GRAMMATICAL ERRORS AND HORRENDOUS WRITING FTL

[antonlavey]

This guy I know sent me his medical school essay to read and give feedback and it is literally the single worst piece of writing I've ever seen in my life.I'm baffled.

I understand Doctors don't need to be the best writers, but anyadmissions committee will throw this in the trash and disregard what he has to say.

I hope he doesn't expect me to rewrite the entire paper.

He starts sentences with "Also," and "But,".

Also, yadda yadda yadda.

But, yadda yadda yadda.

 

[joe camel smooth]

this has happened to me as well......i also kinda get annoyed when i see people post stuff on facebook like "at the charger's game"

if you're in your 20s and in the us, you really have no excuse. especially if you only speak one language.

 

[chokeonsmoke]

im guilty

 

[antonlavey]

I'm stuck with this, he doesn't have an academic advisor he could send it to. To make matters worse, it's due in 3 days so I have no choice but tobe the editor. This is so much work, I'm debating asking him to pay for my services.

I'm not even claiming to be the best writer in the world, but this is on another level of bad grammar. sentence structure and wording.

 

[soltheman]

You can [correctly] begin sentences with also and but. It's usually to emphasize something. But in your case, it seems like the dude isjust dumb.

 

[octobersfinest]

In this facebook age, if you can find a girl who knows the difference between to and too; there, their, andthey're; and general apostrophe usage, keep her. Seriously, I hate the fact that all I see is typoseverywhere. If you've graduated from a 4 year university and you don't know what a contraction is or know howto denote possession, you're somewhat of an idiot. All I'm saying.

 

[antonlavey]

Originally Posted by soltheman

You can [correctly] begin sentences with also and but. It's usually to emphasize something. But in your case, it seems like the dude is just dumb.

He starts multiple sentences with But and a comma, and also and a comma. I'm not an English major but I'm positive you can't do this.

 

[Fong$tarr]

Being on the computer and talking doesn't help english composition either. I mean the internet wasn't even around when i was in school (or not aspopular) so I can only imagine what kind of things are said on essays nowadays with the younger generation. But (<---there it is) I am guilty myself and Ihave always been a horrible writer in school.

 

[oo206oo]

Originally Posted by OctobersFinest


In this facebook age, if you can find a girl who knows the difference between to and too; there, their, and they're; and general apostrophe usage, keep her. Seriously, I hate the fact that all I see is typos everywhere. If you've graduated from a 4 year university and you don't know what a contraction is or know how to denote possession, you're somewhat of an idiot. All I'm saying.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[nako xl]

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by soltheman

You can [correctly] begin sentences with also and but. It's usually to emphasize something. But in your case, it seems like the dude is just dumb.

He starts multiple sentences with But and a comma, and also and a comma. I'm not an English major but I'm positive you can't do this.

there's no grammatical law forbidding the use ofconjunctions to start a sentence. high school english teachers used to just harp on it because that's what they were taught when they grew up.

you can start a sentence with "But," "And," "Yet," "However," etc. In fact, not breaking things up and doing so oftenleads to needlessly long run-on sentences.

 

[son of troy]

OctobersFinest wrote:

---

In this facebook age, if you can find a girl who knows the difference between to and too; there, their, and they're; and general apostrophe usage, keep her. Seriously, I hate the fact that all I see is typos everywhere. If you've graduated from a 4 year university and you don't know what a contraction is or know how to denote possession, you're somewhat of an idiot. All I'm saying.

I completely agree.

 

[sonunox34]

Originally Posted by Nako XL

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by soltheman

You can [correctly] begin sentences with also and but. It's usually to emphasize something. But in your case, it seems like the dude is just dumb.

He starts multiple sentences with But and a comma, and also and a comma. I'm not an English major but I'm positive you can't do this.

there's no grammatical law forbidding the use of conjunctions to start a sentence. high school english teachers used to just harp on it because that's what they were taught when they grew up.

you can start a sentence with "But," "And," "Yet," "However," etc. In fact, not breaking things up and doing so often leads to needlessly long run-on sentences.

I always thought "but' was a no-no, but I see newspapers doing it all the time. I just avoid it to stay in the clear. And yeah, I'drather break things up than keep a four-line, six-comma sentence.

 

[elocin023]

Originally Posted by oo206oo

Originally Posted by OctobersFinest


In this facebook age, if you can find a girl who knows the difference between to and too; there, their, and they're; and general apostrophe usage, keep her. Seriously, I hate the fact that all I see is typos everywhere. If you've graduated from a 4 year university and you don't know what a contraction is or know how to denote possession, you're somewhat of an idiot. All I'm saying.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[freshly snipes]

Originally Posted by Nako XL

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by soltheman

You can [correctly] begin sentences with also and but. It's usually to emphasize something. But in your case, it seems like the dude is just dumb.

