I despair of the education system.

Nick_C

cajef wrote: »

Maybe but I don't start threads despairing of the education system then use bad punctuation.

Please say what you think was wrong with Bob's punctuation.

This may help you ...

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/607/

cajef

Nick_C wrote: »

Please say what you think was wrong with Bob's punctuation.

See post#10 in this thread, judging by the thanks I am not the only one.

Hermione_Granger

cajef wrote: »

Maybe but I don't start threads despairing of the education system then use bad punctuation.

What is the difference between a person starting a thread complaining about the education system and that person making grammatical errors in their posts and someone commenting about others making grammatical errors whilst making similar errors themself?

cajef

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

What is the difference between a person starting a thread complaining about the education system and that person making grammatical errors in their posts and someone commenting about others making grammatical errors whilst making similar errors themself?

If you don't know the difference between a grammatical error and punctuation then you also have a problem and it is themselves not themself.

p00hsticks

Nick_C wrote: »

Please say what you think was wrong with Bob's punctuation.

This may help you ...

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/607/

I suspect that the poster is referring to Bobs post #5, which, to me, seems to contain a number of superfluous commas ?

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

If it's not down to the teaching methods, how is it that every single pupil in my class (all 33 of them), left school, knowing their times tables?

My brother went to see my nephew's English teacher, to ask how he got 10/10 for his essay, when it was full of spelling mistakes.

Nick_C

cajef wrote: »

See post#10 in this thread, judging by the thanks I am not the only one.

But you weren't referring to post # 10. You were quoting this post;

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I've just had a look at my Passport, and can't see my height listed.

which looks absolutely fine to me.

missbiggles1

bylromarha wrote: »

And the terms have been changed because...






...No, I don't know either.

I believe it's a move away from traditional grammar to functional grammar which is, I assume, similar to the move from traditional to "new" maths.

If you've learned one system and younger people have learned another, it doesn't mean that they know more than those who learned the earlier system.

I'll withold judgement on it until I see whether the generation that's learning this way can write decent grammatical English when they leave school - I certainly hope so.

missbiggles1

Nick_C wrote: »

Please say what you think was wrong with Bob's punctuation.

This may help you ...

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/607/

He's used "and" and a comma when only "and" was needed.

Hermione_Granger

cajef wrote: »

If you don't know the difference between a grammatical error and punctuation then you also have a problem and it is themselves not themself.

Grammar and punctuation are heavily related in written English which is why I stated "similar" errors.
As to "themselves" and "themself". There is no hard and fast rule stating that the second one is always incorrect. Yes, it is recommended to use "themselves" but there is no reason why what I posted is wrong.

Well, much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, themself is a word and it has a long history to boot. Although most authorities agree that it isn’t currently part of the repertoire of accepted reflexive pronouns, themself is by no means a rarity in today’s English. There are 532 examples of this word on the Oxford English Corpus (OEC):
it’s found in all types of writing, from media reports and blogs to academic texts.

I know that I'm not perfect in how I write and I know I make mistakes but I don't act like a hypocrite and write posts with the sole intention of making myself look big.

Nick_C

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I'll withold judgement on it until I see whether the generation that's learning this way can write decent grammatical English when they leave school - I certainly hope so.

I hope so too, but I shan't be holding my breath.

We need to start turning out people who can speak English properly, and the BBC needs to employ them. We must be one of the only countries in the world to have this very unique problem. (Grammatical errors intentional to illustrate two of my pet hates that I hear almost daily on the BBC.)