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let's hear it for good english!
12 Oct 2006 07:36 pmI agree...
...If only up to the bit where it started to sound like there is some thespian conspiracy to undermine the "lower class" by removing their "rights to good English"....
I have to say I'm on the pedantic side for English ==;; Though my skills have fade in the last 3 years due to overexposure to yummy scientific jargon, our uni's Honi Soit (especially last year's editors) has such atrocious proof-reading that I cannot feel at peace until I've dug out a red marker and circled all their mistakes ==;;;
And yesterday, while reading an international student's poster abstract on HIV, I ended up editing all the grammatical mistakes ==;;;;;; Well...it's not surprising that Asians tend to trip over where to put "the"s and where not, since the definite article1 doesn't even exist in our language ==;
The editing ended in an argument over the word formidable ==; "Research to find an effective vaccine and treatment is both necessary and formidable." I swear that sounds weird. I don't know why, but unless research is qualified as a task or work or something...it just sounds odd to say "formidable research". Like. "Formidable lunch". Huh? Exactly.
And the guy kept insisting that it made sense in Chinese =___=;;;;
1. Did you know, "the" is also an adverb.
...If only up to the bit where it started to sound like there is some thespian conspiracy to undermine the "lower class" by removing their "rights to good English"....
I have to say I'm on the pedantic side for English ==;; Though my skills have fade in the last 3 years due to overexposure to yummy scientific jargon, our uni's Honi Soit (especially last year's editors) has such atrocious proof-reading that I cannot feel at peace until I've dug out a red marker and circled all their mistakes ==;;;
And yesterday, while reading an international student's poster abstract on HIV, I ended up editing all the grammatical mistakes ==;;;;;; Well...it's not surprising that Asians tend to trip over where to put "the"s and where not, since the definite article1 doesn't even exist in our language ==;
The editing ended in an argument over the word formidable ==; "Research to find an effective vaccine and treatment is both necessary and formidable." I swear that sounds weird. I don't know why, but unless research is qualified as a task or work or something...it just sounds odd to say "formidable research". Like. "Formidable lunch". Huh? Exactly.
And the guy kept insisting that it made sense in Chinese =___=;;;;
1. Did you know, "the" is also an adverb.
