Seriously.

There is the way you write casually, and the way you write academically. It's always been this way. Learn this or fail.

Simple.

In the past two days there's been this thread about the butchering of the English language, a thread about students getting 50% credit for showing up for a test, and a thread about how worthless an English degree is.

Oh, how I weep for this country.

/English major

LA Times columnist rails on LOLspeak, complaining that is makes her MS Word autocorrect go into overdrive. Back in my day, professional journalists didn't need autocorrect at all, biatch

Please tell me you did that on purpose

don't understand: In the past two days there's been this thread about the butchering of the English language, a thread about students getting 50% credit for showing up for a test, and a thread about how worthless an English degree is.

Oh, how I weep for this country.

/English major

LOL Englihs magor

/sic

omegaminus: ImOscar: Seriously.

Is anyone ever going to post the full strip (I assume that's not the whole thing) so that we may see a bit of context for once?

I think that is the whole thing. the context is a television commercial for some sort of phone service. the mother storms into the daughter's room with the phone bill and says something like, "just who have you been texting?" and the daughter replies as above in the cartoon, with the subtitle, "I don't know, my best friend forever Jill?"

omegaminus

Like Sarah Jessica Farker said, it's one of those cross media references. To a commercial, no less!

the day i write LOL
you're welcome to kill me

She'll get over it.

Wow subby, a little hormonal aren't we?

By the way great headline. Really is captures my attention.

davynelson: the day i write LOL
you're welcome to kill me

Well, you just wrote "LOL," gonna have to make you expire.

\On technicality, of course.
\\Best kinds.

Three blocks away from my office, the world's largest LOLCat (new window).

RocketRod: The smarter kids will grow out of their "new slang", it happens with every generation. Of course... the not-so-smart ones will be corralling the carts at your local Costco when they become adults.

Welcom 2 Costco, I HRT j00.

D.Boon cilt a bar hier!

pew pew pew

/screw chatspeak

Why did my head just "asplode," kitty dear?

For the record, 'asplode' originated from a game in a Strong Bad email as a purposeful mockery of bad game translations.

Kar98: D.Boon cilt a bar hier!

Touché.

In other news, I have seen communication from school districts where the administrators used poor grammar.

omegaminus: Is anyone ever going to post the full strip (I assume that's not the whole thing) so that we may see a bit of context for once?

Here's the commercial: IDK, My BFF Jill? (new window, NaRR)

Hank Moody unavailable for comment.

don't understand: In the past two days there's been this thread about the butchering of the English language, a thread about students getting 50% credit for showing up for a test, and a thread about how worthless an English degree is.

Oh, how I weep for this country.

/English major

Don't worry. Nothing has changed. There have been and will always be those who are distracted, incapable, immature, willfully ignorant, or just downright stupid. There will always be those whose interests lie elsewhere, and will neglect parts of their education. There will be a huge number who will do the bare minimum to meet what is expected of them.

There will also always be some who develop a true passion for the language and literature. You'll be fine.

if i paid someone to put words on paper, i would expect them to be able to put them on paper correctly.

that being said, i use autocorrect when i was typing papers, but in my defense i was a lazy english major, whereas this biatch is a columnist for the goddamn motherfarking la farking times

She has insulted ICanHazCheezburger. Burn her buildings and take her head!

/jk,lol

Mandapants: In other news, I have seen communication from school districts where the administrators used poor grammar.

THIS.

Poor grammar AND spelling. Administrators AND teachers. See it all the time. It makes me sad.

Journalists who have to rely on MSWord to correct their grammatical and spelling errors? Hmm. Their primary medium is the written word, and they can't do it properly without a machine to automatically correct their mistakes for them? That's an automatic FAIL in my book.

Threadjack,

WTH is going on with 7chan. I keep getting the American Cancer Society page.

From headline: "complaining that is makes"

I hope you're not a professional journalist, is it would make the mistake Rotsky-worthy if you were.

You don't have problems like that if you use Typepad.

I've been asked how to spell "here" and "one" by high school seniors and seen more your/you're, there/their, to/too mix-ups than a homophone workbook.

What's sad is that a friend of my husband's is working on her Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, and she is unable to correctly use your/you're, their/they're/there, etc. correctly. I sincerely hope that her education either teachers her the correct way or that someone slaps her silly and tells her to set her sights on another job so that she doesn't screw up the next generation of kiddies.

Back in my day, professional journalists didn't need autocorrect at all, biatch

No. That's what subeditors were for.

