School is not a verb.

This little bit is not gonna be a rant, but I gotta admit using ‘School’ as a verb gets to me a little bit.

I don’t have a problem with new slang words and most times they’re easy to grasp, but using School as a verb is less than interesting and not necessary far as I’m concerned.

I’m not being an elitist or even the Grammar Police, but it’s obvious we need to do something to make some posts easier to read.

I’ve thought off and on about making this post for a while and after seeing a long and drawn out all one paragraph hard to read post I figured I’d toss this out.

Take it or leave it, your choice.

Only word of advice is that if you don’t make an effort to make your posts easier to read you won’t get readers to put forth the effort required to read them.

As well as, questions you ask may go unanswered by the very person who has experience in that particular area.



Right up front, this is not gonna be a spelling lesson, but if nothing else, learn to spell ‘Deuce’ correctly.

It’s Deuce and not Duece.

Deuce is a 32 right?

Deuce was probably applied as a bit of shorthand to the 32 Fords by a card player.

It’s very common for them to call the ‘2' a ‘deuce.’

Deuce more than likely being derived from Deux which is French for Two.

Although Trente-Deux would be the correct way to say 32 in French.

Aside from all that perhaps not particularly interesting bit of information, just spell the Goddamned word correctly.

Ok?

Ok.



I don’t have a problem with incorrect spelling for the most part.

Context usually gives us enough clues to figure out what you mean.

If the writing is reasonably clear.

*E.G., their for there. There are lots of words in the English language like that and using the wrong one is easily done. Even by those who should know better. Once you learn to type fast you’ll find you are typing words instead of letters. A bit like playing music. It’s funny how the mind says "there" and the fingers knock out"their."

In the end, don’t worry too much about correct usage. It’ll all work out.

I do hear people complaining about younger people and their lack of knowledge and caring about a particular subject. That’s an old complaint from any generation older than you and said complaints were probably voiced by that guy in the bible . . . name of Adam fwiw.

Complaints about reading are commonly made in many areas of society along with the comment that computers are ruining the language/reading skills of many, but I don’t think so. If you want to take part in the brave new world of cyberspace, you have to at least read and if you want to take part even further, you’ll have to learn to write reasonably well.

Reading and writing are like anything else. It just takes practice.



So that’s enough BS about spelling, grammar and all that and what follows is a short how-to on making your posts easier to read.

The key thing to keep in mind is that almost all Internet word processing programs/bulletin boards do not accept proper construction of paragraphs, sentence indents and all the stuff that makes the written word easy to read.

I say almost, but my experience has been that no Internet sites allow the written word to be properly posted.

Even on sites dedicated to writers and the written word.

One thing you will find on writing sites is that the great majority of participants have a good if not excellent grasp of writing technique and proper sentence/paragraph construction.

I’m gonna lay out some examples that are lifted directly some of my writing.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This first example shows what some posters are putting up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



