<p>Another pet peeve of mine is when people use “could care less,” when they really mean “couldn’t care less.” </p>
<p>Ugh, I’m guilty of starting sentences with “so.” I am such an introvert that it’s hard for me to speak in a large group, period, so I’m not going to worry about it!</p>
<p>Purpletitan, I just wish they would start the sentence without “so” or ‘ah’</p>
<p>Expert “There is lots of evidence that…” </p>
<p>What’s wrong with that? </p>
<p>I also HATE the trendy phrase “unpacking…” Is it a thing in other industry like it is in education? Administrators are always saying “unpacking the standards” in reference to writing curriculum. I just can’t stand the phrase for some reason. Grates on my nerves to no end.</p>
<p>Ugh, EPTR, I cannot stand “unpacking” either. I hear it a lot on political talk shows. I don’t hear it in my industry but we could have a whole other thread on annoying business-speak…</p>
<p>I think I start sentences with “so” and I often end them with “so” in emails and message board conversations. I use it as shorthand at the end of a sentence when it’s obvious what I mean. </p>
<p>For example - She has a busy week ahead of her so (doesn’t have time to do X,Y or Z.) </p>
<p>Speaking of being weary and wary, I am both when it comes to threads like this one. Last I knew, nobody died and made me G-d. I still have enough faults of my own that I don’t need to look to others to stock up.</p>
<p>see sight
oversee oversight
overseeing oversighting</p>
<p>Deborah, we are all here because we care about educational issues. The fact that so many people seem to have failed to learn basic rules of grammar (or have since forgotten them) is a concern to a lot of us. The “fault” of misusing words is one that can be easily corrected. I certainly want my kids to be literate and educated when they go out into the world–I remind them when they make sloppy grammatical mistakes so they don’t become habits. And yes, I question the intelligence of people who can’t get “to/too” or “your/you’re” right.</p>
<p>I don’t. I’m not fluent in five languages or well-versed in the jargon of multiple trades.</p>
<p>We are only talking about one language–English. </p>
<p>If you’re not interested in this subject, why even post here?</p>
<p>Oh, and I mess up on homophones, too! They <em>sound</em> alike. It’s an easy mistake to make.</p>
<p>I’m as entitled to my point of view as anyone else is theirs, Sally.</p>
<p>Why not their’s? Or they’re’s? Double apostrophes!</p>
<p>No wait. I’ve got it. There’s!</p>
<p>Others’ or others? I probably should have had the apostrophe. Could “sorta” (what! sort of, sort of! and what’s with all the wishy-washy words, Deborah? between that and the parentheses, slashes, dashes…) have gone either way. Is the meaning looking to them or their faults? Language is a minefield!</p>
<p>Edit: Triple l in all. I couldn’t leave that. Maybe allllllllllllllllllllllllll.</p>
<p>“The fact that so many people seem to have failed to learn basic rules of grammar (or have since forgotten them) is a concern to a lot of us.”</p>
<p>Again, I think it’s just sloppiness for the most part. I wouldn’t judge anyone’s grammar know how on what I read on a message board. Now, if someone turned in a paper or work product with those kinds of mistakes - it’s a different matter. </p>
<p>Completely agree, emily. There’s the sloppy shorthand of email and text communication, the hazards of autocorrect, and the fact that people just rush through things. My concern is more with documents that should be proofread (resumes, presentations, etc.) and spoken English. I just sat through an expensive consultant’s presentation the other day that was riddled with errors–not just grammatical errors or inconsistencies but also content problems, including sections of text that had been copied and pasted from previous pages. Right away that diminished my faith in the credibility of the consultant. I have the same reaction when I am interviewing people for jobs that require them to be decent-to-good communicators. I don’t think people have to adhere to formal, stilted language patterns, but when I hear someone say “I could of went to California” or “between he and I,” my hackles go up.</p>
<p>ideas
organization
voice
word choice
sentence fluency
conventions
presentation</p>
<p>???
@sally305, in a spoken context, there’s no way to differentiate between “could of” and “could’ve”, though granted, that sentence should’ve been “I could’ve gone to California”. </p>
<p>BTW, I have no problems with contractions (especially in a spoken context) so long at the intent is conveyed.</p>
<p>PT, you are right about the spoken “could of”/“could’ve” in many cases. When there is an emphasis on the “could,” and a slight pause before the “of” or “have,” I can hear it, though (“I COULD have gone to California” versus “I COULD of gone to California”). </p>
<p>The misused verb tense is inexcusable, though. I have actually heard people in this area say not only “could of went” but “could of did” as well. </p>
<p>Possible excuses:
They didn’t know. (have compassion?)
They opted for informal. (no reason you have to like it, but they may well have their reasons)</p>