What happened between 1983 and 1988 to change writing ability?

Argh.

I have just edited yet another of my sister's papers and I cannot believe that a college senior can write so very badly. She's a poli sci (foreign affairs) major, and was four years behind me in school. She dropped out of ASU when she had her son, and went back two years later, but at a school in Illinois. Other than that change, we went to the same schools for the most part, were both encouraged to read, and we're both pretty bright...

But the stuff she writes! Argh. Grammatical errors, spelling errors, capitalization errors (like democrat and republican for Democrat and Republican), run-on sentences, circular sentences...

I know I do something similar here at DU, a message board, but jeez. These are her midterm papers! These are papers I wouldn't have handed in while I was in high school, much less in my last year of my bachelor's. And yet, she may in fact graduate with a higher GPA than I did. (I had a 3.8. She has dropped any class she felt was too hard, and so will probably graduate with a 3.9.)

Did the education system drastically change between the time I was in fourth grade and she was in fourth grade? Did I miss something?

(What really scares me is that she's thinking of getting her teaching license and teaching history and government while she's working on her master's and working for her Senator as an intern... If she can't write, how will she be able to handle her students' papers?)

but I always capitalize Democrat and never capitalize rethuglican. :evilgrin:

Could you please tell me the name of the animal in your sig line? PLEASE?

from South America. Got ants? :D

I thought it may have been something else. Sorry for the disruption. Carry-on!

And I don't think you're doing it for a class that means the difference between graduating and not...

Maybe she still does. I haven't read anything of hers lately as she's declared war on me and my "wicked librul ways".

My mother drove me nuts when I was a kid; because she'd never let me write my school compositions without editing them first. So I eventually learned to write on my own...though I can still hear her hyper-critical voice telling me how I could phrase sentences better. :eyes:

Maybe if Mom had done the same with my little sister, she'd know how to write without rambling on about some drivel or other. Her vocabulary is quite good.

I've got 4 other sisters, if you'd like to trade one in... It sounds like yours would go GREAT with my step-sister.... Maybe we could ship them off together and get Newt Gingrich to do a two for one deal - I hear his sister is quite cool!

Sorry about the hyper-criticality. I try not to do that with my sister because I don't want to hurt her feelings, but tonight, I needed to vent.

I don't know if I'm any better; but I try to teach my boy (as I tried to teach my older boy) by being as positive about their efforts as I can be.

As for my sis, I still hope she'll see the light before too long. If she doesn't, it's really more her problem than mine. I understand your frustration. Have you talked with your sister about it? Maybe she needs a refresher course in grammar and semantics.

editing for her?
That could explain the GPA.

She's been asking me to do so for her this semester because it is her final semester, she's being paranoid, and she is writing longer and more detailed papers than ever before. But in the past, she just turned them in.

She's actually gotten comments from one of her professors that her work "looked too polished" after I'd gone through and done a basic proof-read. Another one asked her if she'd been getting help, because she felt that my sister's writing looked more like Master's level work.

(I have my Master's, but it is not in her field.)

I went through college and grad school with a manual, then electric typewriter. When I got to seminary, I purchased a word processor. I can only imagine how vastly different it would have been to have the technology of today. Faster, yes - but I don't think I would have retained as much, since I had to look everything up. And there's something about writing out a second, third, and fourth draft that improves the overall appearance of a paper, rather than using cut and paste.

Papers were easier to write on legal pads, then type on my manual when I was in high school. We had a computer (8086), but it had a dot matrix printer and my English teacher had problems reading the print, so she asked me not to use it. (For that matter, I had problems reading the print.) I remember going through three or four drafts well into my bachelor's. I didn't have an effective word processor at my constant disposal until I was in my last year of my bachelor's. By then, I'd learned to write.

She wrote papers on the 286 and the 386 when she was in high school, but since I didn't live at home, I didn't have the same access to computers that she had. And she got an early Pentium for her high school graduation (dad, trying to buy her off.)

That's the difference. Duh.

.

Yes, I wish I were an only child when she calls me for the seventh or eighth time in one day, but I don't have major issues with her.

Haven't had since I moved out when I was 16.

;)

:o

:)

vitamins and minerals that actual vegetables have.

Including the rise of reality TV and the popularity of Brittany Spears.

You may have the answer there.

skills, as a society, I think.

I have seen the most atrocious errors and omissions on bulletin boards and in e-mails. Right here on DU I have seen grammar and syntax so painfully bad it makes me wince.

The ACT test has also been dumbed down in recent years to make it easier. I'm not sure about the SAT. It seems that society, as a whole, is more tolerant of mediocrity.

You don't have to look further than the White House for proof of that.

I'm not so sure on the internet being behind my sister's issues.

I am far more computer-literate than she, and discovered them well before she did. She used a computer, but not much up until about three years ago. I, on the other hand, found IRC and Usenet in 1994.... (oh, lordy, I just dated myself, didn't I? And proclaimed myself a geek of extraordinary awfulness at the same time...)

Then again... when the internet was primarily used by geeks to pass around home-brewed beer recipes and DnD stories, the quality was better...

:)