were not. Because excusing yourself up front is like the secret super weapon that makes you get away with everything :D

                                        Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

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                                        • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                          Yes it does. Check this out. WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, I think you're an idiot! Were you offended? No you were not. Because excusing yourself up front is like the secret super weapon that makes you get away with everything :D

                                          Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly

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                                          Jorgen Andersson
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #38

                                          Sander Rossel wrote:

                                          Were you offended? No you were not. Because excusing yourself up front is like the secret super weapon that makes you get away with everything

                                          No I'm not offended. Because getting offended by a moron makes one of myself. :)

                                          Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                                          Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
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