I was in 8th grade when I first really got into AOL instant messaging, but I had been first introduced to it in 6th grade.
7th grade is when I remember really coming to grips with grammar and punctuation. Please note this is after learning to read in America and then attending the rest of elementary ( or primary ) school in Scotland where many things are spelled differently. So, in 7th grade English class when my teacher was introducing us to the appositive something snapped in my head and suddenly I got it - punctuation and grammar.
Then in 8th grade I began talking to friends on Instant Messenger. One year after I truly began to understand and apply punctuation and grammar I realized that it was totally not cool to use grammar, punctuation of any sort, capital letters, or fully spelled out words on AIM. Thus began my demise into a world that discriminated against proper communication. I can even remember the first time someone typed "LOL," and I had to ask what that meant! I can even remember emailing friends and getting emails back that consisted of one sentence that was 6 lines long.
Please know that, even as I write this, I recognize the fact that I fall short of correctness in this area everyday. I believe it was the beginning of my Junior year in High School when my English teacher was again trying to show us how to write a proper and well structured sentence that I became totally and utterly confused regarding the matter. She completely stole away my rules that I had used to apply punctuation to my writing. Rules that had always worked for me and actually helped me get 100's on my TAAS English test - who cares? Anyways, I left totally defenseless and confused when it came to punctuation because of this one teacher. Since that time I have sought to regain my footing in this area, but I am still quite a bit behind.
I write this here blog not to show off my literary ability. It is obvious that I do not posses the proper skills required for bragging. I simply write this little blog to say my generation is at a loss when it comes to reading and writing. We have grown up in the social media world where the rules are stretched and changed leaving us at a disadvantage. This disadvantage - which affects us probably more than it affects other people - leaves us without the proper tools to communicate how we think and feel in the most powerful ways. Yes, we do have many more mediums available to us where we can post, text, tweet, blog, email, message our little hearts out. Those mediums are powerful in the sense that they reach large numbers of people and are easy to use. So my question is this: Are we communicating at such a high quantity on so many different mediums that we have lost the art of communication? Do we still remember how to write a well structured sentence?
I have to confess that I am intimated by the challenge of writing a properly structured sentence. Sometimes I am afraid that there is this punctuation Czar out there ready to smite me because I used a comma incorrectly. I hate that! I mean I hope there is a punctuation Czar out there, we desperately need one. I just hate that I have to be intimidated of him or her because I feel that I fall short of their expectations.
I know that I've made many spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes on this blog and have probably made many on this particular post. I am just simply saying that my generation and the generations after us all need to pay particular attention to how we write, because we do not want to the lose the power of our words!
Right?
7th grade is when I remember really coming to grips with grammar and punctuation. Please note this is after learning to read in America and then attending the rest of elementary ( or primary ) school in Scotland where many things are spelled differently. So, in 7th grade English class when my teacher was introducing us to the appositive something snapped in my head and suddenly I got it - punctuation and grammar.
Then in 8th grade I began talking to friends on Instant Messenger. One year after I truly began to understand and apply punctuation and grammar I realized that it was totally not cool to use grammar, punctuation of any sort, capital letters, or fully spelled out words on AIM. Thus began my demise into a world that discriminated against proper communication. I can even remember the first time someone typed "LOL," and I had to ask what that meant! I can even remember emailing friends and getting emails back that consisted of one sentence that was 6 lines long.
Please know that, even as I write this, I recognize the fact that I fall short of correctness in this area everyday. I believe it was the beginning of my Junior year in High School when my English teacher was again trying to show us how to write a proper and well structured sentence that I became totally and utterly confused regarding the matter. She completely stole away my rules that I had used to apply punctuation to my writing. Rules that had always worked for me and actually helped me get 100's on my TAAS English test - who cares? Anyways, I left totally defenseless and confused when it came to punctuation because of this one teacher. Since that time I have sought to regain my footing in this area, but I am still quite a bit behind.
I write this here blog not to show off my literary ability. It is obvious that I do not posses the proper skills required for bragging. I simply write this little blog to say my generation is at a loss when it comes to reading and writing. We have grown up in the social media world where the rules are stretched and changed leaving us at a disadvantage. This disadvantage - which affects us probably more than it affects other people - leaves us without the proper tools to communicate how we think and feel in the most powerful ways. Yes, we do have many more mediums available to us where we can post, text, tweet, blog, email, message our little hearts out. Those mediums are powerful in the sense that they reach large numbers of people and are easy to use. So my question is this: Are we communicating at such a high quantity on so many different mediums that we have lost the art of communication? Do we still remember how to write a well structured sentence?
I have to confess that I am intimated by the challenge of writing a properly structured sentence. Sometimes I am afraid that there is this punctuation Czar out there ready to smite me because I used a comma incorrectly. I hate that! I mean I hope there is a punctuation Czar out there, we desperately need one. I just hate that I have to be intimidated of him or her because I feel that I fall short of their expectations.
I know that I've made many spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes on this blog and have probably made many on this particular post. I am just simply saying that my generation and the generations after us all need to pay particular attention to how we write, because we do not want to the lose the power of our words!
Right?
1 comment:
mmmm... Self.
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