One word mis-usage I find trending strongly of late is the misuse of “bring” for “take.” It’s an easy (and extremely useful) distinction to make; simplified: bring HERE; take THERE. When someone uses it to say they will “bring [something somewhere]” (or a close variation) to mean they will TAKE [something somewhere], it’s a pretty clear sign that they aren’t really literate . . . OR have been spending WAY too much time in the company of illiterates and have succumbed to their bad influence.
“My brakes are acting up. I’m going to bring it in tomorrow to find out what’s wrong,” only semi-works IF the speaker is at the mechanic’s at the time of speaking (or is speaking to the mechanic about bringing it to him. Of course, if one were AT the mechanic’s at the time and had bad brakes, it’d be foolish not to leave the car at that time). If one were NOT at the mechanic’s and NOT speaking to him but to a third party, then “bring” is just stupid in that context.
Puzzle out those funny lil squiggles? Maybe. Understand the meaning those funny lil squiggles are intended to convey? Being able to put on paper (or in electronic “ink”) some funny lil squiggles that actually contain meaning with any clarity at all? It’s a crapshoot for college grads nowadays.
Sidebar: given the evidence of swelling illiteracy in our society, it seems obvious that spending billions and billions of dollars to add administration jobs to “education” doesn’t appear to be improving education.
I frequently discover a need within myself to exercise restraint on social media by not repeating postings and comments in an edited form. I’m worried that if I do not restrain myself neither the poster nor their readers would understand either why i edited their dreck or the edited versions.
Some would take it as an offense. Others would insist the original was correct, while others would emulate the former Secretary of State’s Benghazi defense … “What difference at this point does it make?”
That is not to mention the plank in my own eye.
*meh* Every now and then, I correct a graphical “meme” (and yes, I dislike the pejoration of “meme” those things represent) with a note about the correction. And sometimes, when I post the corrected graphic, folks respond with, “Thanks. How did you do that?” or some such. Other times, I get called a “grammar Nazi,” though usually when I have corrected a word misuse and not a grammar error. *heh*
The way I figure it is this: folks who want to “misunderstand” me will do so no matter what I say, but if I don’t correct such things, I give tacit approval to crappy writing. That does no one any favors in the long run.
Do notice that I did refrain from editing, “I’m worried that if I do not restrain myself neither the poster nor their readers would understand either why i edited their dreck or the edited versions,” to read “. . . why I edited their dreck or the edited versions.” I just assumed the typo. *heh*
Sorry about that. It must have been my early exposure to that Cummings clown.
*heh* I thought Cummings was soooo cool. . . when I was a h.s sophomore. By the end of that year? Not so much. But then, that was the year my uncle introduced me to Aquinas (and corrected my mispronunciation when I read the name of the author off the book. What can I say? I was taking Spanish, not Latin. :-)). Kind of put paid to Cummings.