Have recent generations forgotten correct spelling and grammar?

Both. The memorization first lets you break it down when your father (or teacher) says, "Now, sound it out." First I memorized and then we learned to stick various letters in front of "at" - rat, cat, bat, sat, hat, fat, mat, pat, tat, vat,

Thanks, I can see what you are saying. I personally do not remember how I learned, but that does make sense. Of course we probably learned why "at" sounded as it did by learning how to sound out "a" and "t". I think I probably just quickly jumped to the conclusion that this teacher never asked the students to sound it out, but just to look at "rat, bat, cat" and memorize what each said. But you know what happens when I assume!

I physically wince whenever I see misspellings or when people do not use grammatical English. It drives me insane, and I am a member of the Facebook group "Yes, I do judge you when you make grammatical errors".

I remember learning to read very clearly because it was so closely associated with my father reading to me.

Chat forums and social sites do not require proper spelling or grammar, IMO. I am not offended by lack of either skill set in that environment. I rather enjoy when people write more like they speak, rather than in some formal fashion. I am not a texter, but I can usually extrapolate the meaning of the message. Studies have demonstrated that we do not require all of the letters in words in order to accurately read the message. This is "whole language" reading and is represented in the earlier posts describing memorization of sentences. Young children learn by a combination of phonetics and whole language application. What is important is to remember is that there is a percentage of children who cannot learn to read without phonetics, that would include any children with dyslexic type disabilities.

In terms of documenting in the legal chart, accuracy is of upmost importance. As a manager it was incumbent upon me to review records and make sure that the nurses supervised by me were documenting with appropriate and approved language. A simple typo is not as important as an incorrect word as in dysphagia vs. dysphasia, etc. As a nursing professional I have no reservation about asking a colleague about his/her charting. If I can't understand what they have written they might want to consider adding an addendum to clarify their thoughts. As well, I will question a physician or other discipline if their documentation is incomplete or questionable. We have to look out for one another in our line of work. We do not want the plaintiff's attorney to be the only one reading our documentation with an eye for accuracy and error. If you are not comfortable speaking with a co-worker about their charting, mention it to your supervisor. Our expectations for legal documentation should be high while remembering that perfect sentence structure and grammar are not the goals, rather, a clear representation of facts is our objective.

So...go easy on one another. Have some fun with your posts.

Languages are constantly evolving. Spelling and grammar are not fixed; they're fluid. Therefore, every generation has this complaint about the one preceding it; that's how it is. I love to see how new cultures, new technologies, world events, and music/media affect our language.

While that statement is certainly true to a point, we must still adhere to the standards of the MLA (Modern Language Association) when writing and, most of the time, when speaking. The MLA changes with the times but remains the ultimate academic grammar police.

Kathy
sharpeimom

my odd little brain somehow automatically finds the errors in spelling and grammar. i have to tell it to chill out & move on! i have always loved reading and words, and this "sense" (sensitivity?) is something i can't seem to help. come to think of it, my mom is the same way. i try not be critical (as in critiquing of the writing or speaking, not personal judgment of its author), but it's some kind of built in response i have.

that being said, i don't like using capital letters when typing or writing (i can't stand when outlook auto-corrects my lowercase. if i wanted it capitalized, i would've done it myself, dang it.). i picked up this habit in junior high, when copying the writing style of my friend's older sister, who i thought was just sooo beautiful and cool. i've been doing it so long now, i often have to remind myself to capitalize at the beginning of a sentence!

also: i like to misuse the ampersand, tend to overuse parentheses, & find the evolution of language at once absolutely fascinating and a little unnerving.

as has been said previously, i make sure i p & q it with professional documentation.

i know i just made at least one of y'all cringe out there w/this post...

I blame nursing school. I used to be editor in chief and now my grammar and spelling is falling to the wayside...much to my dismay.

You're (not your) absolutely correct about the frequency and impact of poor grammar. There (not they're, their) seems to be more of it now. My big pet peeve is the use of an apostrophe when plural, not possessive is indicated. When I see a sign that says "Condo's for Sale," I wonder what possession of the condo is for sale and why they are not selling the entire condo!