He starts multiple sentences with But and a comma, and also and a comma. I'm not an English major but I'm positive you can't do this.

there's no grammatical law forbidding the use of conjunctions to start a sentence. high school english teachers used to just harp on it because that's what they were taught when they grew up.

you can start a sentence with "But," "And," "Yet," "However," etc. In fact, not breaking things up and doing so often leads to needlessly long run-on sentences.

QFT

 

[antonlavey]

Originally Posted by Nako XL

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by soltheman

You can [correctly] begin sentences with also and but. It's usually to emphasize something. But in your case, it seems like the dude is just dumb.

He starts multiple sentences with But and a comma, and also and a comma. I'm not an English major but I'm positive you can't do this.

there's no grammatical law forbidding the use of conjunctions to start a sentence. high school english teachers used to just harp on it because that's what they were taught when they grew up.

you can start a sentence with "But," "And," "Yet," "However," etc. In fact, not breaking things up and doing so often leads to needlessly long run-on sentences.

Starting multiple sentences this way is bad writing. You would have to read the paper to understand what I'm getting at. The sentencestructure and wording in his paper is awful.


In his case the there was no transition from one sentence to the other that made "But," necessary.

On the other hand doing so too often leads to a choppy, fragmented sentence structure.


I can see the necessity in doing this every now and then. But, in his case it was overused and inappropriate.


See what I did here, is this appropriate? This is an example of how the But, and Also, is being used in his paper.

 

[big j 33]

Yeah, I've noticed the same.

When I help friends with their papers sometimes, I can't help but notice how awful some of their writing is. I'm only an English minor, and I'mnowhere near an amazing writer, but most of the mistakes people make are simply common sense errors. It just boggles my mind at times.

 

[superantigen]

Grammatical errors I can understand, after all, grammar is its very own subject and requires hours upon hours of study if one desires to master it.

Additionally, contrary to what you (and many others) may think, it's much harder for native speakers to understand the dynamics of grammar especiallywhen-- (1) the native language is intuitive and (2) there really isn't external pressure to educate, or re-educate, one's self on these dynamics.

Now "horrendous writing"--that's an entirely different story; no excuse whatsoever for that.


**waits for someone to point out the grammatical errors in my post...lulz**

...

 

[oo206oo]

I find myself getting comma-happy pretty often. But I'd rather that be the case, as opposed to breaking a sentence up into shorter, choppier thoughts.

 

[antonlavey]

Grammar is the least of this guy's problems, the way his ideas are presented brings up other issues. I'm extremely lazy right now and really don'twant to edit this.

 

[ikari xd]

Originally Posted by oo206oo

Originally Posted by OctobersFinest


In this facebook age, if you can find a girl who knows the difference between to and too; there, their, and they're; and general apostrophe usage, keep her. Seriously, I hate the fact that all I see is typos everywhere. If you've graduated from a 4 year university and you don't know what a contraction is or know how to denote possession, you're somewhat of an idiot. All I'm saying.

I couldn't agree more.

My significant other is a Cal student and sometimes I question if she truly can differentiate between some of those words. The thesaurus tool andspell check in MS Word has probably helped contribute to the general laziness and stupidity of students who are writing papers.

Anyway, ugly writing has become an epidemic as the art of writing isn't really being taught in high schools anymore. I graded papers for sophomores. Itmade me want to spill coffee on them so I could be like "oh I messed these up, can you re-write them?" There was a page requirement, and dudec/p'd a chart from the Cal Poly SLO website and pasted it directly into the essay to take up space. It took every ounce of me to not draw a

, and I usually love helping students write better.

 

[diego]

If youre a real friend you would post his facebook so we could all make fun of him.

...Its the only way he will learn.

 

[superantigen]

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Grammar is the least of this guy's problems, the way his ideas are presented brings up other issues. I'm extremely lazy right now and really don't want to edit this.

I'm a tutor at a Writing Center. Post his paper (assuming he emailed it to you) so I can see what it looks like--and also for the lulz...

...

 

[ikari xd]

Originally Posted by SuperAntigen

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Grammar is the least of this guy's problems, the way his ideas are presented brings up other issues. I'm extremely lazy right now and really don't want to edit this.

I'm a tutor at a Writing Center. Post his paper (assuming he emailed it to you) so I can see what it looks like--and also for the lulz...

...

Please do. Maybe we can all help you, in our creatively %%*!+%!-like way.

 

[balloonoboy]

Lulz

Good thing you don't have to know what a comma splice or a dangling participle is to be a doctor.

 

[throwedindagame]

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

This guy I know sent me his medical school essay to read and give feedback and it is literally the single worst piece of writing I've ever seen in my life. I'm baffled.

I understand Doctors don't need to be the best writers, but any admissions committee will throw this in the trash and disregard what he has to say.

I hope he doesn't expect me to rewrite the entire paper.

He starts sentences with "Also," and "But,".

Also, yadda yadda yadda.

But, yadda yadda yadda.

Hopefully he beasted on the MCAT