BellaOnline Forums Education Distance Learning Is it just me?

I think if you look at history that people are getting far more literate over time. It wasn't too long ago that women weren't expected to know how to read or write at all! So I don't think things are getting worse - I think things are getting far better. However with the internet we can read far more peoples' words. So we are much more aware of how things are. Which in a way is good because it means we can encourage people even more strongly to improve their skills!

How true Lisa. I think I have a tendency to assume that everyone has been reading and writing well for hundreds of years when in fact it is only very recently that the majority of people even in Europe and North America have become literate.
I do find too that I get frustrated with really bad spelling and grammar online to the point where I will just leave a webpage where that is the case. However, overall I do not find very many websites that are that bad and yet I read many blogs and articles on websites every day. I think I just remember the ones that are really bad because spelling and grammar were never a problem for me in school so I really notice it.

I think that's exactly it - that it stands out when someone writes poorly, which is a testament to how used we all have become to well done writing.

If we went back 200 years and made everyone in a town write out all their thoughts, I imagine half of them would have been unable to do that.

Funny, I was on another forum this evening, and we were discussing the very same topic--poor grammar and spelling on the internet. It doesn't bother me in forums, because, as pointed out, forums are more like a classroom discussion, with everyone piping up with their thoughts quickly. But in a school paper, or a blog post or website, where you theoretically had plenty of time to think through and check your work, it should be perfect or nearly perfect. It just shows a lack of care and disrespect for the recipient of your words otherwise. Why should I take the time to read and think about someone's website message, if they didn't take the time to carefully present it? --Maria

I have to tell you this one. We were posting about plagiarism. The student was talking about how proofreading is a great way to help prevent plagiarism. Though it was on plagiarism, the entire paragraph on proofreading had not been proofread at all. The spelling was atrocious and the grammar was unreadable. I so wanted to ask him to re-read his proofreading paragraph but held myself back. I will let the instructor do that. Yikes!

Rebecca, what a hoot! Guess your fellow student doesn't do irony either.

Mona, I guess not. I really had a good laugh at that one. Then I sobered up and re-read my posts to make sure that I was not guilty, too. Then my husband was laughing at me.

I taught online for years, and I find that usually folks were just trying to quickly "meet the requirements" and were not paying close attention, because they didn't feel they needed to do so. When I started subtracting points for grammar curiously most post improved dramatically.

Though I must admit, shamefully, grammar is not a strong point for me at all!!!!

I do wish our instructors at Ashford were more in tune with grammar. I'm getting quite frustrated. We got a couple of examples for a paper we're doing (for annotated biblio info). I read one of them. I sincerely hope the student did not get an "A" for her paper. There were huge grammatical errors and citation errors in it. I'm thinking at best a "B" or more likely a "C" for her paper. "I" is kind of inappropriate in a paper that should be presented as a scholarly work.

were for where
there for their
thier for there or their

Discussion boards, while "we" want to quickly post an answer, are not like chat rooms where typing needs to be quick and zippy and hit/run style. They are thoughtful responses to questions or statements brought forth. My frustration climbs constantly. Especially in this class -- it is a literature/history class that is supposed to also be an intermediate comp class. I think grammar and spelling are even more important in a class like this. Either I'm too old-school, or the instructors aren't getting on the ball with the issues at hand. grrrr

I hear you Sara. If I come across a website like that I leave it almost immediately. I won't waste my time. Unfortunately you don't have that option in a course.