Who's English is the best here?

[koshergrl]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

I won a full ride, renewable humanities scholarship based on a short essay. The head of the English dept came to me and begged me to tutor her students that she was going to flunk because they were so poorly prepared for basic English Comp. I currently write and edit a government newsletter, and I get hired every time I apply as a journalist because my writing samples are sublime. When I am working at the paper, I also work copyediting because it takes about two seconds for my coworkers to realize I can make anybody look like a star.

That's what I do. You and xo are fine but don't get carried away. There's more to writing than knowing where to put a comma or apostrophe. Those are good things to know and to use...on the other hand, there is such a thing as style and publishing companies can hire editors to fix that crap. That doesn't make the editors "writers".

 

[percysunshine]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

It would appear Chips is desperately trying to set up the impression that he "taught" something somewhere.

Now that's funny.

Pretty good for someone who is half Greek and half Japanese.

 

[yiostheoy]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

I won a full ride, renewable humanities scholarship based on a short essay. The head of the English dept came to me and begged me to tutor her students that she was going to flunk because they were so poorly prepared for basic English Comp. I currently write and edit a government newsletter, and I get hired every time I apply as a journalist because my writing samples are sublime. When I am working at the paper, I also work copyediting because it takes about two seconds for my coworkers to realize I can make anybody look like a star.

That's what I do. You and xo are fine but don't get carried away. There's more to writing than knowing where to put a comma or apostrophe. Those are good things to know and to use...on the other hand, there is such a thing as style and publishing companies can hire editors to fix that crap. That doesn't make the editors "writers".

Ok I'll nominate you for the Top 3 then koshergrl .

But most of the time you sure apostrophe here a lot.

I don't write much anymore; I mostly edit.

I don't write much anymore -- I mostly edit.

I don't write much anymore, because I mostly edit now.

 

[koshergrl]

BTW, one of the worst writers I've ever seen was a high school English teacher before moving into journalism.

I had to literally RE WRITE his work, after deciphering it.

 

[koshergrl]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

I won a full ride, renewable humanities scholarship based on a short essay. The head of the English dept came to me and begged me to tutor her students that she was going to flunk because they were so poorly prepared for basic English Comp. I currently write and edit a government newsletter, and I get hired every time I apply as a journalist because my writing samples are sublime. When I am working at the paper, I also work copyediting because it takes about two seconds for my coworkers to realize I can make anybody look like a star.

That's what I do. You and xo are fine but don't get carried away. There's more to writing than knowing where to put a comma or apostrophe. Those are good things to know and to use...on the other hand, there is such a thing as style and publishing companies can hire editors to fix that crap. That doesn't make the editors "writers".

Ok I'll nominate you for the Top 3 then.

But most of the time you sure apostrophe here a lot.

I don't even know what that means but I'm fairly certain it doesn't mean much.

 

[koshergrl]

I don't want to be nominated. I'm afraid it might lead to being drafted into doing something that is a lot like unpaid work.

 

[yiostheoy]

Pretty good for someone who is half Greek and half Japanese.

Dumbazz -- not Japanese.

The only Japanese I know is MMA.

 

[Pogo]

All Y'all are getin this wrong. The plural of y'all is all y'all, y'all.

That's right !!!

Only a Blue-belly would NOT know that.

Once again --- a plural can't get pluralized. It's ALREADY a plural.

"All y'all" is simply a reinforcement OF that plurality. Or as you yourself termed it, a 'mega-plural'. "Not just you (the smaller group) but you the larger group". Once again, the presence of all makes it plural from the start. Adding an additional all doesn't somehow switch it on and off like a light.

You can't on one hand claim that the word all making up the original term DOES NOT make it a plural, and then simultaneously argue that the inclusion of the SAME WORD then DOES make it INTO a plural.

Once again ---- "Having it both ways: Priceless".

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't want to be nominated. I'm afraid it might lead to being drafted into doing something that is a lot like unpaid work.

Well Comrade Johnson wants to know something about "democracy" which as I tried to explain to him is Greek not American.

He may ask you koshergrl too.

 

[Pogo]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

It would appear Chips is desperately trying to set up the impression that he "taught" something somewhere.

Now that's funny.

In reeling back through my memory bank I don't recall yiostheoy trying to be the grammar nazi. In that you could possibly learn some-things.

