"I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why."

[Huston55]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RISP Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

OK, not to be toooooo picky but, her grammar is also incorrect. It should be, "With whom are you cheating on me!". I know it doesn't sound as threatening but, hey, the guy's going to get his throat slit either way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Team Oxford here, too. Serial commas for you, me, and everyone else.

+2
Makes me feels all warm and fuzzy.

[Bestwifeever]

I can spot a lot of errors in my own stuff that resulting from cutting and pasting--mostly sentence fragments and subjects that doesn't agree with verbs. These errors is very obvious as soon as I hit press push the "post" button here or the "send" in my gmail email.

Fortunately the spelling grammar police is on their ways.

[MichaelB]

William Safire's Fumblerules of Grammar

1. Remember to never split an infinitive.
2. A preposition is something never to end a sentence with.
3. The passive voice should never be used.
4. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
5. Don't use no double negatives.
6. Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn't.
7. Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper use and omit it when its not needed.
8. Do not put statements in the negative form.
9. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
12. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
13. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
14. A writer must not shift your point of view.
15. Eschew dialect, irregardless.
16. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
17. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!
18. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
19. Hyphenate between sy-llables and avoid un-necessary hyphens.
20. Write all adverbial forms correct.
21. Don't use contractions in formal writing.
22. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
23. It is incumbent on us to avoid archaisms.
24. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
25. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck in the language.
26. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
27. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
28. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
29. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
30. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, resist hyperbole.
31. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
32. Don't string too many prepositional phrases together unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
33. Always pick on the correct idiom.
34. "Avoid overuse of 'quotation "marks."'"
35. The adverb always follows the verb.
36. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; They're old hat; seek viable alternatives.
37. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
38. Employ the vernacular.
39. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
40. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
41. Contractions aren't necessary.
42. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
43. One should never generalize.
44. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
45. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
46. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
47. Be more or less specific.
48. Understatement is always best.
49. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
50. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
51. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
52. Who needs rhetorical questions?
53. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
54. capitalize every sentence and remember always end it with a point

[NW-Bound]

You expect us to remember all that?

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound You expect us to remember all that?

52. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Edit after the fact:

[NW-Bound]

It was a real question. One can never be so sure of what people really mean.

So, couldn't I ask?

PS. Soon, the above list will be amended with the following.

55. Thou shall not use emoticons.

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by l2ridehd His business depends on having accurate grammar and sentence structure. So it makes perfect sense to throw out resumes with poor grammar and punctuation. I used to hire engineering types and expected their resume to have accurate spelling and grammar. It is someone's first introduction to their perspective new employer. I would expect them to put a good product together to show them in the best possible light. I have eliminated candidates when there are obvious errors on the resume with spelling, grammar and format. Punctuation, not so much unless it was really bad.

Wouldn't that be prospective?

[imoldernu]

Now...

What about using extra spaces between paragraphs?

Is using three periods to separate thoughts or points... ok?

And what about usin' phonetically based words to getcha point across?

IMHO, it's OK, if you're from Rud Islan.

Whaddya think?

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound It was a real question. One can never be so sure of what people really mean. So, couldn't I ask? PS. Soon, the above list will be amended with the following. 55. Thou shall not use emoticons.

Sorry, I forgot the emoticon.
William Safire's list was meant to be a humorous description of the rules, and mine was a lighthearted post that apparently wasn't.

[NW-Bound]

To be fair, one must agree that people who demand strictly correct English usage are talking about more formal written communications in a business environment. On this forum, I like more colloquial and informal posts because they are more fun. If a post makes you laugh or think, who cares about a dangling participle?

A chatty and conversational style of posting is for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu Now... What about using extra spaces between paragraphs? Is using three periods to separate thoughts or points... ok? And what about usin' phonetically based words to getcha point across? IMHO, it's OK, if you're from Rud Islan. Whaddya think?

People who are still working may have to be careful, however, so that they do not let their guard down and get too casual in their work-related writing. Here, what do a bunch of senile geezers care, as long as the other side of the argument discussion gets your point?

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB William Safire's list was meant to be a humorous description of the rules, and mine was a lighthearted post that apparently wasn't.

I did not misunderstand your post, and simply pretended to be offended.

Gotcha!

PS. Yes, mine was a rhetorical question.

[scrabbler1]

<snip>

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I think the many years I spent here stop adding to my writing ability long ago. After a certain point, your writing only goes downhill. It's the same with building up vocabulary. I read somewhere that a person's vocabulary stops growing in his early 20s. You are stuck with the number of words you knew when you got out of college, and that's it.

Not sure I agree with this. My writing improved a lot when I hit my 20s, mainly because I took an in-house business writing course and learned how to write business letters which were part of my job in my first few years of work. I had some good bosses who knew how to write well and I learned a lot from them when they wordsmithed what I wrote. As the years went by, they marked up my stuff less and less to the point that my draft often was sent out as written, no changes. I liked being able to pass my writing skills onto my subordinates in my final years of working.

I also began doing crossword puzzles a lot in my 20s and that improved my vocabulary. Playing Scrabble a lot (see my username?) helped a lot although it is not a requirement that Scrabble players know the definitions of the words they play. Doing those two things together complemented each other.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB Sorry, I forgot the emoticon. William Safire's list was meant to be a humorous description of the rules, and mine was a lighthearted post that apparently wasn't.

Oh, I would say it was very light hearted and understood as that.

[Hamlet]

It's funny. I don't worry too much about grammar, but there are two common "mistakes" I always notice--

"very unique"-- By definition unique means one of a kind. There is no such thing as very unique.

"safe haven"-- By definition a haven is safe. Safe haven is redundant.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamlet It's funny. I don't worry too much about grammar, but there are two common "mistakes" I always notice-- "very unique"-- By definition unique means one of a kind. There is no such thing as very unique. "safe haven"-- By definition a haven is safe. Safe haven is redundant.

The grammar police meat here: Funny/annoying grammatical mistakes and odd neologisms

[ls99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo The grammar police meat here: Funny/annoying grammatical mistakes and odd neologisms

I did not find any meat there.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls99 I did not find any meat there.

Baloney, saw sages everywhere, some of them very unique.

[Bestwifeever]

I'm sorry, I'm too busy watching the Oylmpics to comment further:

The Oylimpics are coming.....

[HFWR]

I hate when my participle is left dangling...

Left to dangle?

Dangles to the left?

[NW-Bound]

May I suggest that you just chop off your participle? Then, you would not have to worry about whether to put it left or right.

Some other people worry about their split infinitive. But if it got split and became two, would that not be split infinitives, I wonder?