Worsening standards of English

[Rotayjay]

I've posted a few threads lately, but hear me out.

This is by no means an original thought, and I'm not exactly Ernest Hemingway. But has anyone else noticed that the general standard of non-professional writing in Australia seems to be slipping and plumbing new depths all the time?

You read a comment section on social media and it's a cesspit. It's full of things like spaces followed by commas, capitalising common nouns, poor spelling, ridiculous logical fallacies and factual errors, and all-around ignorance.

What is this? Is it simply that we are exposed to more non-professional writing these days? Do these same people simply not care, and write better when they need to? Are standards of literacy actually declining? Is English evolving into a different form, with looser rules where the above doesn't stick out anymore?

The point of this post is not to be a grammar Nazi. I don't care if there are a couple of errors here and there. However, when I see whole comment sections containing almost nothing but ignorance and sentences that barely make sense, it's concerning. Meanwhile on Bigfooty, there are nuffies but most posts at least make sense, and there is a lot of quality stuff.

 

[NaturalDisaster]

1. Social media gives idiots a voice, most people in social media comments are below average IQ.
2. Some people are just simply lazy writers online. I’m guilty of it at times.

 

[Gough]

U wot m8

 

[MP_]

I've posted a few threads lately, but hear me out.

This is by no means an original thought, and I'm not exactly Ernest Hemingway. But has anyone else noticed that the general standard of non-professional writing in Australia seems to be slipping and plumbing new depths all the time?

You read a comment section on social media and it's a cesspit. It's full of things like spaces followed by commas, capitalising common nouns, poor spelling, ridiculous logical fallacies and factual errors, and all-around ignorance.

What is this? Is it simply that we are exposed to more non-professional writing these days? Do these same people simply not care, and write better when they need to? Are standards of literacy actually declining? Is English evolving into a different form, with looser rules where the above doesn't stick out anymore?

The point of this post is not to be a grammar Nazi. I don't care if there are a couple of errors here and there. However, when I see whole comment sections containing almost nothing but ignorance and sentences that barely make sense, it's concerning. Meanwhile on Bigfooty, there are nuffies but most posts at least make sense, and there is a lot of quality stuff.

the local journalist in our region has a horrendous take on the english language. My wife given her position in the area is interviewed a lot and she is usually appalled at how this journalist operates. Sentences that don't make sense, grammatical errors just simple things that make this person seem very dumb for the position they're in. I also think that with text messages we are becoming more accustomed to shortening things with lol's and wtf's that younger people have forgotten how to structure sentences.

 

[JoondalupJ]

1. Social media gives idiots a voice, most people in social media comments are below average IQ.
2. Some people are just simply lazy writers online. I’m guilty of it at times.

Well I get quite a lot of corrections sent to me when I write stuff. I don't consider myself an idiot , but I do put some emotion in my words too fast and mess up punctuation but generally grammer is OK as far as language and the English language I think Aussies and probably Cockneys butcher English bdtter than anyone else, of course we tend to Amricanise lots of our English, but they are such an influencial thing for 100 years songs are sung generally in Amercian accents ( and sound better, depending on the song I guess) maybe we Australians talk lazy , not slow but lots of words not pronounced as written, we all do it, very few can imitate us, but Aussies seem to be able to imitate a English Cockney accent?
My IQ no idea not game to find out. haha.

 

[JoondalupJ]

I've posted a few threads lately, but hear me out.

This is by no means an original thought, and I'm not exactly Ernest Hemingway. But has anyone else noticed that the general standard of non-professional writing in Australia seems to be slipping and plumbing new depths all the time?

You read a comment section on social media and it's a cesspit. It's full of things like spaces followed by commas, capitalising common nouns, poor spelling, ridiculous logical fallacies and factual errors, and all-around ignorance.

What is this? Is it simply that we are exposed to more non-professional writing these days? Do these same people simply not care, and write better when they need to? Are standards of literacy actually declining? Is English evolving into a different form, with looser rules where the above doesn't stick out anymore?

The point of this post is not to be a grammar Nazi. I don't care if there are a couple of errors here and there. However, when I see whole comment sections containing almost nothing but ignorance and sentences that barely make sense, it's concerning. Meanwhile on Bigfooty, there are nuffies but most posts at least make sense, and there is a lot of quality stuff.

Aaaaaah one of the English teachers I send poison apples too? heh

 

[Plugger35]

A agree, the standards of English are getting worser.

 

[nobbyiscool]

As a professional writer, it makes me very happy.

The writers 10, 20, 30 years younger than me will never, ever be better than me. They do comms cos they think its sexy and think they'll turn into "content creators", not cos they're outstanding writers. And their work needs enormous editing.

 

[Billy ray]

 

[Engimal v3]

Youse are onto something here

 

[Sqotty from office works]

As a professional writer, it makes me very happy.

The writers 10, 20, 30 years younger than me will never, ever be better than me. They do comms cos they think its sexy and think they'll turn into "content creators", not cos they're outstanding writers. And their work needs enormous editing.

Similar.
I love the fact that under 40s are a backward, unintelligent, non thinking group of animals.
Even better they can't drive a car with a clutch

 

[conrad_437]

I have two very good writers for parents, and was pulled up on most English-related mistakes, whether it be pronunciation, spelling, grammar, etc. Resultantly, my English was much better than my friends in high school and during university, and my scores reflected this.

