Perfect for pedants' corner

Well, you might as well say "What's the point of Pedants' Corner" Sel!
It's for pedants - so that's what!

(Not very elegantly put, but I've had a trying day...)
No offence, Sel.

Ana Hmmmmm. I was mystified.

Ana I have just noticed you missed off a ? It must have been trying

See - you are a pedant at heart! I did that on purpose to entrap you...

I think I agree with you Sel. I want my grandkids to learn to express themselves clearly, but I don't think there is any need for the technical stuff behind it. I could never understand it anyway. I can clearly remember the point in school when I realised English grammar was not going to be comprehensible to me.

Dont you think the English language is a bit like a stuffed shirt , <ducks...... its ok I am off to bed> but it could do with updating

My only comment on the subject of stu is

Ana oh heck, I missed off 'day'. So it's even No, never a pedant - all about the bigger picture. Jo yes, I do think things evolve, we're the product of education in the 50/60s - it would be amazing if children were still being taught exactly what we were 50-60 years later- something would be very wrong. I learnt so much at school which I've never utilised - rarely do I refer back to my Domestic Science and needlework skills! Learning to touch type would have been far more useful.

There are times when it matters, and times when it doesn't.

There are also times when it perhaps shouldn't matter but the person reading it thinks it does.

So, for things like covering letters for employment applications, where there is more at stake than getting your point across so that it is understood, it's as well to be able to get it right.

Yesterday I sent my CV and a covering email to an employment agency. I said that I would very much appreciate it if they could confirm receipt.

The reply came (from a Director) with a different font in the text to that used in his footer. I reproduce the reply verbatim:

"Received and forwarded to one of our consultants, who will contact you if they have a position to discuss with you."

No Dear Phoenix, no thank you for submitting your CV, no nuffink!

Sometimes Phoenix brevity is used to indicate importance (or lack of it)

I think you can be as "brev" (sic) as you like, but still no excuse for bad manners!

Plus the varying font thing, damned sloppy if you ask me. (I know you didn't but thought I'd say it anyway!)

It's only a quiz in a newspaper.

I remember some useful stuff from school. When you slice a potato through you can see the bit under the skin where the vitamins are stored. So always peel thinly.

So how many times have you actually been asked to peel a potato at an interview J08 ?

That is how emails should be written Phoenix. All this 'dear...' and 'love from' belongs back in snail mail.

More to life than job interviews!

Forgive me if I diversified slightly from your thread. I was still communing with Sel

Not my thread, Cari's actually.

Yes, there is more to life then job interviews, like wondering how to pay the mortgage.

I was being sarcastic when I said "your thread".

Really?

I disagree J08 a bit of civility in business emails wouldn't go amiss.

It's demoralising enough when job-hunting, never mind putting up with dismissive replies.

And when you need to work, trying find a job becomes your life.

Yes phoenix. Sarcastic like you were being with your reply to my potato comment.

I repeat, I was talking to Sel. From last night.

Who dictated the rules for e-mails? I always use Dear... and Yours sincerely, or Faithfully, depending on whether I know the name of the correspondent.
I judge companies who send me e-mails by how polite I find them. I don't use teen-speak and rarely use abbreviations, even on this site. It doesn't take much longer to write things out in full and saves your readers from the effort of trying to work out what you mean.
I reserve the right to decide for myself how I will word my e-mails.

Phoenix - I am sure you have the unwavering support of all of us who have been following your search for employment.

Agree entirely, Greatnan. A letter is a letter, whether it's sent through the post, faxed, or emailed.

On grammar in general, a pupil's knowledge of the basics certainly helps modern language teachers and pupils, I recall from my dim and distant past in both roles.

Gerunds are something else. They and gerundives were a necessary hurdle in Kennedy's Latin Primer, but are beyond pedantry in English, even beyond Pedant's corner, I would have thought.

Agreed, grumppa, I found I could explain most aspects of grammar to students at all levels, but gerunds and gerundives? Pointless, unless the said students had a background in the classics which most of them hadn't.