Re: M.I.T. = Overrated Academics

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:14:35 -0000, Solnichka Frankenstein
<solnichkafrankenstein@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jul 29, 9:43 am, deemsb...@xxxxxxx wrote:
On Jul 29, 7:49 am, Solnichka Frankenstein



<solnichkafrankenst...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I got a formal email memo, copied to several senior members of staff,
from a colleague who is very proud of his M.I.T. degree -- yet in this
email, he made the following errors in language usage:

- spelled "a lot" as one word
- used apostrophes for multiple plurals
- didn't put question marks at the end of questions
- didn't capitalize days of the week
- didn't put periods at the end of multiple sentences
- randomly capitalized words that were not pronouns or proper names

Mind you, again, this was a formal email memo, not some quickly-sent
note to one person. I swear, if it was up to me, I'd fire this
person's ass in about two seconds. Wait ... it *is* up to me!

Sweet. I get to demonstrate once again that it's not so much *where*
you got your degree from; it's more so what you learned while you were
there.

Oooooh.....firing someone over grammar mistakes in a memo. You must
be so proud of yourself.

Your ellipsis is in error above.

BTW, if someone can't communicate well enough and represent themselves
and the organization properly, it's a perfectly reasonable offense for
termination. Learning grammar is something for kids; adults in public
roles should know how to write. If he didn't learn how to write at
M.I.T., well ... you have the point of my subject header. I'd rather
hire a kid from Wyoming State who can write than an M.I.T. fool who
cannot. After all, you may have the greatest ideas in the world, but
if you can't communicate them clearly, no one will notice.

[Side note: I was watching a TV show the other night on FOX, and the
captions had the same apostrophe mistake with a plural noun. I mean,
seriously -- if you never learned how to use an apostrophe properly,
you should never have received a degree from an accredited university
in this country.]



you are a perfect example of someone taking a good thing one step too
far. Encouraging proper use of the language is important insofar as it
is serving to improve communication. Taking it beyond that is simply
elitism. Elitism is not useful; and if it isn't useful, it has no
purpose other than to satisfy some personal need. Satisfying personal
needs through your work is likely to be counterproductive.

Grammar can be so bad as to actually interfere with understanding, but
simple mistakes generally don't interfere with the communication
intended. Effective communication is much more contextual than it is
precise.

At any rate, I would rather have an engineer understand the
coefficient of linear expansion of cast iron, or whatever, than when
to use a semi-colon instead of a colon. As a matter of fact, I think
an engineer with a perfect understanding of his area of expertise is
more useful to society than someone whose main focus is understanding
and practicing grammar perfectly.

Besides, your entire post here smacks of jealousy.

Lighten up.
.

Loading