Well, as my screen name says, I lurk-- a lot! Anyway, I am preparing to write my final paper for nursing school, it is a wrap-up of our final preceptorship and our impressions of the nursing workforce we are about to enter. We are supposed to share our thoughts about furthering our education, how we have witnessed nurses being treated in the workplace, how we felt our school experience was, etc. My paper has kinda veered off on a little tangent (which I am probably going to remove) because one thing that has stuck out in my mind is the way I have seen my fellow nursing students communicate on our class web program, and I see it here on a daily basis as well. I am talking about basic communication skills as far as the written word is concerned.
Is it a trend today, or are my classmates really so deficient in language skills that they can not write a professional, comprehendable sentence? I am not talking about spelling errors, gosh knows we all make those-- I am talking about stuff like this:
"i dont know what u all r talkinabout, but there crazy the way they grade us in nursing school!"
Some of my classmates actually respond to discussion questions from our instructor in this manner. Whatever, to each his own--but my question is, how can a person be taken seriously as a professional if they can not write in basic comprehensible language? And in reading the message board here, I am kinda stunned how many times I just can't understand what the heck someone is trying to say because it just doesn't make any sense!
The more important question to me is this: Do people write like this in real life? Are nurses out there writing notes like this, and communicating with other professionals in this manner? Or is it just something people do on message boards? Do any of you run into this in the workplace?
I'm not talking about simple spelling and/or grammar errors(Tweety, I love your sig about spelling!:)). In fact, in 1st semester my instructor gave me a 98% instead of a 100% on a paper, and she made a note to me that my "grammer was incorrect in one sentence.":uhoh3: Yes, she made a spelling error while correcting me, but I got her point. But if she had written this instead: "ur grammer wuz not write," I probably would have not understood what she was referring to.
So, do nurses communicate this way in the workplace, or is it just confined to the internet?
*** I'm not looking to make fun of spelling or grammar errors, we all make them, I really am just curious if this is the way nurses communicate in real life!***
I am very thankful for the preview & edit options here. However, even then I'm sometimes misunderstood. I'm really a nice guy. In fact, on another Thread I'm reminded that my personality type is ISFJ.
I see botching the English language as a indicator of IQ level. Any bafoon can tell you that "your" and "you're" have 2 entirely different meanings, yet most bafoons fail to treat them as such when typed or written. I absolutely loathed the last week of school when we had yearbooks because there was always those kids who wrote "your my best friend" or "your cool." It makes me wanna :trout: the crap out of people for doing that. Grr! I'm getting mad just typing this rant out lol.
hmmm last i heard buffoon was the correct spelling.
seriously, the internet is not school or work. if one can get one's message across that is what matters. i do have a little problem with the abbreviations sometimes but by asking politely, you usually get a polite answer in response.
and, if you want your writing to be bigger, use the little toggle switches at the top of this box. helps my older eyes - lol.
If it is not deliberate disrespect for the others, then it could be the inability to express a thought without spicing it indiscriminately with foul language. While strong words have their place and time, a public forum in which polite conduct has been requested is not the time or the place for them.
I see botching the English language as a indicator of IQ level. Any bafoon can tell you that "your" and "you're" have 2 entirely different meanings, yet most bafoons fail to treat them as such when typed or written. I absolutely loathed the last week of school when we had yearbooks because there was always those kids who wrote "your my best friend" or "your cool." It makes me wanna :trout: the crap out of people for doing that. Grr! I'm getting mad just typing this rant out lol.
TraumaRUs got to you before I could about "buffoon," but I get to :trout:the crap out of you for ending a sentence with a preposition (the LOL tacked on at the end doesn't change that). You should have spelled out the number two rather than using a numeral. You should have placed a comma after "yearbooks." In the comment regarding "your" and "you're," "when typed or written" is a redundancy, as homonyms are unidentifiable when spoken. Do your friends who think you're their cool best friend know what you think of them?
P/K/B and all that. What did you say that IQ was???
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I see botching the English language as a indicator of IQ level. Any bafoon can tell you that "your" and "you're" have 2 entirely different meanings, yet most bafoons fail to treat them as such when typed or written. I absolutely loathed the last week of school when we had yearbooks because there was always those kids who wrote "your my best friend" or "your cool." It makes me wanna :trout: the crap out of people for doing that. Grr! I'm getting mad just typing this rant out lol.
My kids used to call me the "Grammar Nazi" because I'm really anal-retentive about using good form and spelling words correctly, but even I'm not this critical. Come on, ya gotta lighten up! Life's too short to get worked up over things like this.
I once worked with a nurse who could barely spell 'cat', but if I were ever in need of care, I'd want her providing it, even if she DID write 'pacient slepping well after her seazur' in my chart;)
Apparently you've never read too many papers produced at the college level. Recently in my Micro class we had to post a mini-paper on Blackboard about a self-selected infectious disease. Many of the people in my class already hold BS and AS/AA degrees.
The papers bordered on frightening. So yes, many are NOT able to produce a well-written document when it's needed.
(There's another one that really burns me up - "it's" and "its". "It's" is a contraction of "it is" and "its" is a possessive. Drives me mad when people use them interchangeably.)
ETA - when I was living in Saudi Arabia, I used to work as an assistant to the General. I used to proofread and edit articles for the base newspaper, as well as all correspondence and paperwork that left the command office. Officers in the military must have a four year college degree. Trust me when I say that a large majority of them cannot write worth a hoot. Captains and majors with ten or more years in the military have grammar and punctuation just as bad as some SEVENTH GRADERS my mother taught. And it is DISGRACEFUL.
You know, 'use it or lose it?' Well, some of us lose it more quickly. Today I looked at a 20 page research paper I wrote about 14 years ago. I could not write a paper like this today - not to save my life. I seem to have lost command of the English language and proper grammar. Composing one paragraph without run-ons and mixing up my was/were, which/that, paralleling etc is zonking me. Please try to understand that if one hasn't exercised this muscle of sorts in years, it does atrophy. It is so embarrassing when you used to write well.
Funny enough, after doing my elementary school in French, I was sent to an English high school. The class that I learned the most grammar in was Typing. It was taught by an old nun who took the time to explain the oddities of the English language. 's, i before e except after c, and all the other wierd little quirks that were beyond me. I failled Typing because I was too slow, but I developed a life-long appreciation for the written word from that mean ole nun.
It wasn't till I was in nursing school that I could really spell.
It drives me bonkers at work when people make so many mistakes that I don't understand what they are trying to communicate. Yes, you are in a hurry, but do take the time to at least reread it and see if it makes sense.
And for Pete's sake, don't use a word you don't understand the meaning of. I work in psych and people use the verb "to perseverate" in a lot of ways. I have never really used the word before this and so I don't use it because I'm not comfortable using it. There are other words that I can use that I am more familliar with to describe a behaviour.
Anyway, I am preparing to write my final paper for nursing school, it is a wrap-up of our final preceptorship and our impressions of the nursing workforce we are about to enter. We are supposed to share our thoughts about furthering our education, how we have witnessed nurses being treated in the workplace, how we felt our school experience was, etc. My paper has kinda veered off on a little tangent (which I am probably going to remove) because one thing that has stuck out in my mind is the way I have seen my fellow nursing students communicate on our class web program, and I see it here on a daily basis as well. I am talking about basic communication skills as far as the written word is concerned.
Corvette Guy
1,505 Posts
I am very thankful for the preview & edit options here. However, even then I'm sometimes misunderstood. I'm really a nice guy. In fact, on another Thread I'm reminded that my personality type is ISFJ.