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Mispellings, punctiation error's,
gramars who stinks is evrywear
Grammarians cite influence of texting habits By Eric Aasen Tucson, Arizona | Published: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/257457
DALLAS — A cup of regualar coffee sounds like the perfect way to start your day. Wouldn't some cheep gas be nice? But if you park your car, you've been warned: No in-and-out priviliges. These mangled spellings — on real-life signs around the Dallas-Fort Worth area — underline the obvious: Spelling isn't always high on our list. And our grammar ain't that good, too. It's enough to make your English teacher cringe — and drive others to break the law. Last month, two men were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year after getting busted for fixing errors on a sign in Grand Canyon National Park. The men travel the country correcting signs as part of the Typo Eradication Advancement League. Across the country, our land is littered with signs, posters, ads, menus — you name it — that are riddled with spelling, grammar and usage errors. In some cases, human spell-checkers battle these boo-boos by fixing the errors on their own. Others snap pictures and trash the typos on their blogs. Grammarians say these are bad signs of the times — our language is on a downward spiral. Others say: Lighten up. Correct spelling and proper grammar matter and help us understand one another, said Martha Brockenbrough, who founded the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. "There are rules for how you play football, and there are rules for how you drive," she said. "Standards of football keep things interesting, fair and fun. I think they do the same for language." Sign offenders abound around Dallas-Fort Worth. Hungry and in a hurry? A fast-food restaurant sign showcased a deal for 10 "pieses" of chicken. A Knox-Henderson restaurant is "Now Open for LUNCH FRIDAY'S" (drop the apostrophe, guys). Want a bargain? You can get it at a sign reading Bargin City, in Oak Cliff. Misspelled words and names slip into newspapers and television news graphics every day. A recent Associated Press story described Joe Lieberman as the 2000 Democratic vice presidential . . . well, let's just say it was quickly changed to "pick." Different groups have different ways of handling the more permanent misspellings, without breaking the law. Brockenbrough's Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar takes the polite route, sending out friendly letters to offenders encouraging them to make corrections. Some say students' text messaging and Twittering — which encourage short notes and abbreviations and spelling- be-damned — are seeping into formal writing. Students are writing informally now more than ever, said Diana Grumbles, director of the First-Year Writing Program at Southern Methodist University. Some of her students don't capitalize or use punctuation when they send her an e-mail. Some will submit in-class writing assignments with symbols. Here are some gems collected by Grumbles and her colleagues: ● "There is nothing wrong with my writing, maybe it is her that doesn't know what she is doing," one student wrote. ● "After writing numerous papers I feel I have improved existentially," another student wrote. ● One student meant to say "ludicrous," but instead wrote "Ludacris," the rapper. ● And in another paper: "He should not have taken that for granite." Grumbles isn't willing to cut her students that much slack. "Certain standards need to stay in place
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