Oh I've learnt all I need from this thread alone.

Don't know if you noticed but this thread is specifically about language. That makes grammar part of the topic.

 

[percysunshine]

I don't want to be nominated. I'm afraid it might lead to being drafted into doing something that is a lot like unpaid work.

Without question on subjects of grammar. I already have 30 alerts just for saying y'all.

 

[yiostheoy]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

I won a full ride, renewable humanities scholarship based on a short essay. The head of the English dept came to me and begged me to tutor her students that she was going to flunk because they were so poorly prepared for basic English Comp. I currently write and edit a government newsletter, and I get hired every time I apply as a journalist because my writing samples are sublime. When I am working at the paper, I also work copyediting because it takes about two seconds for my coworkers to realize I can make anybody look like a star.

That's what I do. You and xo are fine but don't get carried away. There's more to writing than knowing where to put a comma or apostrophe. Those are good things to know and to use...on the other hand, there is such a thing as style and publishing companies can hire editors to fix that crap. That doesn't make the editors "writers".

Ok I'll nominate you for the Top 3 then.

But most of the time you sure apostrophe here a lot.

I don't even know what that means but I'm fairly certain it doesn't mean much.

The X-guys know.

They covered it supra.

 

[usmbguest5318]

That's a very difficult question to answer, for so much of the discussion on USMB depends as much upon (1) one's awareness of the topic one opts to discuss, (2) the clarity and coherence of one's thinking about the topic, (3) one's willingness to fully express one's thoughts, and (4) one's command of English in expressing one's ideas. One's command of English can appear inept as a result of gaps and flaws related to the former three factors. In light of all four factors, though it's possible to discern when a writer has specific lapses in their command of standard English grammar, syntax and usage, it's not nearly as easy to reliably gauge whose English is the best.

More importantly, however, what is the point of determining/discussing whose English is best? There is no competition for that "title." The person who "owns" that superlative won't care because they already know their English is excellent. The people who have subpar English skills won't care because they likely aren't soliciting lessons, and were they, the conventions of "perfect" English composition and usage are there for the taking on myriad Internet sites.

Thus, even if we were to arrive at a consensus on who among us does have the best English, then what? What is there to do with that knowledge/agreement? Indeed, I'm amazed this thread topic has garnered some 125+ posts that are presumably on-topic.

Simplicity is not an easy task for the overly educated tribe.

overly educated

Now there's a fine example of an oxymoron.

I could have said the excessively instead of overly but the later count took up less space to keep the diatribe down.

I could have said the excessively instead of overly

"Overly," "excessively" and "too" are, in the contest of your statement, synonymous; thus doing so would not have altered the oxymoronic nature of the remark.

Perhaps, however, you'd care to share with us just how one can have too much education. Frankly, I can't imagine that's possible. I think it's possible to make a qualitative judgment about how much education one needs or should have in various situations and life circumstances, but the notion that there is such a thing as absolutely being over educated is preposterous.

As very wise person once told me that if you really desire to get someone people's attention speak as though talking to a kindergartner. Formal education, knowledge base and wisdom are not all one in the same even though some may believe that they are. One can be totally educated to the highest degree and yet still have the common sense total idiot.

if you really desire to get someone people's attention speak as though talking to a kindergartner.

Yes, I've also heard that saying. It's quite effective when one must convey instruction and one is well advised to use that approach in such instances.

I've observed, however, that when one speaks as though one were speaking to a kindergartener, one is quite likely to get kindergartener grade responses to one's adult remarks. Thus if one doesn't care to be responded to by children or adults who think and remark like children, it's best not to communicate as a child might.

Ultimately one should choose one's approach to communication based upon one's targeted audience, not based merely upon who might come by one's remarks.

One can be totally educated to the highest degree and yet still have the common sense total idiot.

Be that as it may, quite often common sense is neither. Additionally, for whatever value so-called common sense has, it's certainly not the entirety of sense one must have; moreover, it's usually not nearly enough sense. To wit, think of how often people use common sense to choose/give an answer on an exam only to be wrong. Take a college-level course in macroeconomics and you'll come by many principles that are indeed so and that common sense, for most people, never indicates. Also, consider that common or any other kind of sense would tell one to do myriad things to be highly successful (at "whatever") and look at how many people do few or none of those things when in fact they should have done them religiously.

