Bad grammar at uni?

I know some British schools have "High School" in their name but in this country we call it secondary school. The phrase High School usually refers to the American school system which begins and ends at different ages to secondary school.

"And by the way, 5,000 words is 15 pages at least, assuming it's double spaced. Unless you use 6 point font or something ridiculous."

And surely this isn't split between a group of 6 people?

And I thought I was pedantic...
In this country most people are intelligent enough to understand perfectly what high school means. It is obvious. There's no point making a big deal about it.

Yes the 5,000 was split up, but the point the OP was making was that she had to check the grammar of the entire document, and other people in the group didn't pull their weight in their parts of it.

Reply 41

Gwasgray

Original post by Blueflare

And I thought I was pedantic...
In this country most people are intelligent enough to understand perfectly what high school means. It is obvious. There's no point making a big deal about it.

Well, all I can say is it's a phrase I only hear Americans/Canadians use. I've never heard anyone in this country call it that, of course usually people just call it school.

5000 words between 3 people is only about 1600 words each, that's really not much (in fact in degree/dissertation terms I would have thought that was bugger all). Of course it would be a pain to have to rewrite nearly all of it because of other people's poor writing.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 42

Heckmeister

I left school in 1990 just as the education system started to change. I also have 3 kids, and keep a close eye on how they are taught.

My ex partner works in a Junior school, and she said this. " We get given work to do with the kids, but do not get enough time to teach it. Then they throw more work at us before we have even finished the last lot"

It would seem that they always want to try new things, without letting the last new thing work first at a young age. Because of this basic English and Maths suffers at a key stage in a childs life.

I remember A for Apple, B for Banana.... but it would seem that is not the case anymore. IMO we need to back to how we used to teach, and not all these silly new ways ..

It's just my opinion, so please dont troll

Reply 43

SpiritedAway

17

Ah, I'm usually the culprit on this one :colondollar:

My spelling so bad, I actually have to rely on spell check, and my vocab is not very wide, so my essays usually sound like a 5 year old has written them.

Reply 44

diamonddust

15

I have a friend at a very good uni who used to type and write 'your' instead of 'you're'. Made me go crazy! She isn't dyslexic so there doesn't seem to be a reason for it. I've noticed that a few weeks ago she used 'you're' correctly for the first time since I've known her so I'd assume her uni told her about it. The number of times I've tried to tell her what she's trying to say isn't 'I hope your ok' but 'I hope you're ok' is unbelievable. I'm just glad she's finally getting the hang of it. It worries me that you can get through A levels and get to degree level with such basic grammatical mistakes.

Reply 45

PhilMc

16

Agreed with Heck's post.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 46

Flajamafloffl

14

Most recent essay. 3 Excellents, 2 Very goods, and 1 Satisfactory for spelling and grammar. Lol.

Reply 47

xoxAngel_Kxox

21

It actually astounds me that students at university still don't know how to construct a sentence. I know I'm not perfect myself, but I like to think that I have a fairly good grasp of grammar. Apostrophe use REALLY gets to me; for example when people use them for plurals which just isn't right!

Synonyms are fairly easy to remember if you make the effort to, but so many people don't bother!

It is something which, if you're not very good at it, you should try your best to improve, as it looks good if you can write well.

Reply 48

JohnC2211

17

ITT: People reading and re-reading (and re-reading) their post countless times in an attempt to prevent grammar attacks in a thread about grammar. Also try and use their, they're and there in the same sentence; as well as your and you're. Maybe throw in a semi colon for extra WOW factor.

In all seriousness though, I completely agree with where you're coming from. I also go to a mid-to-low ranked university and we have quite a few smart people who got good grades at A Level (As and Bs) but I still have to go through their work and correct grammar. The worst case of grammar failure I have seen is in one of my classmate's law essay where he failed to use a capital letter for a person's name!

Reply 49

Blueflare

18

Original post by Gwasgray

I know some British schools have "High School" in their name but in this country we call it secondary school. The phrase High School usually refers to the American school system which begins and ends at different ages to secondary school.

"And by the way, 5,000 words is 15 pages at least, assuming it's double spaced. Unless you use 6 point font or something ridiculous."

And surely this isn't split between a group of 6 people? Obviously it depends what you're writing about and what you have to do but 5000 words on it's own isn't really a lot. I reckon I could write 5000 words about something by teatime if I wanted to.

5000 words of text (no spacing) in about 12pt with regular paragraphing would be a bit more than 5 pages yes, but nowhere near as many as 15. It would be between 5 and 10.

