more US IT silliness

[Veritas]

France at least has the French Academy, which is charged soley with the protection of the French language. Any new words or slang are properly translated or added to the cultural dictionary they publish. If it's slang they even instruct you on the proper way to spell and write it. That would never work in the States but at this rate handwriting and correct English will be gone very soon. Replaced with Yo YO- what it be? Utah wants to eliminate the 12th grade to save money. How about more instruction- we just keep dumbing it down.
Very sad.

While there is no American Academy to protect the English language, there are plenty of English style guides and manuals.

One is the web based The English Style Book.

Amazon has several options including Plain Style: A Guide to Written English, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage and The Elements of Style: 50th Anniversary Edition.

 

[N965VJ]

Is that a comma I see where there should be a period?

Punctuation, its your friend, try to use it.

:bleh:

 

[SparrowHawk]

Is that a comma I see where there should be a period?

Most likely. Difference being I don't make my living as a typist or a proofreader.

Sometimes I forget to put the light on here and then even when I do proofread I have trouble. It's called 55. Let me know how it works for you when you get there

 

[jimntx]

If you look at our required f/a manual there are so many typos and misspelled words its not funny! The comment is, when it is brought up is " you east people are too picky".....

The truly sad part about this is, it shows the contempt in which f/as are held by management--but not just at LCC. AFAIK, there is not a word processor out there on the market today that doesn't have a spellchecker built into it. (And, we all know those manuals are not being produced on an Underwood with an original and two carbons where it's too much trouble to go back and correct every typo.) A number of the word processors today even have grammar sensors that can spot sentences that are not constructed properly or when there are homonyms in the sentence that destroy it's meaning--such as, we painted the town read (instead of red). If you can not spell nor write a simple declarative sentence, use the spellchecker.

 

[jimntx]

While there is no American Academy to protect the English language, there are plenty of English style guides and manuals.

One is the web based The English Style Book.

Amazon has several options including Plain Style: A Guide to Written English, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage and The Elements of Style: 50th Anniversary Edition.

When I was in college (not quite a thousand years ago), Sistrunk and White's The Elements of Style was a required textbook for all freshmen, period. But then, in the good old days (formerly known as these trying times in which we live), accounting, electrical engineering, chemistry and English majors were ALL expected to write papers free of spelling and grammar errors.

But then, in this day I guess one must make allowances. I was watching a report on CNN a few years ago about a teachers' strike. They were interviewing one of the picketers. The reporter asked her what she taught. Her response (swear to god) was, "I teaches English."

 

[nycbusdriver]

Everybody makes typos.

Almost everyone is far less than 100% accurate on punctuation, grammar and spelling.

Here on the forums (fora?), it doesn't mean a whole lot to miss the perfect mark.

But it is highly unprofessional for a company the size of USAirways to send out for distribution to the general public documentation that is, at best, slipshod and amateurish. But, unprofessional is probably a good term to apply to the Tempe brain trust anyway. They show that to the world at every turn.

 

[VAflyGal]

I would be most pleased if they added an extra comma and a few extra zeros (or is it spelled 'zeroes' bahahah) on my paycheck.

I'll hold my breath for that one...

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

When I was in college (not quite a thousand years ago), Sistrunk and White's The Elements of Style was a required textbook for all freshmen, period. But then, in the good old days (formerly known as these trying times in which we live), accounting, electrical engineering, chemistry and English majors were ALL expected to write papers free of spelling and grammar errors.
"

Those were the days.

A very good friend of mine is professor of education at major state university; he showed me some papers he was grading for a graduate level course in education policy. He showed a me a paper that started with "This case concerns a lawsuit filed by the NAACP against the East Podunkville Unified School District. Officials of the aforementioned school district had implemented a policy that....

I asked my friend why he had not red circled the unneeded and awkward words (with a note "how about the district had?"); he said that he was so used to needless verbosity in graduate level writing that such hideous phrasing no longer jumps off the page. I suggested that he should mandate and Strunk and White for his students; he demurred.


As important and interesting the topic of the decline of English in 21st century America is, let's try to get back to IT silliness. I understand that the Sand Castle has issued new internet guidelines to the tiny fraction of US employees with full internet access (the vast majority of US people have very, very, limited net access, pretty much just faa.gov and flightaware.com). Youtube and other streaming video sites are now verboten. Not sure why they waited a year to tell everyone, but they stated that last year, the system - including their precious QIK/SHARES - was nearly brought to a screeching halt by the chosen few with net access watching the Presidential inauguration online. So no more youtube and cnn.com videos via the US IT network. (Naughty things have always been a no-no).


Anyone care to take a guess when/if the errant apostrophes will be gone?

 

[gaucho99]

Most likely. Difference being I don't make my living as a typist or a proofreader.

Sometimes I forget to put the light on here and then even when I do proofread I have trouble. It's called 55. Let me know how it works for you when you get there

Which will be real soon I'm afraid.

 

[Edward]

This has pretty much become a Water Cooler topic, so rather than close it lets just continue there.

 

[Veritas]

When I was in college (not quite a thousand years ago), Sistrunk and White's The Elements of Style was a required textbook for all freshmen, period.

It is available on Amazon for $9.95.

 

[Squonk]

🙄 The IT QIK Fix desk refers to an unseated passenger as "unsat"

 

[strangiatotheme]

You guys should see some of the safety bulletins they post in our breakrooms. A couple years ago, somebody went through one of them with a red pen and marked all of the mistakes. Across the top they wrote, "C+, see me after class" and pinned it back up on the wall.

 

[Travel Is My Life]

Everybody makes typos.

But it is highly unprofessional for a company the size of USAirways to send out for distribution to the general public documentation that is, at best, slipshod and amateurish. But, unprofessional is probably a good term to apply to the Tempe brain trust anyway. They show that to the world at every turn.

So show me one company (airline or not) thats out there that has all their communications go out error free.. You wont be able to.. Mistakes happen. Does that make a company unprofessional, amteurish, slipshod, etc.? No it doesnt.

 

[SparrowHawk]

So show me one company (airline or not) thats out there that has all their communications go out error free.. You wont be able to.. Mistakes happen. Does that make a company unprofessional, amteurish, slipshod, etc.? No it doesnt.

Actuallly it does reveal a company's attitude and approach.

Do numerous typos in Manuals mean a company unprofessional, amteurish, slipshod, etc.?? Maybe yes, Maybe no.

Do the grammar errors on kiosks, res system instruction mean the compamy is unprofessional, amteurish, slipshod, etc.?

However when you couple the above with Doug's statements about being just "Good Enough" then I think is does mean that the company is unprofessional, amteurish, slipshod.