The exception to the rule of bad grammar = bad communication.
Brian Dean errancy@infidels.org
Sun, 08 Aug 1999 16:37:00 -0400 (00934162620, 37ADEA6C.22E75693@worldnet.att.net)
> Jean the ex-lemming
> Or, "I Was a lemming, but now I see." You're right, you're absolutely right.
> The supposed "Guru" Till omitted a word before "looking," or he added an
> "-ing" when he shouldn't have. Frankly, I'm so disappointed that I could
> cry. My faith has been shaken. He can expect no money from me this month!
>
> I mean, who cares? What is going on here, with this constant picking at
> grammar? Everybody makes grammatical errors! (Just ask Saint Nancy.) The
> problem is not a random grammatical error, the problem is the ongoing
> inability of some members to communicate properly with the list. A stickler
> would no doubt find loads of errors in my above posting, bu t its wen peepl
> sen d e;Mails lick thiiis thet therz uh prblm. Uhh-- gt ut?
>
BRIDEAN
I am assuming that someone who has taken a few English classes in college
(even so he can get an unrelated degree like mathematics) would not make
the mistakes you made in your last sentence. What gets me is that Farrell
expects everyone to have flawless grammer and doesn't cut anyone slack
where slack is due. For example, lets take someone who took a few
mathematics classes in college so that they could graduate with a degree in
an unrelated major (like English). I would not expect such a person to know
how to prove that all groups of prime order p are cyclic. I would however
expect someone who TEACHES mathematics at a college level to either know
this proof, or to at least have encountered it and be able to look it up quickly.
I would however expect someone who has taken a few classes of mathematics
to be able to do basic arithmetic and perhaps a little bit of basic algebra (not
modern algebra though).
As to why Farrell expects EVERYBODY to be at the same level as those who
teach college English, you should ask him.