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27-07-2019, 08:41 PM
21

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

Originally Posted by shropshiregirl ->
I would imagine most young people would laugh about Grammar even being important enough to discuss in today's modern world. After all, most correspondence is usually via WhatsApp or Text with shortcuts such U for You and 4 for Four or For etc. Even when sending a Birthday Card, I even do it via Moonpig or The Dog's Doodah. so never having to write anything with necessary punctuation. In fact, the only time I seem to type anything where punctuation etc has to be used, is on OFF.

I know just how important checking one's work is though. I have told this before but when I was working in London as part of a secretarial pool, I had to type an extremely important 46 page A4 document from Shell Headquarters to one of their overseas board meetings due to be held that evening.

The originator's writing was quite clear so with the assistance of a packet of Smith's Crisps and a carton of Orange Juice, I got through the task during the morning.
Then came the second task of proof-reading it. I knew that what I had typed was correct as I had checked it page by page before commencing with the next, but now I was going through it thoroughly to ensure all paragraphs, Capital letters and correct punctuation was where it should all be, as well as the all-important correct spelling.

By the time I got to proof-reading the very last A4 page with absolutely no errors so far, I was feeling very self-satisfied with my work and looking forward to lunch with the girls. That was my biggest error! because I didn't do the job properly. I happily handed the document over to someone to fax it overseas, ready for the Board members to have for their meeting. My immediate boss even patted me on the back for getting it done so quickly.

Off to lunch I went.

One hour later, I returned to my desk to face my Boss, whose exacts words were. Oh God, Mary, what did you do??? and showed me the very last line of the very last page, where I had typed the sentence " So in conclusion, the counts are correct". but Dear Lord, I had missed out the letter 'o' in the word 'counts'.

I really cannot tell you how I felt at that moment in time. My head was spinning, (could have been the lunchtime glass of wine I guess) but I really thought I was going to be sacked! but thank goodness, the board members at Shell thought it was absolutely hilarious after the initial shock of reading that disgusting word that no decent person would ever utter. Even my boss had a chuckle about it after finding that no action was being taken against me.
Needless to say though, I was mortified over such a dreadful error.

Phew, that's why I fully support 'thoroughly' checking one's work, right to the very last word! .

I laughed so much at your typo Shrops.
I never check my posts and ny spell checker does what it likes so my grammar and spelling is crapadoodle .

As for JRM
I think he's delightful .
In fact very attractive in his own quaint way
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27-07-2019, 08:44 PM
22

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

I often have a battle with spell check. It tells me a word is spelt wrong so I go through every possibility to no avail and end up Googling it.
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27-07-2019, 09:15 PM
23

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

I went into the sweet shop and asked the assistant "can I purchase 250 grams of mints please", the assistant said "Sorry, no, they are imperial".
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27-07-2019, 09:31 PM
24

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

I think that in practice, correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. depend upon the situation.

For example, on OFF and other such places, correctness is unimportant; meaning is, of course, what matters and providing a statement is clearly understood it doesn't really matter too much.

If you are writing for a discerning audience, however, I'd prefer to be as correct as possible. If you want people to respect your views and opinions, littering your text with silly mistakes is likely to result in some failing to take notice of what you are trying to get across.

For example, I look at the (free!) Daily Mail online app almost every day. I find it interesting to read about the goings-on in the world, but I take everything with a pinch of salt and make up my own mind. If you read it, you'll see many glaring mistakes, and the readers' comments are full of accusations of the authors being "failed Meeja Studies graduates"! Actually, the DM app has become a bit of a joke.
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27-07-2019, 09:39 PM
25

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

@shropshiregirl post #12

Your error reminds me of my early days in the printing trade as an apprentice. The boss was very much 'hands-on' and to be found, at some time during the course of a day, in all departments.

Something he insisted on was that he checked the first copy of every order run off on the printing presses against previous reader's and customer's proofs. That way he was always sure of the final work going to the customer correctly and without errors.

One of my early tasks was to produce a 'quality' information leaflet for new flats being sold locally. The boss duly checked it but found one error, the text should have read "French windows in every flat." One of the 'jokers' in the department and there were plenty of them, had removed a letter from a word so that it read "French widows in every flat." Was my face red and the laughter from others in the factory rang out loudly for days afterwards!

An apprentice's job was not easy but it was a good introduction to the world of work, discipline and how to take all types of jokes, some of them not very pleasant either!
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28-07-2019, 09:13 AM
26

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

If JRM is trying to get his staff to use correct grammar, then he has my vote, whatever else I may think of him.

I'm not 100% accurate, but I do know the difference between your and you're, their and there etc. I try not to split an infinitive. I always do double space after a full stop.

I often cringe at some articles and web sites that have been poorly composed and think...what kind of impression are you making on your readers and visitors?!

But try to correct someone on the internet and you get the harsh lash back of 'are you the grammar police?!' etc., so it doesn't seem worth being critical. Sad.
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28-07-2019, 10:34 AM
27

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

Great isn't it wanting to go back to imperial measurements, something I know. All this metric nonsense should stay the other side of the channel.
Never could get to grips or understand metric. bring back pounds -shillings and pence at the same time.
AS for the rest the man is a nutter first class. What is he trying to do? ruin the English language and how we talk.


Maybe this conversion from English to German may help


The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.
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28-07-2019, 10:54 AM
28

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

Most of these rules are quite unimportant. I think that this is just a pretence. Today’s Sunday Times refers to 2,600 times when he has broken his own rules.

I think he does this deliberately in order to getting him being talked about, standing out from the crowd. He has appeared many times on Have I Got News for You. Each time he gets laughed at. That doesn’t worry him. He knows what he is doing.
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28-07-2019, 11:30 AM
29

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

Originally Posted by Jazzi ->
I often cringe at some articles and web sites that have been poorly composed and think...what kind of impression are you making on your readers and visitors?!
I sometimes wonder what foreigners, many of whom speak and write English better than some of us, think of our state education.

Originally Posted by Jazzi ->
But try to correct someone on the internet and you get the harsh lash back of 'are you the grammar police?!' etc., so it doesn't seem worth being critical. Sad.
Yes, of course. Let the ignorami live in their own little worlds. When they go for a job interview (as I believe a minority of them aspire to) they might, possibly, realise why they receive a polite refusal.

Anyone can improve their English, if they can only make a little effort. My advice is simply to READ - and not rubbish like the Sun, etc!
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28-07-2019, 12:00 PM
30

Re: Jacob Rees-Mogg lays the law down on Grammar.

A very amusing thread!

Just one item on JRM's list that I simply don't understand and that is the first item:
Organisations are SINGULAR

Can someone please explain to this thicko exactly what this means?
Take an organisation, say RSPCA, or South West Trains, how can it be singular or plural?
And in what context does he mean it should always be singular.

I'm obviously totally missing the point, but I simply don't understand his instruction.
 
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