*sigh* I see things like this all the time, mostly in social media, “news” articles from established Hivemind outlets, and more and more in published works whether from traditional “gatekeeping” publishers or self-pubs: the inexcusable abuse of the simple past tense when past perfect is dictated by the sense of the statement, as in: “14 Zip [XYZ] Hacks You’ll Wish You Knew Earlier.” No, “You’ll (you will) wish you HAD KNOWN earlier.” Often it is in the same work where the writer (and any “professional” editorial/proofreading eye) also has no clue about forming conditional statements, especially past [unreal] conditionals, for example, “If I WOULD HAVE owned a car, I would have driven to work.” No, cupcake. “If I HAD owned a car, I would have driven to work.”
These are all too typical, “You are NOT smarter than a fifth grader” literacy issues.
I’ve always disliked those “are you smarter than a fifth grader” kind of questions. The answer really depends on the individuals involved, and has nothing to do with the criteria usually used by the person posing the question to make the determination.
These types of comparisons are usually more of the form “have you acquired more readily accessible knowledge about a specific subject” than a (typical) fifth grader. They don’t really measure relative smartness at all.
An individual may fail at meeting each criterion examined and still be smarter than a (specific) fifth grader. Or they may meet every criterion being examined and still not be smarter than a (specific) fifth grader.
Maybe a better question would really be “are you less ignorant in than a typical fifth grader?” Such a question would probably fail as click bait though, because the average self-enstupiated person wants to be flattered by the machine.
I understand the objection, Perri, but I still assert that anyone who’s as literate as a fifth grader ought to be would be more literate than many contemporary “editors” and “writers.”
Yes, they ought to. And once upon a time, you could expect decent editing from publishers and newspapers. I think that most publications are edited by fifth grade drop outs these days… when they’re edited at all.
“In ”
I guess WordPress thought I was writing HTML.
Yeesh… “in <subject>.