I admire my dad.
He did finish high school, but never went on to college because my grandparents wanted him to take over the family tech business. Just about a year or two ago, he was contacted by Catholic University to lead a new engineering/architectural class. They told him he was the best of his trade and they wanted him as a Professor at their University even if he didn't have a teaching degree or his doctorate.
Cool, right? I mean, my dad didn't even go to a two year community college and finished high school with Cs and Ds, and one of the highest held Universities in VA wants him as a professor.
Story:
He was having me proof read and edit his syllabus for this summer. I was already kind of not wanting to do it because engineering and architecture is not exactly in my field of interests. I wasn't too far into the syllabus when I spotted a couple of mistakes. Awkward sentences, comma splices, and misused apostraphes (or lack of apostraphes). Anyway, I was a little perturbed when I ran into this particular mistake: "...in the figurative and littoral sense." Now, I had never come across the word "littoral" before, so I looked it up in the dictionary. Sure enough, it's a real word, but it was definitely not the word he was looking for! Littoral: of or pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.
Anyway, since his education was cut short, I could understand enough that he needs a little help when it comes to broadening his vocabulary. When I looked up littoral, this site I was going to use ( dictionary.com ) was already up. . . well, the thesaurus section of the site was up. You see, my dad has this thing that he does - he likes to use the thesaurus to find bigger, better words to say things, and then uses the word completely wrong.
Like I said, I admire my dad, but reading his syllabus just reminded me of how much I hate it when people who're supposed to be leading the world's children (and, well, everyone who's seeking a higher education) to greatness - teachers, politicians - and people who're supposed to keep us informed - newspaper journalists, news room reporters - can't spell, can't use correct grammar, and can't use words correctly. Most of the things I notice are, for example, in my dad's syllabus he often made this mistake "designers" instead of "designer's" when he was talking about possession. Not only does that bother me, but it really, really urks me when people use the possession apostraphe incorrectly when it comes to individuals and plurals: designer's over designers'. It also just really urks me when people use a "big" word to either sound more intellegent or appealing and then use it completely wrong.
So, I ask you:
What things bother you?
Have you noticed the lowering of standards?
Do you admire your parents but can't understand some of the things that they do?
He did finish high school, but never went on to college because my grandparents wanted him to take over the family tech business. Just about a year or two ago, he was contacted by Catholic University to lead a new engineering/architectural class. They told him he was the best of his trade and they wanted him as a Professor at their University even if he didn't have a teaching degree or his doctorate.
Cool, right? I mean, my dad didn't even go to a two year community college and finished high school with Cs and Ds, and one of the highest held Universities in VA wants him as a professor.
Story:
He was having me proof read and edit his syllabus for this summer. I was already kind of not wanting to do it because engineering and architecture is not exactly in my field of interests. I wasn't too far into the syllabus when I spotted a couple of mistakes. Awkward sentences, comma splices, and misused apostraphes (or lack of apostraphes). Anyway, I was a little perturbed when I ran into this particular mistake: "...in the figurative and littoral sense." Now, I had never come across the word "littoral" before, so I looked it up in the dictionary. Sure enough, it's a real word, but it was definitely not the word he was looking for! Littoral: of or pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.
Anyway, since his education was cut short, I could understand enough that he needs a little help when it comes to broadening his vocabulary. When I looked up littoral, this site I was going to use ( dictionary.com ) was already up. . . well, the thesaurus section of the site was up. You see, my dad has this thing that he does - he likes to use the thesaurus to find bigger, better words to say things, and then uses the word completely wrong.
Like I said, I admire my dad, but reading his syllabus just reminded me of how much I hate it when people who're supposed to be leading the world's children (and, well, everyone who's seeking a higher education) to greatness - teachers, politicians - and people who're supposed to keep us informed - newspaper journalists, news room reporters - can't spell, can't use correct grammar, and can't use words correctly. Most of the things I notice are, for example, in my dad's syllabus he often made this mistake "designers" instead of "designer's" when he was talking about possession. Not only does that bother me, but it really, really urks me when people use the possession apostraphe incorrectly when it comes to individuals and plurals: designer's over designers'. It also just really urks me when people use a "big" word to either sound more intellegent or appealing and then use it completely wrong.
So, I ask you:
What things bother you?
Have you noticed the lowering of standards?
Do you admire your parents but can't understand some of the things that they do?
