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I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

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Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#171

Post by einhverfr »

sampo wrote: post #162
nirvdrum wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue is if you're unable to delineate between "it's" and "its" and it's the language you've been speaking natively for the past 25 years, I tend to doubt your ability to know what form of "const" to use in C++. At the very least, lack of proofreading suggests to me you might be rash with your code as well. Many disagree with me on this point of view, but routinely I've found that those that express themselves wel…

As a non-native speaker of English, I have been wondering how much signal it would be appropriate for me to infer from the kind of sloppy grammar that is typical only for native speakers of English? [1] I learned English at school as a second language, and we would always start with the written form, and then learn how to pronounce. So my "hash table" is primarily organized based on the written form, and it would be…

This is interesting.

On the other hand, I would like to know since Finnish as a language fascinates me:

How common are noun-case errors among people who have a high school education? I mean something like using the elative case when the ablative might be more appropriate?

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#172

Post by einhverfr »

aggronn wrote: post #167
einhverfr wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By Contemporary Standard American English standards comma placements are strewn throughout the sentence with very little regard for clarity (removing a few would make it clearer), and the logical relation between clauses leaves something to be desired.

Are you proposing that the constitution be re-written for grammar every couple of decades?

No, but it isn't even clear that the Constitution obeyed perfectly the standards of spelling and grammar of "it's" day.

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#173

Post by Stratoscope »

maw wrote: post #143
jfoutz wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even oxford discourages its use in public writing. http://www.ox.ac.uk/public_affairs/services_and_resources/st...

In one case I discourage it as well, because with it you can't write the funniest sentence ever composed: "I would like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God." Otherwise, no strong opinion, although I usually use it myself.

And here's a classic joke that works best with the serial comma:

"There are two hard problems in computing: naming things, cache expiration, and off by one errors."

The comma indicates a pause when spoken, and you need that pause in this particular joke.

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#175

Post by Graham24 »

irahul wrote: post #139
nirvdrum wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue is if you're unable to delineate between "it's" and "its" and it's the language you've been speaking natively for the past 25 years, I tend to doubt your ability to know what form of "const" to use in C++. At the very least, lack of proofreading suggests to me you might be rash with your code as well. Many disagree with me on this point of view, but routinely I've found that those that express themselves wel…

> My issue is if you're unable to delineate between "it's" and "its" and it's the language you've been speaking natively for the past 25 years, I tend to doubt your ability to know what form of "const" to use in C++. Eh, how about asking me about const-correctness than inferring from my use of "it's" and "its"? You know, you can actually talk about const-correctness instead of inferring from the grammar test. > At th…

tut, tut. "People with bad grammar should be hung".

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#176

Post by ricardonunez »

My mother thong is Spanish, I also know English, Portuguese and some Italian. I'm not a good in either language. In the last few years I put a lot of time in getting better at English. By reading that post and some comments you will assume I don't read, I'm lazy, slow learner, sloppy and unmotivated. Proper grammar is important, but I'll not make it a priority while looking for talent.

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#178

Post by kamaal »

ianterrell wrote: post #82
raganwald wrote: post #76

Applicants who don't think writing is important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren't important, "Citation needed." Or to put it another way, what is the difference between this statement and: Applicants who don't think wearing a tie and polished brogues to an interview are important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren't important

The difference between those two cases is well explained by the internal logic of the article (which I find spot on): > In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence.

You could say the same thing about how a person presents himself.

If a person can't present himself well in an interview, what guarantees do we have he would do it well in a client/investor meeting?

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#179

Post by UK-AL »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #75
drx wrote: post #18

I will. I don't give a shit about someone's grammar if they're good at what they do.

If they're good at what they do and not an imbecile then couldn't you give them a lesson or two in grammar. I was never taught English grammar at school - French and Russian grammar but no English grammar beyond learning a poem about it at primary school. I was educated in England, English is my first language.

How can you never be taught grammar? There are two English gcses, English language and English Lit. One is about the technicalities of the language, the other about literature. Everyone has to do English Language....

Re: I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

#180

Post by einhverfr »

FreebytesSector wrote: post #115
irahul wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (Yes, the double space after the period is a built in habit from typing class, and a debatable item in the computer age, but nobody seems to care one way or the other.) Well, it does serve a purpose in the computer age - grepping for sentence ending.

Also, it makes it easier to determine when a sentence ends that contains an abbreviation. (This refers to when most people would use periods at the end of abbreviations.) I still use double spacing even though standard HTML does not display the double spacing on web pages. The following sentences are an example of what I was saying: "I sent the N.D.A. to N.Y. It arrived three days later." The single space after the "…

Actually with a [A-Z]. [a-z] that's an easy case.

The harder case is an [A-Z]. [A-Z] which is not a sentence ending. Consider the following:

"When we compare the use of mistakes in speech in the Saga of St. Olaf with some of the other Old Norse literature, we can see that there is, in fact, a pattern of use of errors in speech being a sort of death omen."

The single space there identifies that there is no end of sentence between St. and Olaf. Of course when you are working in LaTeX you have to tell LaTeX that this is a word break and not a sentence break or else it will kern it as an end-of-sentence.

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