Hi,
Laurie: missed your initial response, presumably due to the list problems Mark mentioned. Anyway, here's my flame ;-)
--- Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com wrote:
IMO, written English is no more difficult to master than any programming langauge, except that one doesn't need to compile English... Clear communication is no less important, however, and going public on a web site *requires* that it be at least close to correct.
Sorry, but I don't agree. Written English is a heck of a lot harder to master than programming. Most programming languages have a right and a wrong way: ie, black and white, works or doesn't. They have a very limited syntax and often there are many easily accessible books written on how to program in a given language.
English, on the other hand, has too many shades of grey to make it easy to master. Syntax, grammatical rules, spelling: all these things change based not just on what country you're in but often depending on the region of a country. In English, it's very difficult to pin down 'write' and wrong, once you get beyond the basics of spelling and grammar. It becomes much more subjective and more difficult to define.
I do of course agree that people should make more of an effort with their use of the language, but I'd take lucid, clear writing with errors over perfectly constructed grammatically correct pigswill any day ;-)
The sole reason so
many youngsters can't spell or write, is down to the education system and crappy teachers, abetted by the acceptance of poor standards by the world at large. I wonder, for instance, how so many people get through tertiary education when they can't write to save their lives (we all know examples).
Hmmm... again, I think it's easy to blame the education system and "trendy methods" for falling standards, but I think a portion of the blame should also be directed at the parents and society. TV doesn't encourage reading and writing; the fast food disposable lifestyles we live also prohibit attention to detail and focus on results over accuracy.
Let's not forget that languages are always changing, too. The english language has been pretty much frozen over the last century thanks to the spread of both books / literacy and also the increase in recordings, both television and radio. Maybe with the advent of new technologies (email, mobile phones) the language is starting to shift again?
Anyway, David, my initial comments: the site is so full of grammatical and spelling errors that it shouldn't be considered anything near ready for release. I'd suggest that if you have a problem with spelling, grammar and syntax, you get someone who hasn't to proof-read and correct it for you before you publish.
I agree with asking for proofreaders, but I'd disagree about the readiness of the site. It's not mission-critical: let people see it, they'll soon tell you of the faults!
</soapbox>
Andrew.