Software Co. CEO Has 'Zero Tolerance' for Poor Grammar - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher

Software Co. CEO Has 'Zero Tolerance' for Poor Grammar - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher

I think we must reevaluate the role of grammar in this technological age. Our smart phones are smarter spellers than many of us.  Written messages are becoming shorter and shorter. Software programs assist us in many aspects of our writings. This could potentially be problematic. Writing  only gets better by more writing. In the last five years, I have observed  many of my students writing in a text talk lingo.  There is not capital I and you has become a on letter words.  Even many of our contemporary poets lowercase the I (i) and used poetic license to break myriad English rules. We all can thank ee. cummings for that.  However, I am sure many of the  poetic children of ee., can write grammatically correct, but just choose not to. I  often have to remind college students that to write well is a skill that pays for itself. I am sorry to say, they don't believe me.  Poorly written papers are more of a pain to the reader than the writer.  Many a migraines have visited me over the years. I have to become the wicked witch of the wild  RED pen west and mark up errors in usage, punctuation, and organization.  According to many researchers, the teacher should not use a  RED pen because it destroys the student. But if not corrected, this lack of good grammar will never leave students. I am aware of an employee who was placed on administrative leave for a poorly written memo that had the CEO's signature on it. Writing well is a disciplined skill that many educators do not( because of time constraints) focus on like English teachers used to and unfortunately we all suffer for it. 

                                                                         KIM