Ahahaha I was just re-reading this thread and saw this edit. You have some serious issues with admitting when you're wrong.

All Uni work is double spaced, so what is the relevance of saying what it would be with no spacing? I love how you even said "regular paragraphing" presumably meaning indenting rather than leaving a line... clutching at straws man, clutching at straws.

:rofl:

Reply 50

Sir_Vile_Minds

2

That sounds hardly as bad as something I had to read a couple of weeks ago. The guy who'd written the piece had written pretty much one loooooooong sentence. I'm talking about there being no line breaks, tabbings, commas, full stops or capital letters.

Didn't know what to say to the guy other than "It's needs some work".

Reply 51

faber niger

17

Original post by Barden

I'm so glad I do a science. The lack of group-work means I'm never culpable for the plebeian shortcomings of others...

Until you get out into the real world, and find yourself as a petty team member on some menial scientific project. :biggrin:

Reply 52

Gaeilgeoir

2

I agree with the principle of what you're saying but....

Original post by *mMmMm*

How do people with bad grammar cope? I thought mine's was bad... .

...

Reply 53

Noémie

17

Original post by Sir_Vile_Minds

That sounds hardly as bad as something I had to read a couple of weeks ago. The guy who'd written the piece had written pretty much one loooooooong sentence. I'm talking about there being no line breaks, tabbings, commas, full stops or capital letters.

Didn't know what to say to the guy other than "It's needs some work".

my friend does film studies at uel, so your post caught my eye. he's in shephard house, if you know it? the rooms are so cold there :/
that's all.

in my opinion, if some people are **** at spelling or grammar, there are others who are **** at structuring an essay and there are going to be some who just don't read anything for their essays.
i do appreciate that spag is a LITTLE more important than essays as (hopefully) essay writing is easier to teach someone to do.
but yeah. group work sucks. i'm glad it's not a big part of my course, but it might be on my new course... eep. tbh i'd just beat people up until they pulled their thumb out of their arse and did the work. i HATE people who don't do the work - i can deal with it if they do work, but it needs correcting and editing, i'm not bothered about that but omgomgomgomgomg just DO THE DAMN WORK FOR YOUR OWN ****ING DEGREE YOU CRETINS.
i've only seen this kind of thing happen - never happened to me personally - buttt i know people who are just ***** with group work. and with their own work. some people just don't care about their education, despite spending £9 000+ in tuition fees alone for a 3-year degree.

Reply 54

username119464

OP

3

..

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 55

Sir_Vile_Minds

2

Original post by Noémie

my friend does film studies at uel, so your post caught my eye. he's in shephard house, if you know it? the rooms are so cold there :/
that's all.

I'm in Redbridge, the yellow building connected to Shepherds. And these rooms are rediculously cold, my heating constantly needs a boost and it's come to the point where I'm wearing three layers and gloves inside as well as out. I'd rather sleep in a classroom as they're about twice as warm and rather cosy. Horrible rooms. And people wonder why I have trouble getting up in the morning.

*Chekz poste for gramattical misstakes*

Reply 56

Noémie

17

Original post by Sir_Vile_Minds

I'm in Redbridge, the yellow building connected to Shepherds. And these rooms are rediculously cold, my heating constantly needs a boost and it's come to the point where I'm wearing three layers and gloves inside as well as out. I'd rather sleep in a classroom as they're about twice as warm and rather cosy. Horrible rooms. And people wonder why I have trouble getting up in the morning.

*Chekz poste for gramattical misstakes*

do you have the thing where you have to switch the radiator on every 12 minutes?
next time i'm in east london i'll come stalk you :cool:

Reply 57

admbeatmaker

2

I certainly feel for you OP.

I'm currently studying law at the University of East London. (Dropping it at the end of the year to pursue the Birkbeck, UoL legal methods certificate and then apply to do the law degree somewhere else)

The students here can barely breath for themselves. I'd consider the students I tend to gather with as some of the more concentrated, or intellectual students here at UEL (though not many). These students are constantly asking me for help with their assessments in law and when I take a quick read of their work, all I see is a wall of text broken down by the odd full stop thrown in when you've emptied your lungs twice-over. Grammar such as commas, full stops and apostrophes are extremely simple to grasp. I honestly thought the lecturer was joking when in legals skills we studied sentences and had to rearrange them into a more correct structure, now I understand why it's covered in their syllabus.

My pet hates are people who:

- Can't use commas.
- Can't use paragraphs.
- Can't or don't use apostrophes correctly.
- Writing the incorrect varient of their, there, they're and also your and you're, not forgetting to and too. (These I hate the most)