URVOTESCOUNT.COM

What is that? Does literacy not count? Can we really trust that someone who can't spell "your" is literate enough to understand any of the issues, and can vote responsibly? Why couldn't the name of the website be "YourVotesCount"? Why is it any more appealing to use "UR"?

I'm just so appalled that the country might be in "the next generation's" hands, and they can't read or write or think.

Call waiting

Scene: You're having a telephone conversation with a friend or family member (F/FM). All of a sudden, the reception seems to cut in and out. Your F/FM says, "Oh, hold on a second... someone else is ringing me; let me see who it is; I'll be right back." So, you wait, using up your time and your money, and, if you're like me, feeling foolish.

To me, "Call Waiting" is high on the list of the rudest inventions ever. Why is the other caller more important than me? And, conversely, why would I want to interrupt a valuable conversation with my F/FM to speak to someone else right this minute? Some who subscribe to the service justify it by claiming emergency purposes. There's a polite solution: if there is indeed an emergency, the other caller can always get the operator to break into the conversation. Or if there is a critical situation, the F/FM can inform you at the outset of your conversation that they don't want to tie up the line long because someone might be trying to reach them.

My rule is that if my F/FM doesn't come back on the line within 75 seconds, I hang up. The self-esteem I have developed doesn't permit me to be pre-empted.

And that's about all I have to say about that.

A global challenge

Apparently the epidemic of lost grammar and spelling skills is global. David Campbell, an Australian mathemetician and writer, was "right on" (no pun intended) when he complained about the problem in an opinion piece in 2007. Click on this post's title to read his article. That he's a mathemetician complaining about writing skills is close to home for me.

My father was a chemistry professor and world-renowned geochemical research scientist. He was the editor of professional scientific journals. I attended one of the universities where he was dean of the College of Sciences, and knew some of his students. Some of them protested bitterly because they would lose points on chemistry exams for misspelling, incomplete sentences, improper subject-verb agreeement and all other manner of grammar errors. "It's a chemistry exam," they would say. "You can't take off for English mistakes." "Of course I can," he'd say. "If you don't learn to communicate articulately, how will your research get published? How will you have credibility? Will you be communicating what you actually intended to say? Will your peers take your work seriously? Your credibility as a researcher is on the line."

And my parents' insistence that I learn to be articulate using the "old-fashioned" rules has stood me in good stead, I believe. I make my living by words and interpreting meaning by analyzing punctuation. I believe that those with literacy skills will rise and hold the world power. Let's get together and return articulate communication to a place of respect and popularity.

Just a reminder to read David Campbell's article by clicking on the title of this post.

You can't make a point if no one understands what you said

In the September 1, 2008 issue of Newsweek, essayist Steve Tuttle wrote about readers' reactions to an essay he had written for the August 11 issue about his dislike of Crocs rubber clogs. Mr. Tuttle shared some quotes from some of the people who responded to the essay. Perhaps not exactly Mr. Tuttle's message, but what I took away from reading the September 1 piece is that there are a lot of people with access to written communication tools who can't communicate in writing. For example, Mr. Tuttle shares with us this: "A reader with the name Castanee was 'amased of myself that was capable of reading through the lines.' " Another reader thought Mr. Tuttle should be more " 'revenant.' " And another reader wondered how Mr. Tuttle ever got " 'publicated.' "

You may think these are aberrations, communications from the uncommon few who have literacy problems. And you'd be wrong.

I review legal documents every day that are prepared by professionals with advanced degrees. The language skills demonstrated in the drafts I get from those professionals are on par with the writing Mr. Tuttle received in his messages. These are from people who somehow managed to obtain degrees from some of this country's highest learning institutions. And these people are smart - "scary smart," I lovingly call them. They are engineers of the highest caliber, and they are people who manage billion-dollar projects. And yet many of them cannot put a simple sentence together that is meaningful and grammatically correct.

It's not that they don't have cogent thoughts; they do. What they seem to have forgotten, if they ever knew it, is that all the knowledge in the world won't do society any good if it is imprisoned behind non-existent communication skills. How can you make a point, persuade someone to do something your way, share a valuable idea if you can't communicate it so someone else will understand it?

Why did I start this blog? I started this blog, as you can see from the Welcome message, because I believe that the people of this country need to be reminded that intelligence is mandatory in this age. Somewhere in the past few years, it seems that it became acceptable to mispronounce "nuclear"; it became acceptable to forget fifth-grade language skills and second-grade spelling skills. The social conscience has become dulled by corporations and politics; the general population has forgotten that they are entitled to civil liberties; they've even forgotten what those liberties are that they learned about in 10th-grade civics class. They've lost sight of critical thinking skills. And all that they learned about America being founded on tolerance, respect for others and self-respect has gotten lost in the marketing of mean music, intolerant and impolite conversation, and the encouragement of bullying behaviour.And I think this country is better than that. We have to be if we are going to compete with other countries in which education, knowledge, intelligence and civility are respected and expected.So the point of this blog is not just to rant about the lack of manners and good grammar that bombard us daily; rather, it is figure out how we can move toward a better and stronger standard and cultural norm.
Labels: civility, courtesy, intelligence, respect