(Applies final polish to jackboots and adjusts der Sam Braun(e) belt over close-fitting black tunic.)
Capt W, you’ve got my vote 110%… It seems to me that many of our ‘English as a second/third language’ colleagues on Pprune have a far better grasp of the basics of English than many native English speakers. Some of course, do not - and anyone from the ranks of the ‘spelling police’ who heaps scorn on someone who is obviously not a native English speaker is beneath contempt.
It has become almost a given that people don’t check their spelling or grammar before posting something on the Internet, perhaps because they are online and mindful of the clock ticking. However, I think the Guvnor’s right - the overwhelming proportion of the blame for poor spelling and grammar should be placed squarely at the door of our education system over the last twenty years. In too many cases, people simply aren’t aware they’re wrong in their use of English because they were never taught correct usage in the first place. For that reason, I fear that Capt Waffoo’s deliberately incorrect use of the apostrophe in the fourth last and last paragraphs of his first post were probably wasted on many. (Think you might have genuinely blown it with the capital after the semi colon , though, Cap’n.)
StopStart’s very well balanced post should be added to the top of the ‘post in’ page:- reed… sorry – READ what yew… YOU right… sorry – WRITE before pressing the ‘send’ button, people.
Many of yew .. sorry, YOU are on this BB looking for a job (or a better job). If two CVs with similar experience levels come in to an employer’s desk, one with correct spelling and grammatically correct and the other not so, who do you believe will get the job? The same applies if you want to make a point on Pprune – surely someone who looks like he’s taken some care with his post gains more credibility from his readers than one who has not. We also pride ourselves as aviation professionals, where one mistake can have dire and sometimes rather final consequences, on double checking everything. After reading some (many?) of the posts on Pprune, I sometimes wonder what the poor old self loading freight must think as they entrust their lives to us. Gravity victim’s post is well worth reading on that point.
I have a few pet hates. It’s /its probably tops the list. (The apostrophe usually denotes the possessive case, chaps and chapesses. I know it’s crazy, but “its” is the exception to this rule. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is”, whereas “its”, without the apostrophe, is the possessive of “it”, (unlike every other instance where the possessive is used in the English language). Their/there/they’re, your/you’re and the dreaded unnecessary (or just as aggravating - missing) apostrophe follow. And addinfurnightem, just in case you weren’t joking and looking for a bite from some spelling police pedant like me, the apostrophe after the ‘s’ is used for words ending in an ‘s’, eg, “Jean Simmons’ husband was a famous actor as well.” It doesn’t show plural, eg, “The Simmons are coming for diner tonight.”
To paraphrase W.S. Churchill, (after he was criticised by some *** pedant for ending a sentence with a preposition), these and other common errors in English expression are mistakes up with which I will not put!
Sieg Heil!
I’m standing by to have pointed out to me the corrections to the half dozen mistakes I’m sure to have made in this post.