NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 21, 2013 15:39:56 GMT -5
I t was my understanding scientists had to be very good at writing. You have grad students write the paper and put yourself as first author. Duh. Funding is a lot of politics/old boy networking it's not impossible to get thru with a crappy grant. Depends on who is reading it for approval. You won't make the big bucks if you can't write your way out of a paper bag, but you can get enough and some professors are quite happy that way. OR you attach yourself to a professor who can write his way out of a paper bag as a collaborator and ride his coat tails forever. That's one of the reasons my former boss left Creighton. Too many hands out.
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sarcasticgirl
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Post by sarcasticgirl on Aug 21, 2013 16:31:55 GMT -5
My coworkers send me emails that say "your welcome"
so apparently my employer doesn't require coherent communication as a skill in order to be hired.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Aug 22, 2013 8:22:31 GMT -5
All the time. It's amazing how many scientist can't write to save their lives. It was my understanding scientists had to be very good at writing. In fact, doesn't their job depend on it? They have to write proposals to get their work funded, and then deliver papers on their research. That's how you get tenure, after all. Well, luckily my Ph.D. Chemistry brother has an M.A. Technical Communication sister who reads and edits all of his proposals, journal submissions, etc. But he's a researcher, not a professor, so tenure doesn't apply to him, though funding does.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Aug 22, 2013 8:47:11 GMT -5
I am a grant writer so need to be coherent! In grad school there was a big problem with Chinese students who arrived and could not speak English well. My department solved the problem by making unscheduled phone calls to the students before offering admission.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2013 8:56:22 GMT -5
I was amazed to learn that most of my coworkers don't even know how to compose a letter (both the formatting and composition! ) . I guess that's one more reason why the bosslady keeps me around.
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Aug 22, 2013 9:11:55 GMT -5
My new manager. Emails are pure gibberish and a conversation that would take 90 seconds with my previous managers takes 5-10 minutes.
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Cookies Galore
Senior Associate
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock
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Post by Cookies Galore on Aug 22, 2013 9:47:28 GMT -5
I am a medical editor so my job requires just a little bit of grammar and writing skills. :-) We have a lot of doctors who write terrible questions and we turn their shit into gold.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2013 9:53:31 GMT -5
All hail Queen Midas!
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sheilaincali
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Post by sheilaincali on Aug 22, 2013 10:21:15 GMT -5
The bossman's former business partner claimed he was sick the day they taught phonics at school. He could not spell or write to save his life, my boss would offer to "proof read" things for him and then just tear up the guy's letter and re-write it himself. We discovered that our General Manager came across like a complete moron when he'd send out letters so I was instructed to rescue anything he sent out from the mailbox and re-write it myself. (He is no longer working for us)
We have two salesmen now. One says "You know" and "You know what I mean" a dozen times every few minutes. The other one sounds like a bumbling bumpkin. He says things like "what pacifically is the problem" and "we don't got no....."
Drives me up a freaking wall. I pointed out the one salesman's language screw ups to the Bossman the other day. He told me a couple of days later that now when that guy talks all he hears is him butchering the English language.
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spartan7886
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Post by spartan7886 on Aug 22, 2013 10:42:23 GMT -5
I sometimes have trouble with tone in emails, but it's all perfectly spelled and written. I don't see it as much at work except with some of the interns, but I couldn't believe some of the things my friend got handed in as a TA in the remedial writing class at our highly ranked private university.
Spoken English, on the other hand, is not my strong suit if you want it grammatically correct. It's mostly just Southernisms, though.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2013 11:05:58 GMT -5
Since I'm an actuary, my colleagues are Math, Engineering, Finance, etc. majors and many have gotten their degrees with only the minimum English, Literature, etc. requirements. For the most part, though, they're a pretty smart group who had good primary/HS education. I have had challenges with very smart coworkers who were schooled in China.
