[Gllug] Monthly GLLUG grammar report

Rev Simon Rumble simon at rumble.net
Tue Nov 26 11:23:07 UTC 2002


On Tue 26 Nov, Adam Bower bloviated thus:

> You left school quite some time ago, or at least didn't go to any as bad 
> as I did. After asking about things like this I realised that teachers 
> didn't have a clue about how to explain these things to us. Some 
> teachers would contradict what other teachers had told us and vice 
> versa.

We've been trying to recruit technical writers here at my work.  They
all do a short grammar test and you'd be amazed.  One guy came in with
ten years' experience as a tech writer and he got the worst score on
the grammar test!  It's incredible.

Of course I learnt all my English grammar in classes supposedly
teaching me French.  They don't (didn't?) teach grammar in Australian
schools.  Seems that way here too.

The sad thing is, we've ended up employing an Oxford graduate and
public school boy and I hate giving chances to people who already had
all the advantages in life, but public (i.e., private -- what's with
that?) schools and Oxbridge teach grammar, which is very important for
technical writing.

If you really want to improve your grammar, get in touch and I'll
recommend some books.

-- 
Rev Simon Rumble <simon at rumble.net>
www.rumble.net
Send email with subject "send key pub" for public key.

Warning - Contains nuts!

- On a packet of peanuts
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