Monday, July 6, 2009

Who wrote what?

Lee meant to carve up a poster on Goadr's blog, but she hasn't yet worked out that it is Goader's writing she is dissecting. Shhhhh ... I think she is sleeping.

http://es-kay.net/?p=1182&cpage=1#comment-3013

Beyond the homophone problem pointed out by one writer above, Ms. Gladstone needs help with punctuation and grammar.

Inviting the reader’s indulgence of her slapdash performance is graceless and unprofessional.
A comma goes after “Spell Check” inside the quotation marks for the introductory adverbial clause. In addition, “750 plus” and “less than one percent” are hyphenated adjectives before a noun.


There exists no justification for the quotation marks around “onstage.” Ms. Gladstone does not use the word in a special sense; she uses it in its ordinary sense.

“The teacher being” should be “the teacher’s being”: possessive before the gerund.
“This” in the next-to-the-last sentence of the second-from-the-bottom paragraph has no antecedent.


I consider Ms. Gladstone’s breezy, self-indulgent excuse for illiteracy in herself and in any teacher unacceptable. There is no reason why this teacher or other teachera could not have learned grammar and punctuation in their formal educational career of twelve or more years.
Ms. Gladstone’s error-ridden performance shows that she should get out her 9th-grade grammar primer and study it from cover to cover. To teach, she must catch up on what she failed to learn during her education years.


The correct use of language forms the basis of education. If a person cannot master grammar and punctuation in classrooms over the years of his or her formal education, that person does not belong in the classroom as a teacher.

Illiterate teachers produce illiterate students.

However, to add bonhomie to this criticism, I will join Ms. Gladstone in her moldy solecism: I ain’t kidding, folks.

Lee Drury De Cesare

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lee's best mess-up yet!

Anonymous said...

http://prohcds.blogspot.com/2009/07/can-anyone-refute-this.html


Richard is inviting comments from Antigrammargrinch and Ziggy at the above link.