We didn’t call em shoeboxes back in the day. They were just 49 to 51 Fords. Pretty much like other 50's era cars to an extent although Fords and Chevys were the car of choice for most. In my little gang, Fords were it. Coupes, the absolute favorite. Two door sedans were in the running for sure and that because there were more of them around than anything else. Anything except four doors anyway. Not many four doors got fixed up, but the rest were fodder for the torch of the customizer and the wrench of the hot rodder. You’d see a few convertibles around town, town being Ventura, California, but most of them were totally stock, most times very clean and about the only things done to them was a pair of pipes with some sweet sounding muffs and occasionally a different set of hubcaps or wheel covers. One of the reasons converts weren’t hot rodded to any degree or even customized at all, the converts were owned by girls. At least, that’s the way it was in my town. Not a put down on the girls here. A lot of girls like flashy cars, but for most of them, a car was just a means to an end. Even when the girls owned the sorta flashy looking converts, they were for the most part left totally stock. That’s ok, a couple of good looking young women bombing around town, top down in a convert was all the converts really needed as far as accessories were concerned. Not that I’m calling the young women accessories here, just that they added a certain something to the converts just as they added a certain something to just about any car. Even so, there was something special about these convert owning girls. They seemed to be a little more carefree and not too worried about their hair and especially not worried about what anybody thought. They were like the rest of the girls though in that they fell into the good girl category. And even if they fell into the bad girl category, how the hell would we know? We were so busy dinking around with our coupes and sedans and trying to eke out a little more horsepower that we never really got to know the convert driving girls too well. Not a problem for one of the locals though. A kid named Ryan who drove one of the ugliest cars that Ford ever rolled out into the light of day. A 38 Ford coupe. Somebody called it a deluxe, but if that was deluxe I’d hate to see what the bottom dog model was. We had to admit though, the car was a cherry. I heard that his grandad quit driving and passed the car down to Ryan. When Ryan got his hands on it he didn’t do much other than drive it. That part made sense to us, why waste money on that thing when he could have sold it and put the money toward a good looking 39 or 40 Ford coupe or even a 49 or 50 Ford coupe and he would have had something. I guess it didn’t make any difference. Ryan was a thinker and a pretty smart guy. Something we didn’t recognize at first, but it didn’t take too long to figure it out. Seems like he got the car one Christmas and somewhere around the first part of summer it disappeared off the streets. We’d see Ryan at the Frosty Shop which was the usual gathering spot for kids and cars and sometimes we’d see him at Merles, the other car oriented drive in at the east end of Main Street, but he was always with somebody else. Eventually, the somebody else was one of the two convertible owning girls in town. The one that drove the white 51 Ford convert. She didn’t fall into the blonde in a red convertible category, but one look at her with her light brown hair and knockout drop dead gorgeous good looks made me think that nobody was really worried about red paint or blonde hair. She had it all and then some. I guess she found something in Ryan, but we never could figure out what it was. Probably because the question we asked ourselves was, "How come that’s not me in the convert with Judy?" Instead of the question we really should have asked ourselves, "What were guys like Ryan doing right where girls were concerned?" Near the end of summer, we found out why Ryan’s coupe had been off the street. I thought the flathead in it gave up the ghost and the ugly damned thing was parked out back of his house or maybe collecting dust out at his grandad’s citrus ranch. Gotta admit, when he drove it into the Frosty Shop one hot August night, it was a mean sounding sumbitch. It looked a little different too. Somewhere along the line he’d stuck a dropped axle in it and got the front end down as well as popped a pair of 8:20 x 15's on the back and what looked like the ever popular 5:50 x 15's on the front. The interesting part was the engine was a bright red late model flathead. Funny part was, as strong running and healthy as the engine sounded it looked virtually stock. It didn’t even have aluminum heads. Somebody said it was running a pair of Canadian Ford heads that were milled and Ryan thought that was a better way to go. We just figured Ryan didn’t know any better or maybe the cast iron heads were all he could afford. No shame in running them, just that we knew he’d have been better off with a pair of aluminum finned heads. Ryan marched to the beat of a different drummer, that was for sure. Besides the ugly damned coupe, which, if you really looked at it, didn’t look so ugly anymore, the great sounding engine caught your ear like few other engines did. As far as looks go, the only offbeat thing that gave away the engines potential was the three two barrel intake sitting up top. Strange part was, the middle carb flange was blocked off and he ran a pair of 94's at each end. That one really threw us for a loop. Heck, some of us were running three 94's on a totally stock engine and they ran just fine. Ian, probably the smartest guy in our little group of misfits figured Ryan was a lot smarter than we gave him credit for. His comment was that Ryan probably blew the engine budget on the internals and that could have been why only the two carbs. Even so, he leaned toward the theory that two carbs, even with a built flathead was probably enough. Made sense I guess, Ian’s 49 coupe ran two 94's on what we knew to be a totally stock engine and it was a runner. Kind of hard to argue with Ian sometimes. I was pretty sure he ran milled heads and pretty sure the rest of the engine was stock, but the interesting part was, his coupe was the fastest car in our little group and in fact was about the fastest flathead powered, almost stock 49 in town. Ian’s dad was the parts manager at the Ford dealer, but Ian didn’t seem to have a real advantage with that. Aside from the discount. Ian learned what he knew the hard way. Reading about hot rods, talking to guys who really did know what worked as well as getting right in the middle of working on his own car. Sometimes it surprised me to see a lot of the stuff he tried and experimented with just so he could learn how it worked. I guess he never heard the little saying about not fixing it if it wasn’t broke. Anyhow, Ryan, apparently tired of the insults about his little coupe started telling people to put up or shut up. Sometimes I wondered if he meant literally or if he was inviting them to race. Being sorta close to the situation now and then and looking at Ryan’s serious look I kinda thought that either way didn’t make too much difference to him. We’d see him get into a fight now and then and most times come out on top, but with that and beating a couple of the local thought to be fast cars, people stopped giving him a bad time about his coupe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



A fairly long excerpt from a short story was chosen to show how difficult it is to read when it’s all run together.

Kind of a bitch wasn’t it?

Even with reasonably well done punctuation.

I’m not gonna get into the punctuation bit here other than to say, learn a little bit about comma’s, periods and question marks. Get those down pretty good and your writing will be much clearer.

I know there are some who are thinking, "Who gives a shit."

Obviously I do or I wouldn’t be wasting my morning knocking this out when I could be out in the garage doing something useful.

