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PhD Students - Why is their grammar so poor?

H

I've read quite a few posts on this forum, and I have to say I'm appalled by the simple grammatical errors that everyone seems to make.

"Your" instead of "you're" (you are) is one of the most popular, as is "their/there/they're". I won't even start on "it's/its"!

Come on people, you're (note the correct spelling) meant to be intelligent. I appreciate when typing quickly the occasional mistake can slip out, but some of you do it time after time.

G

Alot of it is mostly laziness.

S

I think I'm of the opinion that proper grammar and spelling should be used in almost all situations, but I personally find it unnatural to do anything else (if that doesn't sound completely stuck up!)

H

I agree Sue. I'm not talking about the shortening of words like in text messages, or commas in the wrong place. I just mean using the incorrect version of a word. Some people don't realise they are doing it most of the time.

H

HeadofGrammar - maybe you should be responsible for correcting peoples mistakes on this Forum? I've left one in for you there.... just as a test....

S

You're appalled by our grammar? then perhaps the phdforum team should but in an automatic spelling and grammar correction function (don't worry findaphd team, you can have this idea, just like all the others you have used).

Or perhaps people shouldn't be so pathetic to moan about such stupid things, it is laziness, and if you can understand it, then whats the problem?

After all, the papers and theses we write will not contain these mistakes, and so we redeem ourselves as 'intelligent people'.

H

I wouldn't say people take offence - I guess it's a case of how you want to come across really. People judge others on all sorts of things - if they take pride in their appearance, if they can "be bothered" to write correctly etc.

V

Of course we have to strive to the best standards but:
1) some of us as foreigners, so be understanding;)
2) Internet generally is an environment where one is not expected to observe the rules of language so carefully;
3) writing here is not the same as writing a PhD, publication etc. It is usually done quickly between other more serious activities:)

E

this is not a paper. This is not my thesis. This is not a technical report. This is not a letter. This is not an e-mail to my supervisor. So therefore I really don't care about my grammar.
If good grammar is a requirement for this site then I aint usin it no more

S

No, I don't take offense (ooh, 'se' or 'ce'?!) either. Strangely enough, I had noticed more mistakes than usual in the past week, maybe that's what prompted the post?

S

what a gay forum, as if you geeks actually care about grammar on a bloody forum. get a life

S

Hey! according to some internet tests I took after reading the 'are you a geek?' forum I'm a maximum of 30% geek!

S

...the 'are you a geek?' THREAD, not forum...

S

where is this geek test? perhaps those grammar caring people 'headofgrammar' and 'han' should take that test and when it comes back as 100%, they will then be able to build a more meaningful life.

H

This thread is lame.

I'm with stu on this one.

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