Let me offer a simple (highly summarized) example....

In the 1980s and '90s, the portents of the role of microprocessing were all over the place. They were on TV and in movie theaters as news and as entertainment. Countless authors wrote about the potential of computers and the impacts they would have on society. Common sense, assuming one had it, instructed one to prepare for the coming transformation wrought by the silicon chip.

How many people paid attention and prepared themselves for the change? Sure, millions did, but a lot of folks didn't, and now those who didn't are the vocal horde bemoaning that there are no physical labor jobs that pay well enough to sustain the "middle class" lifestyle they (or their parents) -- a lifestyle that because it was "middle class" provided them with the resources needed to purchase the requisite preparation -- once enjoyed.

Common sense tells one that while one may not like "what's inexorably coming," one must nonetheless be prepared to thrive once "it" arrives. Common sense says that what one likes doesn't much matter, what one does is what matters, and what one does had better be well thought out and reasonably effective, enough such that one isn't "f*cked" when the inevitable occurs.

Common sense says that one must go with the flow. Now, that doesn't mean just being a patsy; it means one finds a way to work with, not against, that which one cannot change. For example, we don't stop rivers, we figure out how to harness their power.​

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't want to be nominated. I'm afraid it might lead to being drafted into doing something that is a lot like unpaid work.

Without question on subjects of grammar. I already have 30 alerts just for saying y'all.

The conjugation of the American Southern "Y'all":

Singular:

Y'all having a good time?

Plural:

Y'all having a good time?

Mega-plural:

All y'all having a good time?

Singular possessive:

Is this y'all's car?

Plural possessive:

Is this one of y'all's cars?

Mega-plural possessive:

Is this the lot where all y'all's cars are all parked?

 

[usmbguest5318]

How about this for legalese lawyer-speak:

WHEREAS: The semicolon is primarily reserved for ultra technical writing such as statues of laws, and

WHEREAS: This is in the high country of legalese lawyer-speak, now

THEREFORE: In any other type of writing a semicolon detracts from communication not adds to it.

Yup, that's standard contract language. I'm used to it from reading international corporate agreements between related affiliated corporations.

I couldn't stand being a lawyer. Reading contracts just scrambles my brain.

Trust me, the training one receives to become a lawyer would result in your having no "scrambling" effect from reading contracts. You may not like reading them, but reading them won't "scramble" your brain if you have the training for it.

When I read or proofread a legal contract I need to make charts and vin diagrams for it with arrows pointing different ways.

My mind thinks mathematically not rhetorically.

There are multiple ways to approach reading comprehension. Whatever way works best for you is the way you should go about it. Without a doubt, "fighting" your brain's way of making sense of complex written works is among worst ways to go about it.

 

[koshergrl]

I don't want to be nominated. I'm afraid it might lead to being drafted into doing something that is a lot like unpaid work.

Well Comrade Johnson wants to know something about "democracy" which as I tried to explain to him is Greek not American.

He may ask you koshergrl too.

I will probably tell him "y'all stfu".

 

[yiostheoy]

Simplicity is not an easy task for the overly educated tribe.

overly educated

Now there's a fine example of an oxymoron.

I could have said the excessively instead of overly but the later count took up less space to keep the diatribe down.

I could have said the excessively instead of overly

"Overly," "excessively" and "too" are, in the contest of your statement, synonymous; thus doing so would not have altered the oxymoronic nature of the remark.

Perhaps, however, you'd care to share with us just how one can have too much education. Frankly, I can't imagine that's possible. I think it's possible to make a qualitative judgment about how much education one needs or should have in various situations and life circumstances, but the notion that there is such a thing as absolutely being over educated is preposterous.

As very wise person once told me that if you really desire to get someone people's attention speak as though talking to a kindergartner. Formal education, knowledge base and wisdom are not all one in the same even though some may believe that they are. One can be totally educated to the highest degree and yet still have the common sense total idiot.

if you really desire to get someone people's attention speak as though talking to a kindergartner.

Yes, I've also heard that saying. It's quite effective when one must convey instruction and one is well advised to use that approach in such instances.