Simply put, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to writing when it’s obvious the author doesn’t give a shit. A lot of other guys and gals aren’t going to make an effort to answer a poorly written question so you may not be reaching the one person with the particular knowledge you seek.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This second example is taken directly from a properly formatted piece and shows how Internet bulletin boards take your writing and convert it to their own desires, preferences and requirements.

(Not too long ago, a very smart magazine writer - not AV8 - came on board the HAMB with a somewhat long and very interesting piece. No doubt he had the article properly formatted for the printed page and it was done in acceptable English language construction, but the bulletin board corrupted his more than a few pages into one long drawn out bit which was tough to read.

I waded through it cuz it was interesting and informative, but it took a while.)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



We didn’t call em shoeboxes back in the day. They were just 49 to 51 Fords. Pretty much like other 50's era cars to an extent although Fords and Chevys were the car of choice for most. In my little gang, Fords were it. Coupes, the absolute favorite. Two door sedans were in the running for sure and that because there were more of them around than anything else. Anything except four doors anyway. Not many four doors got fixed up, but the rest were fodder for the torch of the customizer and the wrench of the hot rodder.

You’d see a few convertibles around town, town being Ventura, California, but most of them were totally stock, most times very clean and about the only things done to them was a pair of pipes with some sweet sounding muffs and occasionally a different set of hubcaps or wheel covers.

One of the reasons converts weren’t hot rodded to any degree or even customized at all, the converts were owned by girls. At least, that’s the way it was in my town. Not a put down on the girls here. A lot of girls like flashy cars, but for most of them, a car was just a means to an end. Even when the girls owned the sorta flashy looking converts, they were for the most part left totally stock. That’s ok, a couple of good looking young women bombing around town, top down in a convert was all the converts really needed as far as accessories were concerned. Not that I’m calling the young women accessories here, just that they added a certain something to the converts just as they added a certain something to just about any car. Even so, there was something special about these convert owning girls. They seemed to be a little more carefree and not too worried about their hair and especially not worried about what anybody thought. They were like the rest of the girls though in that they fell into the good girl category. And even if they fell into the bad girl category, how the hell would we know? We were so busy dinking around with our coupes and sedans and trying to eke out a little more horsepower that we never really got to know the convert driving girls too well.

Not a problem for one of the locals though. A kid named Ryan who drove one of the ugliest cars that Ford ever rolled out into the light of day. A 38 Ford coupe. Somebody called it a deluxe, but if that was deluxe I’d hate to see what the bottom dog model was. We had to admit though, the car was a cherry. I heard that his grandad quit driving and passed the car down to Ryan.

When Ryan got his hands on it he didn’t do much other than drive it. That part made sense to us, why waste money on that thing when he could have sold it and put the money toward a good looking 39 or 40 Ford coupe or even a 49 or 50 Ford coupe and he would have had something. I guess it didn’t make any difference. Ryan was a thinker and a pretty smart guy. Something we didn’t recognize at first, but it didn’t take too long to figure it out. Seems like he got the car one Christmas and somewhere around the first part of summer it disappeared off the streets. We’d see Ryan at the Frosty Shop which was the usual gathering spot for kids and cars and sometimes we’d see him at Merles, the other car oriented drive in at the east end of Main Street, but he was always with somebody else.

Eventually, the somebody else was one of the two convertible owning girls in town. The one that drove the white 51 Ford convert. She didn’t fall into the blonde in a red convertible category, but one look at her with her light brown hair and knockout drop dead gorgeous good looks made me think that nobody was really worried about red paint or blonde hair. She had it all and then some. I guess she found something in Ryan, but we never could figure out what it was. Probably because the question we asked ourselves was, "How come that’s not me in the convert with Judy?" Instead of the question we really should have asked ourselves, "What were guys like Ryan doing right where girls were concerned?"

Near the end of summer, we found out why Ryan’s coupe had been off the street. I thought the flathead in it gave up the ghost and the ugly damned thing was parked out back of his house or maybe collecting dust out at his grandad’s citrus ranch.

Gotta admit, when he drove it into the Frosty Shop one hot August night, it was a mean sounding sumbitch. It looked a little different too. Somewhere along the line he’d stuck a dropped axle in it and got the front end down as well as popped a pair of 8:20 x 15's on the back and what looked like the ever popular 5:50 x 15's on the front. The interesting part was the engine was a bright red late model flathead. Funny part was, as strong running and healthy as the engine sounded it looked virtually stock. It didn’t even have aluminum heads. Somebody said it was running a pair of Canadian Ford heads that were milled and Ryan thought that was a better way to go. We just figured Ryan didn’t know any better or maybe the cast iron heads were all he could afford. No shame in running them, just that we knew he’d have been better off with a pair of aluminum finned heads.