My staff is mostly younger but two of them remember diagramming sentences and one is almost as rigorous about grammar as I am. We peer review all analyses and I find errors that are nitpicky to most people ("only" used as a modifier in the wrong place, for example), but I point out that if we send this to a client who's equally picky, small mistakes can undermine the credibility of our numbers. I think they appreciate it even though they joke about it.
We're mostly a client-facing organization and I was happy to find standing room only at a meeting for those interested in starting a Toastmasters chapter. That helps a lot of people learn to organize their thoughts and express themselves better, and get rid of filler words (uh, umm, you know..). Happily, that includes the wonderful young man we just hired, who's got a problem with filler words but is otherwise a great new hire.
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greeniis10
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Post by greeniis10 on Aug 22, 2013 11:41:43 GMT -5
Oh, the lack of proper grammar and English makes me beyond angry sometimes! My opinion is regardless of your industry if you communicate in writing with co-workers, employees, bosses, clients, etc. it needs to be coherent and correct! I get frustrated at the higher-ups who send emails in text-speak. I'm sure I'm the minority but this just sends me over the edge! You make 6 and 7 figure salaries - can you write a whole sentence??!! Ironically, one of our departments is located in India. They are the smartest and easiest by far to get along with. They are efficient and accurate! Yes, their emails can be a bit tricky to decipher, but I manage.
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Aug 22, 2013 11:43:14 GMT -5
Misplaced apostrophe's drive me batty.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2013 12:08:29 GMT -5
Ironically, one of our departments is located in India. They are the smartest and easiest by far to get along with. They are efficient and accurate! Yes, their emails can be a bit tricky to decipher, but I manage. Yeah, I found my colleagues in India (and those educated in India but who moved to the US) to be better with English, on average, than many of my colleagues born and raised in the USA. I did, however, cringe at some of their neologisms like "prepone", which meant to schedule something earlier than the original date. I was once in a meeting with an India-born colleague and an American-born coworker was talking about a new system that would eliminate redundant reports. "There's a lot of duplicity in the company", he said, "and this project will eliminate it". The guy from India and I looked at each other and grinned- he'd caught the misuse of "duplicity", too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2013 12:16:38 GMT -5
Misplaced apostrophe's drive me batty. You must hate reading me sometimes!
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steph08
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Joined: Jan 3, 2011 13:06:01 GMT -5
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Post by steph08 on Aug 22, 2013 12:52:25 GMT -5
Since I'm an actuary, my colleagues are Math, Engineering, Finance, etc. majors and many have gotten their degrees with only the minimum English, Literature, etc. requirements. For the most part, though, they're a pretty smart group who had good primary/HS education. I have had challenges with very smart coworkers who were schooled in China. My staff is mostly younger but two of them remember diagramming sentences and one is almost as rigorous about grammar as I am. We peer review all analyses and I find errors that are nitpicky to most people ("only" used as a modifier in the wrong place, for example), but I point out that if we send this to a client who's equally picky, small mistakes can undermine the credibility of our numbers. I think they appreciate it even though they joke about it. We're mostly a client-facing organization and I was happy to find standing room only at a meeting for those interested in starting a Toastmasters chapter. That helps a lot of people learn to organize their thoughts and express themselves better, and get rid of filler words (uh, umm, you know..). Happily, that includes the wonderful young man we just hired, who's got a problem with filler words but is otherwise a great new hire. Friends don't let friends misplace modifiers. I have that on the back of a shirt for my college's Writing Center.
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Virgil Showlion
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[b]leones potest resistere[/b]
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Post by Virgil Showlion on Aug 22, 2013 12:54:44 GMT -5
Friends don't let friends usually misplace modifiers.
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toomuchreality
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Post by toomuchreality on Aug 22, 2013 20:48:31 GMT -5
Well, sense we be talking bout all this stuff... I spouse your reading a few things that were wrote like these. Huh? I think you made a hand jester that wasn't very nice.
I got in an argument with my DD's teacher, when she was in 2nd grade. She sent home spelling words with the word 'their' spelled "thier". I brought it up to the principal first, but she was well on her way to being drunk, and told me to handle it myself. I was astonished when the teacher argued with me! I before E.... Then said it wasn't her fault, she was So busy that she had someone else write the spelling list.
