Everyday Errors
Children learn what they live. It drives me nuts when I see that a teacher has miscalculated a grade on a math test or misspelled a word on a spelling list. It’s not just the error — it’s the carelessness on the part of the professional. One day, going over my youngest son’s papers, I came across a rhyming exercise. There was a big ‘x’ beside a word he rhymed with sing and a note that said “ping is not a word.” Of course, ping is a word. I printed out the page of the dictionary that included all its meanings and sent it back to the teacher asking her to tell him she had made a mistake and to be more careful in the future.
The solution to this problem is to consult a dictionary before correcting spelling or word use — that’s what I do and that’s what I have my kids do.
What errors do you encounter in your dealings with professionals, how do you know that it is an error, and what tip or trick can you share so that the rest of us make less fewer errors?
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Concerned parent of two children in the TRSD school system who pays taxes and is not employed by -- or contracted to -- the town or the SAU...one of the Rest of Us
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hi Len,
You actually just shared one of my pet peeves — the incorrect use of the word “less”. You asked, “…what tip or trick can you share so that the rest of us make less errors?”. It should be “fewer errors”. Use “less” when talking about taking away part of a whole, and use “fewer” when talking about taking away a number of something. Example: “After I pay my taxes I have less money and fewer dollars.”
The reason I know that was an error is because I had excellent English teachers in high school (of course, that was over 20 years ago).
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Touche! To complete your tip, the exceptions to this rule are when talking about time, money, and distance…
– it took less than an hour to complete my summer reading list
– it cost less than $100 to fill my gas tank
– i am less than six feet tall
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Here’s another one: people are commonly confused when pairing a pronoun with a noun or another pronoun in a sentence (you and I vs you and me, for instance). If I am unsure, I say the sentence minus one of the [pro]nouns — usually, the single pronoun sentence will only sound correct if the grammar is correct…
– Dad played catch with Tommy and I
– Dad played catch with Tommy and me
Both of these may sound correct to some, but few would think “Dad played catch with I,” sounds right.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I misspelled receive in a spelling bee once, so I remember this…
I before E except after C except in words where it sounds like A as in neighbor and weigh.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Len,
Your child used a literary reference. The story of Ping.
http://www.amazon.com/Story-about-Reading-Railroad-Books/dp/0448421658/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216936894&sr=8-1
Remember, they watch movies rather than read books
July 24th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I actually think he was thinking of this…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_%28video_games%29
In multiplayer online video games, ping refers to the network latency between a player’s computer, called a client, and the game server (or another client). This could be reported quantitatively as an averaged time in milliseconds, or qualitatively as low ping or high ping. This usage is common with players of a variety of first-person shooter and real-time strategy games. Having a low ping is always desirable because lower latency provides smoother gameplay by allowing more frequent updates of game data.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Yesterday on the first day of school, my child brought home a note to watch a section of a movie in class. It was from the english dept and there were grammatical errors on the report. (Missing Caps, Frag sentences, and missing periods).
September 19th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
The September Newsletter from the HS principal missed the proofreaders. Check out traffic pattern paragraph.
http://www.timberlanehs.com/DOCS/News0908.htm