This lack of literacy is everywhere.
It even exists here on this forum - I see it every day (see 2 easy examples above) to varying degrees.
We've even had a number of posts from long standing members that are so completely cryptic that they're impossible to figure out without asking questions.
I have most of those people on ignore now...

In the workplace however...
I used to work with a guy.
Super smart fellow. He knew computer networking inside and out.
This dude could not WRITE a coherent sentence to save his life.
If he ever had to send an email to a customer he'd have either me or his wife proofread it for him beforehand.
This was all about 15 years ago or so.

Rolling forward to today I have somewhat of a leadership role at my current job.
As a result I get tasked with reading resumes and interviewing people.
It's APPALLING.
I've had to add a section to my interviews where I literally have the applicant sit in front of me and write up a sham email to a customer just to ensure that they can form complete sentences.

By no means am I an English major. I make occasional mistakes just like everyone else. There has to be some sort of standards though - and the bulk of people out there don't make the cut IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Than

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:
Fewer

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
It was nearly 20 years ago that I encountered a hand-written letter from a pro se litigant which was so poorly composed that, if I recall correctly, I had trouble identifying a coherent sentence.

Frequently, pro se litigants are on the less educated side of the continuum. In this case, however, the litigant in question was a high school English teacher. No kidding. A freaking high school English teacher.

Given the school system she worked in, that should not have surprised me as much as it did, but it was still a little shocking.

-Rob

I read a newspaper article, also ~20 years ago, about a teacher’s union strike in Chicago. A reporter was interviewing teachers on the picket line. Conversing with one of them, he asked which subject she taught. “I teaches English,” she replied.

quote:

Originally posted by Browndrake:
The people in charge these days who should know, don't know, and fewer and fewer people in our society care, or are educated enough to even catch things like this in the first place.

I am appalled as to how dumbed down our society is becoming. There is no excuse for it.

Given the popularity of street-culture and slang, not a surprise that kids today are picking up all the idiosyncrasies and attempting to fit it into their own worlds. Common language usage has been pushed aside for words & phrases that 'only the cool kids' would use....which really shows their ignorance given the low expectations & limited achievement of street culture in general. The excuse given is kids are 'code switching', the attempted belief that people speak differently depending on which social group they're speaking to. The reality is, there's no such thing, as slang and phraseology creep in and end up garbling whatever you're trying to say.
It all ends up on the parents, its a full-time job and it doesn't end when they start to hit puberty, which seems to be the period when parents start to check-out and not care.

One of my close friends, his father is a PolySci professor at UC Davis, even at a academic university like Davis, he's noticed the last 10-years a continual decline in the quality of students that pass through his classes. From poor writing skills, to poor verbal communication skills, students unable to form a coherent statement or, arguments, without slipping into emotional charges or, slang usage. Lots of freshman coming in unprepared and without any kind of structure to handle the rigors of collegiate life.

Welcome to COSTCO, I LOVE YOU

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Than

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:
Fewer

I agree with both, although I suspect "then" was just a typo that didn't get caught.

I didn't see any, but "different than" is one of my pet peeves--it should be "different from".

flashguy

On so many levels ... do not get me started.

"Stupid is that stupid does: ... ! Forrest Gump