It's the evolution of language? Look back and you see the continued adaptation of the english language, as certain slang takes the foreground and other slang passes through.

It's just moving much, much more quickly in the information age, and will likely become permenant quite quickly, before being enveloped in yet another wave of "language mutilation".

Those who learn the language one way always biatch about how individuals ruin it with slang and their own take on it later.

Example : there was an experiment where they put parents and children from two different languages together, living, for a period of time. The adults managed to grasp each others language roughly and were able to communicate with each other after a few years. The children, on the other hand, learned BOTH languages, and CREATED a third, a mix of both into a new type of structure.

Which, in essence, is a drastic representation of language evolution and adaptability. It's nothing to mourn, unless you're a diehard proponent of "this is the way english should be, golly gee gosh darn it".

don't understand: In the past two days there's been this thread about the butchering of the English language, a thread about students getting 50% credit for showing up for a test, and a thread about how worthless an English degree is.

Oh, how I weep for this country.

/English major

Regretting not taking a major that would give you the political or financial clout and the ethos to do something about it?

//English majors aren't worthless, persay; they're still probably a better option for journalists and editors than actual journalism as regards achieving technical competence in the language. "Journalism" on the other hand, is kind of superfluous. Sure, you can get a job with it, but you could probably get the same job with a high-school diploma if the major didn't exist at all.
//There's also more to it than trade-related applications. Someone has to keep track of things and develop the study of the subject -- I am perhaps crazy for taking this approach to engineering, but at least I'm happily crazy (albeit broke).

A_bomb37: Threadjack,

WTH is going on with 7chan. I keep getting the American Cancer Society page.

Oh for pity's sake, get over yourself.

or


STFU & GBTW !!11!

jmccarth07:

What's sad is that a friend of my husband's is working on her Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, and she is unable to correctly use your/you're, their/they're/there, etc. correctly. I sincerely hope that her education either teachers her the correct way or that someone slaps her silly and tells her to set her sights on another job so that she doesn't screw up the next generation of kiddies.

Man, don't let the article writer know about old english. She'd be shocked at how her writing butchers good english!

Perpetualafk: It's the evolution of language? Look back and you see the continued adaptation of the english language, as certain slang takes the foreground and other slang passes through.

It's just moving much, much more quickly in the information age, and will likely become permenant quite quickly, before being enveloped in yet another wave of "language mutilation".

Those who learn the language one way always biatch about how individuals ruin it with slang and their own take on it later.

Example : there was an experiment where they put parents and children from two different languages together, living, for a period of time. The adults managed to grasp each others language roughly and were able to communicate with each other after a few years. The children, on the other hand, learned BOTH languages, and CREATED a third, a mix of both into a new type of structure.

Which, in essence, is a drastic representation of language evolution and adaptability. It's nothing to mourn, unless you're a diehard proponent of "this is the way english should be, golly gee gosh darn it".

In fact, I'll argue that, like our access to information, our language will always evolve in the direction of more speed. Faster typing. Faster speaking. The more colorful, "intellectual" words will be relegated to academia or specific-purpose assignments as we use more words that get the point across without being so dependent on formal grammar constructs. We don't "search the Internet" for something, we Google it - should your grammar Nazi radar go off when you see a proper noun used as a verb?

Funnier still, people should tell this particular grammar Nazi that we don't say self-contained breathing apparatus or light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We say scuba or laser or NASA, and people know what we are talking about. You may not like LOL, but you know what it means - is it really worth it to say "I'm laughing out loud at that last comment."

TheFlamingoKing: Perpetualafk:is it really worth it to say "I'm laughing out loud at that last comment."

i just tell people to shut up unless they are actually, literally, laughing out loud.
the phrase gets used when somebody thinks something is remotely funny.

jmccarth07: I've been asked how to spell "here" and "one" by high school seniors and seen more your/you're, there/their, to/too mix-ups than a homophone workbook.

What's sad is that a friend of my husband's is working on her Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, and she is unable to correctly use your/you're, their/they're/there, etc. correctly. I sincerely hope that her education either teachers her the correct way or that someone slaps her silly and tells her to set her sights on another job so that she doesn't screw up the next generation of kiddies.

See, maybe its just my way of thinking, but i don't know how anyone can mistake your/you're or their/they're/there. I really don't see how.

The BIG one is you're and they're, you are and they are. IS IT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!?!

You're going to the park
That is your toy.
That is their toy.
They're going to the park.
That is the statue over there.

LEARN TO TYPE/WRITE MOTHERFARKER