They may well have to write technical reports, I would have thought - which requires good English, to be effective. But anyway - what’s so hard about learning to communicate effectively?
1 Like
I seem to remember having used an apostrophe when pluralising an acronym on a few occasions but only when hand writing as opposed to typing. I was always concerned that the “s” could mistakenly be considered part of the acronym. Perhaps the use of the apostrophe dates from a time when most writing was by hand rather than typed.
1 Like
The proscription of correcting pupils’ spilling, punc’tuation and grammars was, sadly, commonplace in British schools in the 1970s and 80s. By the 90s, this had morphed into what is probably best described as benign neglect. Starting around ten years ago, the pendulum shifted somewhat and now you will find younger people tend to be more encouraged by their teachers to get this sort of thing correct.
If you Google University of Oxford Style Guide, you will find an admirably concise and helpful guide to this sort of thing, though I don’t guarantee you won’t disagree biliously with some of its injunctions.
[other Universities are available, so I’m told, but I couldn’t recommend them]
Mark
A technical report isn’t an essay. If you are writing a procedure to assemble a couple of items weighing 5 tons each, the last thing you need to concern yourself with is how many verbs have you included. Making sure nobody gets killed is far more important.
One thing is for certain, you definitely wouldn’t be using ANY apostrophes.
I peer review papers for an international (scientific) research journal and often have to reluctantly reject papers because the English is so poor that it becomes impossible to understand exactly what the author(s) are describing. I’d say that was a professional hindrance to them.
Mark
5 Likes
I agree that pedants can be a vital part of the community.
So long as that community is a small face to face one.
Especially if matched with a strong vocal delivery that inspires the correct pronunciation, diction and the ebb and flow of spoken and written thoughts/sentences.
Much like a favourite English teacher.
But, on a World Wide Web forum they come across as a bit silly, don’t they ?
I never said it was an essay - but the report needs to be written using good English, doesn’t it?
And a technical report is not restricted to things like how to assemble stuff. But even if it were, you would certainly need some verbs.
Why no apostrophes?
2 Likes
Is clear, easy to understand, communication unnecessary on the WWW?
They did say “forum” though. And no it doesn’t matter as long as the point or discussion is clear enough.
And one way to ensure that is to use good English, surely (or whatever language is being used)? What is wrong with using good grammar and spelling? Is it detrimental in some way?
Not everyone is blessed with the skills of grammar and spelling, it doesn’t make them any less worthy.
I spent a lot of my working life writing code in different computer programming languages with some languages having a very strict syntax e.g. even down to spaces between Boolean operators.
I’m not sure what worthiness has to do with it. Either what you write can be clearly understood, or it can’t. Good use of grammar and spelling increases the chances that it can be. Where is the flaw in that?
Yes, many computer languages are very strict in so many ways. My first proper computer language was FORTRAN, which has some layout requirements, and of course the syntax was pretty strict. Then Algol, then COBOL which was ridiculous. Then Modula, followed by some proprietary languages which were relatively lax (you could, in theory, write a program on one line). VB, C - all have syntactical requirements. In none of them would you get anywhere by saying “Well, surely you can work out what I meant”.
It has always seemed to me to be the job of the writer (in whatever language) to make the job of understanding what is written as easy as possible for the reader - rather than make it as easy as possible for the writer to put some words down.
2 Likes
Of course, exceptions are also true. One of my favourite authors is Cormac McCarthy. Other than full stops, you’ll find almost no punctuation in his books. Not even quotation marks! And yet, he proves that carefully crafted, language can, in a literary sense at least, survive without them.
1 Like
Not as far as I have been aware - and it just looks so silly, too!
Unless you’re a surrealist.
2 Likes
In the context of an internet forum as long as the user can be understood it doesn’t matter too much if a plural has an apostrophe or ‘their’ has been used instead of ‘there’.
In a coding environment then it clearly does matter.
I always liked COBOL and used it not that long ago to generate XML ready for an API to process - this was for fun only, a more suitable language would have been better for a commercial environment 
I have a FORTRAN program on paper tape generated from an IBM teletype machine.
Some interesting points raised in this thread about spelling, punctuation, grammar etc.
I remember having quite heated arguments with my (Eton-educated) boss who regularly got principle/principal wrong and always used “between you and I” instead of “between you and me” as well as a litany of other errors. It did make me feel a little smug about my lowly state education.
To be very pedantic, I believe there was a little-known grammatical error in your initial post - I think that “It’s doubtless a reflection on ME being some sort of weird obsessive” should actually be “It’s doubtless a reflection on MY being some sort of weird obsessive”. If I remember correctly, it’s called the possessive gerund.
The fact that I noticed it is doubtless a reflection on me/my being some sort of weird obsessive too! 
5 Likes
Not a great deal - though it always, for me, creates a speed bump in reading. People mentally (often without realising it) predict what is coming, when reading. inappropriate apostrophes and incorrect words (such as ‘their’ for ‘there’) sabotage that prediction. More effort is required of the reader. The occasional mistake of that sort is, I suppose, a small inconvenience. When the text is littered with mistakes, that continual inconvenience can lead to the decision to stop reading it, and move onto something else. Moreover, with some mistakes, or classes of mistake, it can lead to uncertainty about whether you have interpreted the passage correctly or not. That may not matter, of course - but then the text becomes potentially valueless.
What I don’t understand is why it appears to be seen almost as preferable, or at least a right, to write poorly. It really isn’t hard to write reasonably good English (assuming it is your first language). Of course, it isn’t always the writer’s fault that they don’t. If they were poorly taught when at school, then they probably don’t know the errors that they make - and probably don’t realise when these result in their being misunderstood.
1 Like
If you are designing 5 ton assemblies, it would reassuring if you could write instructions on safe handling in comprehensible English. I did not fail students for poor grammar per se, but I did if their writing was incomprehensible nonsense.
Most students were actually quite grateful and genuinely had no clue about how damaging poor written expression could be to employment and career prospects. This was clearly a legacy of the misguided education policies cited above which must have caused untold damage.
2 Likes
I beg forgiveness! My defence is that my focus was solely on plurals, rather than grammar in general. I recall lessons at school about how to use commas, colons and semi colons, but me/my was never covered. My knowledge of grammar is very much learned rather than taught and don’t know the formal names of things such as gerunds; even adverbs get me confused. So many people get the I/me wrong, including me.
1 Like