Ryan marched to the beat of a different drummer, that was for sure. Besides the ugly damned coupe, which, if you really looked at it, didn’t look so ugly anymore, the great sounding engine caught your ear like few other engines did. As far as looks go, the only offbeat thing that gave away the engines potential was the three two barrel intake sitting up top. Strange part was, the middle carb flange was blocked off and he ran a pair of 94's at each end. That one really threw us for a loop. Heck, some of us were running three 94's on a totally stock engine and they ran just fine. Ian, probably the smartest guy in our little group of misfits figured Ryan was a lot smarter than we gave him credit for. His comment was that Ryan probably blew the engine budget on the internals and that could have been why only the two carbs. Even so, he leaned toward the theory that two carbs, even with a built flathead was probably enough. Made sense I guess, Ian’s 49 coupe ran two 94's on what we knew to be a totally stock engine and it was a runner. Kind of hard to argue with Ian sometimes. I was pretty sure he ran milled heads and pretty sure the rest of the engine was stock, but the interesting part was, his coupe was the fastest car in our little group and in fact was about the fastest flathead powered, almost stock 49 in town. Ian’s dad was the parts manager at the Ford dealer, but Ian didn’t seem to have a real advantage with that. Aside from the discount. Ian learned what he knew the hard way. Reading about hot rods, talking to guys who really did know what worked as well as getting right in the middle of working on his own car. Sometimes it surprised me to see a lot of the stuff he tried and experimented with just so he could learn how it worked. I guess he never heard the little saying about not fixing it if it wasn’t broke.

Anyhow, Ryan, apparently tired of the insults about his little coupe started telling people to put up or shut up. Sometimes I wondered if he meant literally or if he was inviting them to race. Being sorta close to the situation now and then and looking at Ryan’s serious look I kinda thought that either way didn’t make too much difference to him. We’d see him get into a fight now and then and most times come out on top, but with that and beating a couple of the local thought to be fast cars, people stopped giving him a bad time about his coupe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This one was a little easier to read due to the few blank lines that remained in the text.

What’s accepted in English composition as far as paragraphs and a few other rules go is noted below.

A paragraph is a unit of composition and signals a turn or change in the subject at hand and is also done to break the work up into aesthetically pleasing proportions.

It’s beginning is indicated by 3-5 blank spaces at the beginning of the first sentence.

Since bulletin boards won’t allow for blank spaces at the beginning of a sentence we have to do something different to indicate a paragraph that will be accepted by the bulletin boards.

That something different is simply a blank line inserted to show the beginning of a new paragraph.

You’ll see that done in the third example coming up.

The blank lines in the second example shown above indicate a change in location, thought, viewpoint or subject matter.

All of this paragraph and blank line stuff are done so you can get your mind wrapped around an idea or thought. Not many of us can follow the approximately 1400 words in the first of the above examples. Break it up into paragraphs and note the changes due to the blank line bit and following along is much easier.

You may be asking, "So if a blank line now indicates a paragraph, how do we indicate blank lines?"

An entirely reasonable question and what I do is put in two blank lines to indicate the normally accepted single blank line that’s done in non-Internet writing.

This third and last example shows what I mean.

It’s been formatted specifically for Internet bulletin boards.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





We didn’t call em shoeboxes back in the day. They were just 49 to 51 Fords. Pretty much like other 50's era cars to an extent although Fords and Chevys were the car of choice for most. In my little gang, Fords were it. Coupes, the absolute favorite. Two door sedans were in the running for sure and that because there were more of them around than anything else. Anything except four doors anyway. Not many four doors got fixed up, but the rest were fodder for the torch of the customizer and the wrench of the hot rodder.

You’d see a few convertibles around town, town being Ventura, California, but most of them were totally stock, most times very clean and about the only things done to them was a pair of pipes with some sweet sounding muffs and occasionally a different set of hubcaps or wheel covers.

One of the reasons converts weren’t hot rodded to any degree or even customized at all, the converts were owned by girls. At least, that’s the way it was in my town. Not a put down on the girls here. A lot of girls like flashy cars, but for most of them, a car was just a means to an end. Even when the girls owned the sorta flashy looking converts, they were for the most part left totally stock. That’s ok, a couple of good looking young women bombing around town, top down in a convert was all the converts really needed as far as accessories were concerned. Not that I’m calling the young women accessories here, just that they added a certain something to the converts just as they added a certain something to just about any car. Even so, there was something special about these convert owning girls. They seemed to be a little more carefree and not too worried about their hair and especially not worried about what anybody thought. They were like the rest of the girls though in that they fell into the good girl category. And even if they fell into the bad girl category, how the hell would we know? We were so busy dinking around with our coupes and sedans and trying to eke out a little more horsepower that we never really got to know the convert driving girls too well.



