Apostrophes or No Apostrophes that is the question

You do realize you have 2 incorrect uses of apostrophes in your post? :-D

At work, everything seems to either spelled wrong or punctuated wrong when 99% of what you deal with are acronyms.

Hi David, long time no chat. I'm at Chris' house right now, he said to say hello.

(By the way, that apostrophe next to Chris name is correct. :-D )

 

Personally I think the school system in the USA has got to lenient letting kids turn in homework using abbreviated words. Having to write the full word helps learn the correct spelling, but of course I am of the generation with no spell check, we actually had to look it up in the dictionary. Only problem with that is if you did not already kind of know the spelling you could not find it in the dictionary. :confused Now you get suggestions of what the word you are trying to spell.:-o
I guess my thought is how are they going to be able to read if they can't spell or how will they be able to spell whole words if they are allowed to abbreviate all words?
Sometimes I read a text message and go huh! Sorry I got off on a rant about chat lingo and forgot about apostrophes.:-D

 

I can honestly attribute three-quarters of my smart-a$$ness as a direct result of working for him :-D

In other words, it was him...

Yeah, they're fine. He's got a lot going on with NASA and the US Navy, and she's busy spending the money he earns :-D

 

If I use Yahoo Messenger to send a SMS to someone's cell phone and I use an apostrophe it will show the word with the apostrophe when I type it but when I hit Send the message box will show several symbols in the place of the apostrophe. Seems Yahoo Messenger does not use or allow apostrophes now.

 

Personally, I think it is very bad to use abbreviated text in school, or to allow it in published work. I very often see horribly abused language in headlines and online articles.

Abbreviations are fine on signs if they need it, but 'official signage' and anything for school should be in the official language. Do your text on your own time.

Teach the kids to effectively communicate.

 

I see often the word *your* instead of *you're*. That was not how I was taught English in High School. For example, your book is correct, but not *your* glad. Were we taught wrong 55+ years ago?

 

Thought the your was possessive, and the you're was you are. Been a while since I took English....

 

Soon those trying to teach English Class will not know how because they never learned it. Same goes for math and use of calculators in class instead of learning how to do it with pen and paper.

 

And, heaven forbid any mention of a slide rule!!!!!!!!!

 

The English language is stoopid anyhoo??????!!!!!,,,::::

W,e should all GO Fr' "ee" 'Styl'ee ...!!!

:-D

I cannot comment on other people's punctuation, my epitaph will be punctuated wrong.

 

And the generation gap grows even wider because the generations don't speak the same language.:confused

 

We were not allowed to use the slide rule until we knew how to do multiplication and division on paper.

 

I see 3 incorrect uses of apostrophes or is it me? :confused May well have been done on purpose. :-D

 

As the son of English teachers and as the husband of an English teacher I have to jump in:

***

teaching our kid's - should be kids (plural of the noun kid)

hammer's home - should be hammers (present tense of the verb hammer)

say's to mommy - should be says (present tense of the verb say)

I have seen document's in work - should be documents (plural of the noun document)

***

Sorry - couldn't resist.

 

Oh Caliban, you are right. I missed the last one: document's, that should be documents. Thanks for setting us straight.

 

Is that statement or a question old timer?:-D

 

Statement! Oops my age must be showing.
I see I better freshen up on proper English now that the Rikky and Caliban are watching.:-D
I was not the best student because my mind tends to wander off over there >>>>>>>>>>>>>>:-o Still some of it managed to seep in, although I have forgotten most of it.rolleyes

 

Sorry if I've given the impression I cared, I was aiming for the opposite.:cool

I read the words so fast my brain hasn't got time to worry about punctuation, if I'm not reading fast then I'm not reading because it isn't interesting enough.

Writing technical paper for work or school is a totally different ball game when compared to forum posting though, spending any time going over posts punctuating them when only about 50-100 people will ever read and even fewer will care is a waste of precious life IMO.

Capitals, periods, comma's in roughly the right place I consider fine for forum posts, being too lazy shift on the 'I' or not putting a period at the end when writing something like, "i went to the shops" Is where I draw the line and I'll say something.

 

OK noted, Rikky does not care.
Anyway, back to the reason I posted on this topic in the first place, my theory is English should be taught in case it is later needed for something necessary like employment. Having said that I admit I don't always speak or write it correctly. But even I realize it as soon as the words are out of my mouth or after I have typed it and hit post.

 

So we are all in agreement; David started a thread on the use of apostrophes and has no idea how to use them. :-D

 

Apostrophes? We don't need no stinking apostrophes...

:-D

 

roflmao

 

I think it's actually really sad in this age that many, many people can't form a simple grammatically correct sentence.

No, I'm not talking about an accidental misuse of an ' or using your instead of you're (I know I've done it, especially because I type fast and sometimes my fingers are faster than my brain :-D ). I'm talking about constant misuse or even lack of understanding that they ARE different words.

I watch people write things on facebook, blogs, or commenting on articles and it's really astounding how little people actually know or even care. I've (lately) been told that I use too many big words when I speak, which is kind of sad because they aren't even big words.

I use abbreviations when I text but I still write full sentence if and when I need to, it's a real tragedy that to some people there is no difference. That's why I think that they should continue to teach real grammar because you can't get a job with text, l33t, or whatever else kind of speech that's "in" right now.

 

Amen.

I do my best not to criticize basic errors. But, if all you know is l33t, how are you going to write a report, or deal with anything technical. You have to have a standard to work from.

I often take the time to use punctuation and proper capitalization when sending a text, just cause.

 

My apologies David - I did not address the following:

IMO we should continue to teach and educate properly in all classical areas (language/grammar, literature, histories, art, sciences, humanities, etc.) - it's up to the students whether they wish to learn or not. The new social media phenomenon, however, seems to require a more fluid approach to education in general. I think most current curriculum mandates have not been able to keep up with the modern language flux.

I've been around education my whole life, been teaching my entire adult life - there is nothing more satisfying than seeing that light bulb come on in a student's head. I've also never learned more than when presented with a fresh perspective about a problem from a bright mind.

Now people have so many more 'teaching' inputs - the media are the teachers whether they're right or wrong.

 

A English teacher that taught at the local school wrote a book. I thought it might be interesting to read the book written by this teacher because it was suppose to be about growing up in the area. I was surprised and disappointed to find grammar mistakes in the book in several places and a portion of one chapter was in the book twice. It was a self-published book so no editor or publishing house proofreading but keep in mine it was written by a English teacher. It is my understanding the teacher and at least one other person proofread the book before sending it off to be printed. It just shocked me the mistakes were missed.