Aaaaargh!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2013 2:10:18 GMT -5
The recent grads hired at my workplace. They have no relationship with Grammar. They can't construct a coherent paragraph. Instructions or Requests are often gibberish. There is no frame of reference or context . . . its like they start writing in the middle of a thought.
Maybe they know ebonics better than english. Maybe texting will take all communications back to shorthand & there will be no need to communicate longhand anymore.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2013 13:24:34 GMT -5
E-mail exchange forwarded to me yesterday by a colleague who also finds grammatical errors painful:
Person #1: Have you completed your analysis yet? Person #2: On it - our analysts are reviewing. Will be back to you shortly. You're losses are way to high! (That's just my own uneducated feeling). Person #1: (replied) Person #2: That's why I surround myself with lots of people smarter then me.
Person #2 is our employee, Executive VP, to my knowledge he was born and raised in US.
Have you found all 4 errors? Sigh. Person #1 is a client.
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swamp
Community Leader
THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Aug 23, 2013 13:27:04 GMT -5
You can't expect an 8 year old to spell "their" right.
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Aug 23, 2013 13:29:14 GMT -5
E-mail exchange forwarded to me yesterday by a colleague who also finds grammatical errors painful: Person #1: Have you completed your analysis yet? Person #2: On it - our analysts are reviewing. Will be back to you shortly. You're losses are way to high! (That's just my own uneducated feeling). Person #1: (replied) Person #2: That's why I surround myself with lots of people smarter then me. Person #2 is our employee, Executive VP, to my knowledge he was born and raised in US. Have you found all 4 errors? Sigh. Person #1 is a client. Additional errors include the use of sentence fragments and improper use of parentheses. So I see 5 errors.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 23, 2013 13:55:11 GMT -5
I've gotten good at various sub-dialects of programmer. I've gotten especially good at the Indian, Chinese, and Peruvian variety.
I write business requirements, which get translated into technical requirements. It is utterly imperative that mistakes, misunderstandings, or omissions are minimized. Its also imperative to repeat everything at the end to make sure it was all captured. We've had meetings where two people walked away from the table with the exact opposite understanding. That wasn't a cheap fix...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2013 14:35:57 GMT -5
So I see 5 errors. Ah, but you missed that he should have said, "smarter than I".
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Aug 23, 2013 14:39:16 GMT -5
So I see 5 errors. Ah, but you missed that he should have said, "smarter than I". I think it should be "smarter than me" because me is used instead of I when one is referring to themselves as a direct object in the sentence. Or I could be wrong.
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Virgil Showlion
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[b]leones potest resistere[/b]
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Post by Virgil Showlion on Aug 23, 2013 15:16:33 GMT -5
E-mail exchange forwarded to me yesterday by a colleague who also finds grammatical errors painful: Person #1: Have you completed your analysis yet? Person #2: On it - our analysts are reviewing. Will be back to you shortly. You're losses are way to high! (That's just my own uneducated feeling) .Person #1: (replied) Person #2: That's why I surround myself with lots of people smarter then me. Person #2 is our employee, Executive VP, to my knowledge he was born and raised in US. Have you found all 4 errors? Sigh. Person #1 is a client. That's what I got. Correct.
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spartan7886
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Post by spartan7886 on Aug 23, 2013 15:33:45 GMT -5
It's not a rule that ever made much sense to me, but I think athena is technically correct. It's "smarter than I (am)". The "am" is implied.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Aug 24, 2013 17:00:47 GMT -5
Misplaced apostrophe 's drive me batty. I hope you did that on purpose.
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Spellbound454
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"In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends"
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Post by Spellbound454 on Aug 24, 2013 17:12:44 GMT -5
I would have said "smarter than me"....
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Aug 24, 2013 17:24:13 GMT -5
Misplaced apostrophe 's drive me batty. I hope you did that on purpose. Yes. I was illustrating what drives me batty.
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