Not a problem for one of the locals though. A kid named Ryan who drove one of the ugliest cars that Ford ever rolled out into the light of day. A 38 Ford coupe. Somebody called it a deluxe, but if that was deluxe I’d hate to see what the bottom dog model was. We had to admit though, the car was a cherry. I heard that his grandad quit driving and passed the car down to Ryan.

When Ryan got his hands on it he didn’t do much other than drive it. That part made sense to us, why waste money on that thing when he could have sold it and put the money toward a good looking 39 or 40 Ford coupe or even a 49 or 50 Ford coupe and he would have had something. I guess it didn’t make any difference. Ryan was a thinker and a pretty smart guy. Something we didn’t recognize at first, but it didn’t take too long to figure it out. Seems like he got the car one Christmas and somewhere around the first part of summer it disappeared off the streets. We’d see Ryan at the Frosty Shop which was the usual gathering spot for kids and cars and sometimes we’d see him at Merles, the other car oriented drive in at the east end of Main Street, but he was always with somebody else.

Eventually, the somebody else was one of the two convertible owning girls in town. The one that drove the white 51 Ford convert. She didn’t fall into the blonde in a red convertible category, but one look at her with her light brown hair and knockout drop dead gorgeous good looks made me think that nobody was really worried about red paint or blonde hair. She had it all and then some. I guess she found something in Ryan, but we never could figure out what it was. Probably because the question we asked ourselves was, "How come that’s not me in the convert with Judy?" Instead of the question we really should have asked ourselves, "What were guys like Ryan doing right where girls were concerned?"



Near the end of summer, we found out why Ryan’s coupe had been off the street. I thought the flathead in it gave up the ghost and the ugly damned thing was parked out back of his house or maybe collecting dust out at his grandad’s citrus ranch.

Gotta admit, when he drove it into the Frosty Shop one hot August night, it was a mean sounding sumbitch. It looked a little different too. Somewhere along the line he’d stuck a dropped axle in it and got the front end down as well as popped a pair of 8:20 x 15's on the back and what looked like the ever popular 5:50 x 15's on the front. The interesting part was the engine was a bright red late model flathead. Funny part was, as strong running and healthy as the engine sounded it looked virtually stock. It didn’t even have aluminum heads. Somebody said it was running a pair of Canadian Ford heads that were milled and Ryan thought that was a better way to go. We just figured Ryan didn’t know any better or maybe the cast iron heads were all he could afford. No shame in running them, just that we knew he’d have been better off with a pair of aluminum finned heads.



Ryan marched to the beat of a different drummer, that was for sure. Besides the ugly damned coupe, which, if you really looked at it, didn’t look so ugly anymore, the great sounding engine caught your ear like few other engines did. As far as looks go, the only offbeat thing that gave away the engines potential was the three two barrel intake sitting up top. Strange part was, the middle carb flange was blocked off and he ran a pair of 94's at each end. That one really threw us for a loop. Heck, some of us were running three 94's on a totally stock engine and they ran just fine. Ian, probably the smartest guy in our little group of misfits figured Ryan was a lot smarter than we gave him credit for. His comment was that Ryan probably blew the engine budget on the internals and that could have been why only the two carbs. Even so, he leaned toward the theory that two carbs, even with a built flathead was probably enough. Made sense I guess, Ian’s 49 coupe ran two 94's on what we knew to be a totally stock engine and it was a runner. Kind of hard to argue with Ian sometimes. I was pretty sure he ran milled heads and pretty sure the rest of the engine was stock, but the interesting part was, his coupe was the fastest car in our little group and in fact was about the fastest flathead powered, almost stock 49 in town. Ian’s dad was the parts manager at the Ford dealer, but Ian didn’t seem to have a real advantage with that. Aside from the discount. Ian learned what he knew the hard way. Reading about hot rods, talking to guys who really did know what worked as well as getting right in the middle of working on his own car. Sometimes it surprised me to see a lot of the stuff he tried and experimented with just so he could learn how it worked. I guess he never heard the little saying about not fixing it if it wasn’t broke.

Anyhow, Ryan, apparently tired of the insults about his little coupe started telling people to put up or shut up. Sometimes I wondered if he meant literally or if he was inviting them to race. Being sorta close to the situation now and then and looking at Ryan’s serious look I kinda thought that either way didn’t make too much difference to him. We’d see him get into a fight now and then and most times come out on top, but with that and beating a couple of the local thought to be fast cars, people stopped giving him a bad time about his coupe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



You’ll probably agree that this last example was easier to read than the first two and way easier to read than the first one.

