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As a retired secondary school teacher of English I can attest that the 
average adolescent is not much interested in punctuation and correct 
grammar, in fact it has been my experience that a fair few cannot understand 
why they are taught English at all. Maybe this is an outcome of universal 
education.

When teaching middle school English my students wrote weekly journals which 
I would read and comment on but never correct in an attempt to encourage 
expression. I realise that many would be horrified at this but it did 
produce spontaneous expression which was sometimes incredibly boring, as in 
the description of a football game, but none the less served its purpose.

I know that using email I do not worry about correct usage as I would in 
something for publication, and when texting I resort to telegam style (the 
young would not know what that is but would immediately decipher it). 
Dorothy is right about the changing nature of language and while we remain 
pedants we cannot force our views on others. I would hate to return to the 
practice of my mother who, when I was a child, insisted that I write a draft 
letter which she would correct and which I then had to copy out. Naturally I 
wrote as few letters as possible.

We all feel smug when we see an error in punctuation or grammar and perhaps 
that's not a bad thing if it makes us feel that we have achieved a 
sophistication that others haven't.

While you freeze in the UK and I fry in Melbourne this debate (although 
onesided) is a welcome distraction.

Megan Peniston-Bird
Melbourne
Victoria
Australia


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dorothy Sheridan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: [MASSOBS] The demise of the apostropohe and other horrors


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>
> Dear Mass Observers and researchers interested in MO,
>
> I suspect you are reaching a dangerous consensus on the apostrophe here so 
> i am going to intervene in the debate. After all, it's good to have 
> different points of view and I like to play devil's advocate.
>
> Although I am a keen user of the correctly placed apostrophe myself and 
> chortled all the way through Lynn Truss's excellent book EAT SHOOTS AND 
> LEAVES (not to mention enjoying the missplaced ubiquitous  "grocer's 
> apostrophe"), I wouldn't want to get too smug and self righteous about it.
>
> One of the  things about Mass Observation is that we hope that all kinds 
> of people will correspond with us so that their writing - their thoughts 
> and experiences - are recorded for the future. If we (as an Archive)  are 
> too prescriptive about grammar and punctuation we may lose some of our 
> most interesting and creative writers. There are many people who have 
> never been taught grammar and for whom getting the apostrophe in the right 
> place is not a high priority in the lives for all sorts of reasons. 
> Nevertheless they chose to contribute excellent reports to MO. I don't 
> want to increase their lack of confidence in their writing by implying 
> that we don't value what they send us. Writing beautifully and 
> grammatically correctly is a skill which can be learned. But (and I DO 
> sometimes begin my sentences with a "BUT" for emphasis) writing creatively 
> is much rarer. Finding the motivation to contribute to MO when you are 
> unsure about your writing might be difficult. We want to encourage all 
> kinds of people to take part.
>
> The other issue for us as social historians and recorders of language is 
> monitoring change in the way we write and speak. Our language is 
> extraordinary, flexible, constantly changing - and it would be good if 
> future historians could chart the change through this Archive, including 
> of course this debate itself. (We shall be preserving it as part of the 
> Archive!)
> Dorothy
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Professor Dorothy Sheridan
> Development Director
> Mass Observation Archive (Library Special Collections)
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QL
> UK
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> T: 01273 877911 (Tues & Thurs usually)
> or contact Jessica Scantlebury: 01273 678157
>
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