But certainly in the last few years, with pen and paper writing diminishing heavily and becoming redundant for most people, I have felt myself becoming slightly worse on these fronts, particularly spelling. Autocorrect has made me lazy and complacent, and I genuinely second-guess myself on numerous occasions on the few times I've physically written something recently. Real simple s**t too.

Some of the s**t I read on the internet though really makes my brain bleed. It's an issue that genuinely illiterate campaigners have access to an internet connection.

 

[Caesar]

I think the important thing is really just communication.

By most conventional standards I would be regarded as a good writer, I have a large vocabulary and an above-average command of syntax/grammar. In reality I am not a natural communicator - I repeat myself endlessly, my sentences are long and disjointed, and I generally just struggle to capture my thoughts concisely and logically. Part of the reason I initially started spending so much time on online forums was to try and improve my written communication. I will probably struggle with it my whole career - it takes me forever to edit an email.

I have a lot of admiration for people who are naturally and beautifully concise, and stuff like spelling and grammar comes a long way second if at all. The importance is making yourself well understood, not conforming to rules. Ironically I think Hemingway would probably agree.

I also think there is something to be said for personality in written communication. When ChatGPT first came out I threw a few samples of my writing into it and asked it rewrite them more concisely. The results were good on an objective level - simpler, shorter, cleaner, clearer - but they were also utterly sterile. All those little quirks in my writing, the words and structures and cadences that I use/overuse/misuse, were gone. And I thought that was a bit sad.

The way each of us abuse the English language in our own unique way is actually kind of nice, I think.

 

[mr bagcroft]

I have two very good writers for parents, and was pulled up on most English-related mistakes, whether it be pronunciation, spelling, grammar, etc. Resultantly, my English was much better than my friends in high school and during university, and my scores reflected this.

But certainly in the last few years, with pen and paper writing diminishing heavily and becoming redundant for most people, I have felt myself becoming slightly worse on these fronts, particularly spelling. Autocorrect has made me lazy and complacent, and I genuinely second-guess myself on numerous occasions on the few times I've physically written something recently. Real simple s**t too.

Some of the s**t I read on the internet though really makes my brain bleed. It's an issue that genuinely illiterate campaigners have access to an internet connection.

I have noticed this. My spelling seems to have suffered, and can't figure out why, but this sounds logical.

 

[TRP1996]

Words geting badder, u thynk?

 

[Headless]

Linguistic descriptivism is the way to go.

 

[Engimal v3]

Similar.
I love the fact that under 40s are a backward, unintelligent, non thinking group of animals.
Even better they can't drive a car with a clutch

I wish I was born in the middle ages, kids today can't even wield a broardsword!

 

[Rotayjay]

I think it's good that everyone has their own style. I just get pissed when I see drivel on the net, and I wonder who their English teacher was. I had a succession of grammar Nazis for teachers. I remember being really annoyed at how much one criticised my first essay in Year 9, then being very pleased with myself when I took her feedback on board and got a good mark in the next essay for the same teacher. I remember the good teachers long after.

 

[HairyO]

We stopped teaching standards and started focussing on feelings. Its why we are being rapidly overtaken in all the global education rankings.

A new generation of functionally *ed people who have the need to yell at the world about how they feel. Not realising the world simply doesnt give a s**t.

 

[Richard Cranium]

We stopped teaching standards and started focussing on feelings. Its why we are being rapidly overtaken in all the global education rankings.

A new generation of functionally ******ed people who have the need to yell at the world about how they feel. Not realising the world simply doesnt give a s**t.

This isn't a generational thing, nor is it an Australian thing. People in their 40s and above are just as bad as the younger gens, maybe even worse. It's just that Steve, the 54 year old who quit school at 15, didn't have the opportunity to show off his spelling skills until he discovered facebook comment sections a few years ago.

 

[HairyO]

This isn't a generational thing, nor is it an Australian thing. People in their 40s and above are just as bad as the younger gens, maybe even worse. It's just that Steve, the 54 year old who quit school at 15, didn't have the opportunity to show off his spelling skills until he discovered facebook comment sections a few years ago.

My partner is studying teaching and I see grammatical errors in the assignment requirements.

So we are off to a poor start when the teachers of the teachers are teaching poorly.

 

[Frank Bunn]

We all make errors when we are writing in a hurry. Most websites will highlight a spelling mistake. I like to fix it myself rather than use the autocorrect function. I tend to miss words out, which often doesn't get picked up. I'll re-read an email at least once before I send it. I'll often post things on social media, see a mistake then quickly use the edit function to fix it.

But there's a difference between a careless mistake due to lack of attention and those where someone is genuinely unaware of the correct spelling or punctuation. The most common mistakes I see like that are with -

there, they're and their
your and you're
it's and its
lose and loose
bias and biased

There's also a difference between formal and informal styles. Excessive use of exclamation marks for emphasis is common but not a new thing. It looks amateurish in a formal document.

 

[the_interloper]

I like to correct my mate's English in our WhatsApp group to piss them off

 

[St 07]

Who cares tho? Maybe being so pro-english isnt all it's cracked up to be?

 

[Cleavy]

it will all get sorted now that Albo has put his name against the National Spelling Bee.