I hope that some posters will take these examples to heart and make more of an effort to make their writing a little easier to follow.

I’m not being an elitist here nor am I attempting to be an English professor.

In fact, I’m like a lot of guys on here.

A solid C student who read a helluva lot of books, even as a little guy.

All this reading seems to have stuck with me, especially in the composition department and English was always easy for me. I still got C’s, but what used to drive my teachers crazy - since I was a long ways away from being teachers pet and was the diametric opposite, a genuine pain in the ass kid - I won or placed second in every spelling Bee I was in. Seemed like there were lots of spelling Bee’s in one class cuz the teacher was determined to show how dumb I truly was.

I point out this not so interesting little fact cuz I see people here on the HAMB commenting on how dumb they are and things along that line.

Realize that you are involved in a highly complex hobby regardless of your level of expertise or knowledge or experience.

If you can learn to do some of the skills required, pick up on the technical knowledge with the ease that it appears you do, then making an effort to write with a little more clarity will benefit us all.

The one to benefit the most will be you.

And for Chrissake . . . learn to spell Deuce correctly....













*E.G. is Latin for exempli gratia or in English, example given. Not showin off here, just tossing out a little information from the dictionary.

 

wow..........I've just been schooled!

 

A little long winded me thinks. Good subject matter that almost no one cares about any more. I give it a C . "School Me"! I 've been seeing that a lot lately. I think it really means, "I'm too friggin' lazy to do my own reasearch". "I want to see pic's". That's another one. Generation X and Y running rampant I do believe. Just a few thoughts from a product of the California public school system which wasn't that great even in the '50's and '60's.

pigpen

 

About all I can add to this post is:This should be required reading before anyone is allowed to post here. Thank you Jay.

 

Sadly, it may not be long enough; AROUND long enough, I mean.

C9 is right, but he does not go far enough, as he is a kindly soul. Your grammer affects many things, chief among them the way other's view you, as the written word is all most of us have to go on.

Simply put, if the words paint you as an idiot....what else have we to go on for a descriptive??

Now, C9 puts forth "Duece" as an example. Fair enough. Once that gets through, let's try "Camaro". Just remember that there is NO 'e' in the word.

Thank you, Jay, for presenting this topic. Here's hoping a few will take these words as they were intended.

Cosmo

 

Thanks C9!

That was a nice story and some very good information.

I graduated from school 11 years ago and I imagine my English grew worse and worse since then...
I agree, some of the posts on here are hard to read , especially for me , not only because English isn´t my native language.

Thanks for your advice, I´ll follow it as good as I can. And I´m always open to any hints that are able to improve my English. I´m still learning.

Chris

 

Wow C9, that's quite a rant.

Not to bust your balls too badly, but there were quite a few missed commas and sentence fragments in your post. It just seems to me, that if you are going to post about grammar, punctuation, and paragraph format, you would make sure you get it right.

That said, I wholeheartedly agree that folks need to make their posts more readable. Many times I skip a large chunk of text if it looks unreadable. Lack of punctuation is what bugs me the most.

And for what it is worth, school can be used as a verb:

(taken from dictionary.com)
tr.v. school, schooled, school·ing, schools
To educate in or as if in a school.
To train or discipline.

(taken from Webster's Online Dictionary)
Verb
1. Educate in or as if in a school;

 

I, for one, am glad you posted that, C9...when I first started on this board I couldn't help but notice how ignorant members were when it came to spelling, punctuation and grammar...it irritated me...

After a while, after I'd tried to correct spelling from some...I quit...lost cause and all...got called a "know-it-all". Fine, then the next time you post a long winded question (or comment), using zero paragraphs, punctuation and grammar...you already know everything there is to know and you certainly don't need my help!!

To this day, if the post is extremely long, all run together without the proper punctuation, etc., I usually won't place my thots on it...let alone READ it!

I'm definitely not a rocket scientist, and will be the first to admit that I don't know everything there is to know..but even if I were able to help, or comment, I'll usually pass, unless the post really gets my goat!!!

The worst part, C9, is there is no sense trying to educate people that don't want to be educated....school days (daze?) for most was way too far into the past...the only thing they want to learn these days is how to build a hot rod...unfortunately, they have only a simple working grasp on what you are preaching and that works for them...

R-

 

Hurrah!

And if any of you want some reference material, Elements of Style by Strunk & White

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=9v5IhetAtt&sourceid=M000000266&isbn=020530902X&itm=1

is my favorite.

Mike

 

Ain't that the truth......................
With respect,
CT.

 

ThanksC9verywellputItotalyagree!

'Bout time somebody said it.

