[Gllug] Schoolboy Grammar

JLMS jjllmmss at googlemail.com
Tue Mar 27 10:48:12 UTC 2012


<mega snip of grammatical discussion>

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Literature Nobel Prize winner, has atrocious
grammar and spelling (self confessed, confirmed by frustrated
editors), but nobody doubts his accomplishments as a writer, he has
won pretty much any literary prize you care to mention (which by
definition makes him a good communicator I suppose).

Vladimir Nabokov ditto (at least in English, which is more surprising
since his native tongue was Russian, still he managed to write one of
the greatest novels in English language).

So evaluating technicians on the basis of how perfect their grammar
and spelling skills are, well, somehow is missing the bigger picture
(since not even great writers are necessary evaluated on that basis
alone), but hey, this is a free country....

if communication is so key to a business plan then technicians should
not be doing the communicating on their own,  a competent technical
writer should be reviewing what they write before it reaches clients.

If the communication is to transmit specific ongoing technical matters
then as long as the communication is professional and clear why should
one go with such a fine comb checking for grammatical correctness? I
as a client would not feel offended by one mistake or two during the
normal flow of a conversation and can  always ask for clarification if
something is not explained properly (which sometimes isn't even using
pristine English, just listen to some politicians ...)
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