Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Well...I Guess I Can Complain

Chief Visionary Officer of Collegiate EmPowerment, Anthony D’ Angelo said, “If you have time to whine and complain about something, then you have the time to do something about it.”

The problem is that I actually don’t have time today. I’ve got new syllabi to write, two work meetings, a speech to write for my best friend’s wedding, a yoga class, and I haven’t even unpacked from my weekend getaway.

So instead of taking the time to do something about poor grammar—like offer a lesson—I am just going to complain about it. (And let’s face it: it wouldn’t be the first time.)

The other day I was looking for studies to prove my theory that reading improves writing. I came upon a website that offered this gem:

Reading and writing are interrelated. Reading can improve grammer and vocabulary. Reading extensively can improve your grammer more that listening is able to do. It improves vocabulary and increases the likelyhood of using new words in speech and in writing. Reading also provides examples of new expressions, phrases and idioms that the reader can use.

(I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting the errors.)

To the credit of whoever wrote this, he or she never said reading can improve spelling.

17 comments:

Janet Johnson said...

LOL! No kidding. That is hilarious.

Good luck with your To Do list. :)

the late phoenix said...

even larry david must admit that syllabi is a sexy word

signed,
kelsey GRAMMER

Traci Marie Wolf said...

Ahhhh, I get it. This is a lesson on proofreading. You're good. LOL

Bethany Elizabeth said...

Spelling is awful, I can't spell to save my life. Grammar, however... (or should I say grammer?) :) Once I had a teacher who pronounced grammatically correct as gramically correct. Needless to say, we did not get along.

Shannon said...

I find some irony here. Whether it's in the post or the comments, I'LL NEVER TELL! Bahahaha.

Jeff Beesler said...

We should thank our lucky stars that grammar wasn't confused with grandma!

DWei said...

Yeah, that bothers me too. When people misspell words or use incorrect grammar.

I'm constantly correcting my friends on Facebook.

Dylan Fitzgerald said...

The New Yorker handled the issue a little better (and no, I didn't write that sentence with a straight face):

"If you read a lot of sentences, then you start to think in sentences, and if you think in sentences, then you can write sentences, because you know what a sentence sounds like."

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/06/06/110606crat_atlarge_menand#ixzz1ZMLsNzeM

Liz said...

LOL! This is genius.

Mary Mary said...

Love it! And so true with some of the things we find on the internet!

Theresa Milstein said...

She's obviously a Kelsey Grammer fan.

That and Likelyhood? I've got no explanation.

Crystal Pistol said...

Well that's just painful, isn't it? Yikes.

Jessi LaRue (Jessi Haish) said...

ugh, it hurts to look at it.

Kelly Polark said...

OMG. Embarrassing.

Shelly said...

There are times I want to walk through life with a high powered red Sharpie to correct all of life's spelling errors. No one as of yet has offered to pay me for it, though.

Lorena said...

So maybe there should be a disclaimer in your theory: "Reading can improve vocabulary and grammar, but damage spelling when reading on the internet."

WalksLikeAnEgyptian said...

I realized something very interesting while reading this:

If I concentrate on the paragraph above your bolded excerpt, the red parts look like a lipstick kiss.