If it's hard to read I skip it.

If the title of the post is vague, I skip it.

 

I agree with you C9, but lets face it, the percentage of people that payed attention to English, Grammer, and Spelling while they were in School is a fairly small one.

I know lots of people that are intelligent, and do well in their daily lives, but can't spell or write for shit. It is hard to retain knowledge that is not used, and I would imagine that a lot of the people on the HAMB don't actually write anything other than what they put on this forum. Many of the people on here have probably not used their writing skills since they left Highschool.

And some of you old farts have been out of School for a very long time....

 

I try to use as few words as possible to get to the point... any other way and I've butchered the english bad enough that not even I want to read it!

I agree...

 

It is possible to add Webster's to a website, see here:

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/searchbox.asp

Perhaps I'll post that link on the "board suggestions" thread.

 

One other item that I feel may contribute to this problem is the use of Spell Check.It has been my observation that it has difficulty differentiating certain words such as,"there" "their" or "they're" and,"where","wear",or,"ware".

This has been noted on the editorial pages of various magazines in the Smithsonian and some automotive magazines. Not to make excuses but it does occur.

 

Bravo!

Sometime it takes a bit to get thru to some people, me included. I also like to read alot. English classes kept me in high school for an extra year. Still don't know it all.

Thank you for the lesson, trying to keep it in mind while on here and in life.


jerry

 

After 12 years of parochial school I believe that I have been engrained with the belief that the proper use of the English language is a direct reflection on the individual...you should care enough about how you communicate to do it correctly. I don't think that there is a gearhead on this board who would fail to torque all the head bolts down on an engine, the consequences are usually immediate and somewhat devastating. While Jay can't reach all of us with his ruler, it's nice to see someone care enough about how we present ourselves using the written word to provide some feedback, albeit not so devastating, hopefully this wake-up call will not go unheeded.
Oh by the way Jay, you misspelled "prolly"..... :~)

Sorry, we all have our pet peeves.

 

Not trying to argue, but "Webster's" is a generic term that may be used by anyone who roughly adheres to the original standards set by Webster. That is all that the use of the word means.

The definitions in any Webster's dictionary reflect the prejudices of the editor(s), and, like anything else in print or on the web, may or may not reflect reality.

Mike

 

HOLY FUCK I tried to read but their's just no way...

 

An easier solution might be to just keep posts to one paragraph, Friday night Reader excepted. I haven't had any complaints since the hip hop talkers and Germ wannabes have faded away. There's all walks of life here with one common interest, so I can overlook all but the intentional grammatical errors.

 

Any thread with a "Ghetto slang" subject line gets passed over.
Doesn't matter what the topic is.
If you don't speak English,you won't understand my reply;
and since I don't watch MTV,I have no idea what you are talking about.
Life is not a Rap Video."Bling" is not a word.

The "I'm bored AND lazy.Show me lots of pictures of Red cars"
posts get the same treatment.

Some people would get ALOT more info.if they would use
the SEARCH button at the top of the page.
It's free,and easy to use.Figure it out.

Catering to the lowest common denominator drags us all down to their level.
Tolerating stupidity causes it to spread.

I'm liking the new "ignore" function more each day.

 

I don't think I did. In fact, I was agreeing with C9 while pointing out that his post wasn't grammatically correct either.

Again, I DO think folks need to check theiir spelling, and make their posts easier to read.

 

i'm shouldn't be pointing problems with other people's posts, since i'm not sure how the shift button works, but when i see really poor spelling, i'm reminded of nigerian scammers.

it also irks me when guys are trying get huge amounts of money for cars on ebay, and don't take the time to ensure that the brand name items they're claiming to have installed, have the right spelling. it was printed on the box, right?

the 'hall of fame' bad spellers seem to be rip-off artists, just check the 'lil bill is a stocker' thread. it didn't sink in at first that what he meant was 'stalker', but that was the least of that guys problems. apparently, he was so busy ripping people off, he didn't have time to proofread.

 

OK.

Webster's Unabriged is the generally accepted standard dictionary of the English language, for what it's worth.

 

Thank you.
It's been getting to me a LOT, but I didn't have the energy to do what you just did.

Also, I think you are right on, on the "SCHOOL ME..." stuff being just plain irritating and causes people, like me, to not even bother with opening it.
(Have ya noticed I haven't been posting as much lately?...Maybe not..)

I have to admit that versions of the word "school" are used as verbs but they are the past tense, "schooled" and present tense "schooling" and "schools".
I suppose it might also be used as an infinitive also, as in "To school", but it's awkward.


