ElyseBranam

I think I may have gotten carried away a bit and exaggerated a little. There have been a few times when I have gotten a student e-mail that has bothered me so much that I went ahead and answered the student's question without compaining about the grammar, but then the next time class met given a general lecture about formality and professionalism in e-mail.

We regularly communicate in both formal and informal settings. In formal settings, the rules are more strict. For an informal situation, a few typos are nothing serious. While I welcome and always respond positively to good wriitng, I'd much rather read lots of brilliant ideas in a blog entry that has a few mistakes in it than read only a few lines of dry, unimaginative, but perfectly correct prose.

When I get an e-mail from a stranger, I'll respond more seriously to the person who seems to have put more effort into the request. So I'm actually more likely to trash a poorly written e-mail than send it back with corrections.

I'm glad you're enjoying the book, Elyse. My main goal is to get us thinking about and talking about this stuff, and we're doing that already.

I know that Truss's attitude is a bit risky... but I'm happy that the build-up I gave the book has prepared you to enjoy it.

Professor Jerz, I didn't mean it in a bad way. I'm sorry if that's how my comment about you sounded. I was just making reference to the book and relating it to our class. But yes, I have been enjoying this book. It's much different from the other English grammar books I have read. Once again, I'm sorry. I did not write that for you to explain yourself. I'm sorry!!

I'm glad you liked the book, Elyse. Congrats that you read the whole thing without sleeping. Truss, to me, have this "wake up" attitude toward the English major community. It's the things that we take for granted that we forget the quickest. The fact that when know most of the rules in English grammar and not all of them, might not look well when we graduate. I just what to know what Lynne Truss thinks about ebonics? (BTW: Thanks for mentioning the sign.)

Don't worry, Elyse. I didn't take it that way at all.

Elyse, I know what you mean about not wanting to be the one who doesn't notice the sign. Who writes they're instead of thier or it's instead of its. I loved Truss's approach to this but it can seem intimidating at times. What I liked the most was that she made us all feel like we're on the same side, with her writing. I liked it too :)

I never seem to notice the signs, unless they are humorous... but then sometimes I'll be driving down Route 30 or something with Karissa and suddenly she'll start screaming! Usually I freak out and start swerving all over the road, then she tells me that she saw a sign that said "Mens' Big and Tall" or something.

It's good to have people that notice this stuff, otherwise we'd be ignorant to some of our biggest social issues... like punctuation.