I've observed, however, that when one speaks as though one were speaking to a kindergartener, one is quite likely to get kindergartener grade responses to one's adult remarks. Thus if one doesn't care to be responded to by children or adults who think and remark like children, it's best not to communicate as a child might.

Ultimately one should choose one's approach to communication based upon one's targeted audience, not based merely upon who might come by one's remarks.

One can be totally educated to the highest degree and yet still have the common sense total idiot.

Be that as it may, quite often common sense is neither. Additionally, for whatever value so-called common sense has, it's certainly not the entirety of sense one must have; moreover, it's usually not nearly enough sense. To wit, think of how often people use common sense to choose/give an answer on an exam only to be wrong. Take a college-level course in macroeconomics and you'll come by many principles that are indeed so and that common sense, for most people, never indicates. Also, consider that common or any other kind of sense would tell one to do myriad things to be highly successful (at "whatever") and look at how many people do few or none of those things when in fact they should have done them religiously.

Let me offer a simple (highly summarized) example....

In the 1980s and '90s, the portent of the role of microprocessing were all over the place. It was on TV and in movie theaters as news and as entertainment. Countless authors wrote about the potential of computers and the impacts they would have on society. Common sense, assuming one had it, instructed one to prepare for the coming transformation wrought by the silicon chip.

How many people paid attention and prepared themselves for the change? Sure, millions did, but a lot of folks didn't, and now those who didn't are the vocal horde bemoaning that there are no physical labor jobs that pay well enough to sustain the "middle class" lifestyle they (or their parents) -- a lifestyle that because it was "middle class" provided them with the resources needed to purchase the requisite preparation -- once enjoyed.

Common sense tells one that while one may not like "what's inexorably coming," one must nonetheless be prepared to thrive once "it" arrives. Common sense says that what one likes doesn't much matter, what one does is what matters, and what one does had better be well thought out and reasonably effective, enough such that one isn't "f*cked" when the inevitable occurs.

Common sense says that one must go with the flow. Now, that doesn't mean just being a patsy; it means one finds a way to work with, not against, that which one cannot change. For example, we don't stop rivers, we figure out how to harness their power.​

This is called "audience factor".

You must correctly gauge your audience and then speak to the lowest common denominator so as not to lose anybody. Otherwise your communication will fail.

Here is an example with a joke in it too:

Professor:

"Would anyone here be offended if I told a Pole-lock joke?"

Zuzanna:

"Yez! It vould offend me!"

Professor:

"So are you Polish?"

Zuzanna:

"Yez! I am Polish."

Professor:

"Ok would you be offended if I told it real slow?!"

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't want to be nominated. I'm afraid it might lead to being drafted into doing something that is a lot like unpaid work.

Well Comrade Johnson wants to know something about "democracy" which as I tried to explain to him is Greek not American.

He may ask you koshergrl too.

I will probably tell him "y'all stfu".

Then you would sound exactly like a girl from Texas !!

 

[percysunshine]

Kind of on topic...one of my all time favorites:

 

[yiostheoy]

Like most college professionals, you reward mediocrity. Seriously.

koshergrl my dear friend, when I taught college I was a grad student and for my scholarship the college asked me to teach to take some off the teaching burden of the regular faculty of which there was not enough of.

So during my first week of class I tried to flunk out all the losers with pre-tests and pop quizzes and writing samples until about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the students quit.

That left me with only A and B students who were eager to learn.

Definitely not mediocrity.

I won a full ride, renewable humanities scholarship based on a short essay. The head of the English dept came to me and begged me to tutor her students that she was going to flunk because they were so poorly prepared for basic English Comp. I currently write and edit a government newsletter, and I get hired every time I apply as a journalist because my writing samples are sublime. When I am working at the paper, I also work copyediting because it takes about two seconds for my coworkers to realize I can make anybody look like a star.

That's what I do. You and xo are fine but don't get carried away. There's more to writing than knowing where to put a comma or apostrophe. Those are good things to know and to use...on the other hand, there is such a thing as style and publishing companies can hire editors to fix that crap. That doesn't make the editors "writers".

My full ride was NROTC.

Came with military science.

Afterwards grad school was essentially free on the G/I Bill plus a few ad hoc awards.

But that was 4 years later after a full tour of duty with 3rd Fleet FMF Pac.