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

[brewer12345]

What do you do with the wretches when you catch them?

Ha

There is good eating on those things, but you have to brine them first.

 

[obgyn65]

Please kindly remember that millions of people living in the US were born in non-English speaking countries (including myself), hence the occasional typos, poor construction of sentences, or grammatical errors.

 

[Nords]

Please kindly remember that millions of people living in the US were born in non-English speaking countries (including myself), hence the occasional typos, poor construction of sentences, or grammatical errors.

Usually the Americans who feel obligated to point out non-English speaker's errors haven't bothered to make the effort of learning a second language, let alone being able to risk typos & poor grammar.

The state of Hawaii provides court interpreters for over 200 officially-recognized languages...

 

[ls99]

American English is a second language for me. Learned it starting at age 17.

I'd say look at my typos, punctuation errors, and incorrect sentence structure as if you were listening to my thick foreign accent, even after more than 45 years in this country.

Ditto for the run on sentences.

Besides, I do enjoy reading stuff with spelling errors etc., they conjure up interesting concepts and images.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Please kindly remember that millions of people living in the US were born in non-English speaking countries (including myself), hence the occasional typos, poor construction of sentences, or grammatical errors.

That's a good point--I wonder if the guy in the OP would sit up on the gurnee on the way into major surgery and call a halt to things if he heard the surgeon use a misplaced modifier (regardless of whether the surgeon was a native English speaker or from a non-English speaking country).

 

[MichaelB]

I sure am glad no one applied this rule to me when I went to work in Venezuela. My Spanish then was good, lots of mistakes, but still people always went out of their way to help me. They seemed to appreciate what I had achieved even when imperfect. In fact, the only criticism I recall was from a family member.

Usually the Americans who feel obligated to point out non-English speaker's errors haven't bothered to make the effort of learning a second language, let alone being able to risk typos & poor grammar.

My thought as well..

 

[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.

 

[Bestwifeever]

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.

I think the guy in the OP is just touting his own business.

(PS and just having fun here: would you have thrown out a resume that referred to a "perspective new employer"?)

 

[JOHNNIE36]

The last few posts reminded me of my grandson's searching for a job in the past year in the medical field. I asked him if he had any interviews recently and he began to tell me about how companies operate in the modern era. He says applications are now by email, reviewed and then request made by email for additional info if the company is interested at all. The first phone call is made where company actually gets to hear your voice and the first face to face interview is on skype. Strange ways these days!

 

[Nemo2]

applications are now by email, reviewed and then request made by email for additional info if the company is interested at all.

And the first 'reviewer' might well be an automated spelling/grammar filter which deep-sixes the 'undesirables'.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Even worse, the first reviewer is probably looking for pertinent keywords and will not recognize a nonstandard spelling of one (maybe a hyphenated version, or a closed compound) and thus might skip right past a qualified candidate.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am not a student of linguistics or literature, but I always try to write correctly. And trying hard as I have been, I still make plenty of mistakes. My posts here can be picked apart by anyone.

I usually read and reread my posts after I make them, and try to catch and edit out the errors before someone else quotes them in their reply and freezes my mistakes for eternity, catching me with my pants down for the entire world to see. OK, it's not the entire world but the few thousand viewers of a typical thread anyway. I consider any mistake an embarrassment.

I know the difference between they're, their, and there. Also, I know it's from its. Regarding the latter mistake, I have seen it more and more. I wonder why that is so, for just a three-letter word. Maybe more people are getting senile. For example, recently I caught myself mixing up the two words then and than in a post, but luckily was able to fix it immediately afterwards. Or on reading back my post, I would spot a badly placed comma.

Could it be that in this modern world where nearly everyone can type faster than he can write, we are so anxious to get our words out there on the "cloud" that we have become careless? In the old days when we wrote longhand, we had to slow down and compose our thought first before committing it on paper using a quill pen. I just recall now that I did have to use a quill pen dipped in ink in elemetary school. Schoolchildren's hands were nearly permanently ink-stained. I had a huge callus on my middle finger due to a hard grip on that pen. Oh, the good ole days! In middle school, we graduated to ink fountain pens. Kids really valued their personal pens with gold-plated nibs. We were never allowed to write in pencil, so that we could erase mistakes.

I have noticed in my career that the older engineers tend to write a lot better than the youngins. They are also annoyed by the more atrocious mistakes. So, a good way for a young engineer to distinguish himself from the pack is to be able to write a bit better. Technical writing is easy. Reports or even published technical articles are not rated for literary or poetic contents, although I have seen some that read like a science fiction with all their bogus claims.

Just some ramblings from a non-native English speaker... I have the same alibi as ls99's and have been here for even fewer years, so don't anybody pick on me!

PS. On second thought, ls99 and [-]myself[/-] I have been here before some of the youngsters were born. Lame excuse, I guess.

 

[Nemo2]

myself

Here's one usage you may want to double check.

 

[MichaelB]

There's a special place in Hades for grammar police...

 

[NW-Bound]

See, what did I tell you about getting senile? And getting your error frozen and not being able to edit it out, when you discover it after the "edit time-out" period? That sucks!

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. I have pretty much given up on learning a new language. Still hanging on to the ability to spell Wellesley so that I can send them my money, but that may be slipping away too.

"It's sad, it's so sad", sang Sir Elton John.

PS. By the way, I also found that the word for the pen that we used was not "quill pen", but "dip pen". It had a nib and was not made from a feather. Just a clarification that is important as I do not want to be called a liar if someone finds out.

 

[Huston55]

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.

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]

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]

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]

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.

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?