The way people have been using "school" here recently, it's corrector synonym "teach", or if it's a single-problem question, "Please explain" or "tell me how" would be better.
___________

This is how and why there are different words that say similar but different things to the word "teach";
(from dictionary.com )

"Synonyms: teach, instruct, educate, train, school, 1discipline, drill
1 These verbs mean to impart knowledge or skill.

Teach is the most widely applicable: taught the child to draw; taught literature at the college.

Instruct usually suggests methodical teaching: instructed the undergraduates in music theory.

Educate often implies formal instruction but especially stresses the development of innate capacities: “We are educated by others... and this cultivation, mingling with our innate disposition, is the soil in which our desires, passions, and motives grow” (Mary Shelley).

Train suggests concentration on particular skills intended to fit a person for a desired role: trained the vocational students to be computer technicians.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

School often implies an arduous learning process: schooled the youngster to play the viola.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Discipline usually refers to the teaching of control, especially self-control: disciplined myself to exercise every day. Drill implies rigorous instruction or training, often by repetition of a routine: drilled the students by having them recite the multiplication tables."

_________

Since "School often implies an arduous learning process: schooled the youngster to play the viola."
Asking a question that starts with "School me..." impies that you are asking "us" to write you a fucking text book on a broad subject and post it here on the HAMB and that just ain't gonna happen.

"What steering gear boxes were commonly used in hotrods in the early '50's?" is a much mo betta way of saying "School me on steering boxes!" the former will get answered, the latter will get a "Please be more specific." if anything, response.

Thanks C9.

 

Sigh...unabridged is another generic adjective. "Webster's Unabridged" published by whom, when, where? There's a bunch of them, most of them generally good, but...

And how does the online version compare?

Mike

 

Deuce.......


Thank you C9.

I cannot believe how many folks spell it wrong......even folks who have a 32 Ford (or parts and pieces of one)

I asked Ryan for spell check.......I would use it. I know my spelling is not the best.....but I try....



At least I got it right on the tag........

.

 

I agree in principle with you, Jay. There are certainly a few conventions that we might stick to in order to keep communication intelligible. Since the internet has given us yet another way to communicate, many users seem to have forgotten what we learned in elementary school or see no point in using it.

A shorthand of sorts has been developing on the 'net and with it the sometimes disturbing change in language. IMO (eg.), there is room for change in language and usage. The point is to make ourselves understood. I can understand, for the most part, what some of our really poor spellers are saying when they talk about their "duece". On the other hand, some folk who were poorly "schooled" in their youth can really destroy all meaning with mere words.

If I can understand it, I can respond to it. I can't fault guys who have trouble with language... that's just a burden that some folk have to bear, at fault or not. I respect guys who have trouble with the written word and try their best to make themselves understood. That's all it takes for me, not to take anything away from your post. himmelberg

 

As a somewhat young guy, I don't really care how many people post. I am guilty of what C9 does,in that I never create full paragraphs before starting a new one fresh. I also abuse the elipses... like a redheaded stepchild.

My main goal is to break stuff up on the screen well enough to convey my message and make sure that everything is stated clearly enough to be understood. What's funny is that I got a 12 on my english portion of the ACT test, and my overall score was a 24 (which should state that I'm a real idiot with grammar, and supposedly smart at the other stuff.) However, what is interesting is that I catch most of my they're, their, there stuff, and MANY people who are supposedly a LOT smarter than me don't.

It's always nice to get a company-wide memo from someone making 4x my annual salary saying "Theirs a party for Bobs' 57th retiremant at 4oclock P.m. today. Be sure too show up and help celabrate with us!"

I feel like I must be doing something wrong, because my only excuse for misspelling words is that my fingers get away from me at the keyboard. I never gave two craps about grammar or english studies in school, but somehow it just stuck in my brain even though I wasn't paying attention.

However, this brings me to my next point, which is that I see a lot of elitists complain that people are too lazy in their posts. I think the same people complaining about lazy typists are lazy themselves in training their brain to parse out the meaning of these peoples' posts. Proper english is going by the wayside, in favor of slang and foreign languages. I figure the best way to survive in the future is to be able to parse out meaning and act on it correctly instead of standing there stubbornly expecting someone to spit out MLA filtered english to you.

It's nice to read something that you don't have to do a doubletake and think, "Wow, that guy is mutilating the language." However, I don't get too bent out of shape. The abbreviations and internetspeak drive me up the wall though sometimes. I don't see a whole lot of it on the HAMB, but you'll run into it on other automotive boards for any sort of car that's popular with young people.

Yeah, I'd like to box those kids' ears, but for more reasons than their spelling. More for their attitude

LOL OMFG I've wasted too much time rambling....

I didn't run spell check on this, so the grammar nazis may wish to point out the errors of my ways and laugh!