I do find on this site that some sort of predictive text takes over.I don't need spell check or anything like that. So I do not activate the option. But I do get quite wound up when I find that words have been changed and spellings altered and punctuation corrected, but actually made incorrect.I usually re-read before posting and sometimes miss the odd literal simply from mis-hitting a key. But find often I am correcting a whole word that has been replaced by some sort of online predictive. And then finding that my correction gets overruled and replaced by the wrong word again.!Just now 'Overruled' was replaced by 'Overhauled' twice before allowing it's use.But use of apostrophes, and general punctuation is often lacking. Not all that bad on this site, and as mentioned by another poster, trying to write properly on a phone is even more hindered than on a desktop.At school, a wrong use of an apostrophe or even a full stop resulted in a 45 min detention. Bad syntax was the same. Punishable by a 2000 word essay, and, if that repeated the errors, it was ripped up and the whole cycle repeated.It was enough to get it right. But there were a few poor souls who just could not get it right and their time was made hell all term. That's when the teachers failed a bit. Those were pupils who needed help, it was not forthcoming from some teachers.Whilst English was a doddle, I had a few subjects that I was not so proficient at and the same thing happened to me as happened to others in the English class. The only difference being those subjects had more pro-active teachers and the help was forthcoming. Ironically, my English teacher at school mentioned in the 6th form, that the standard of spelling in the GCE 'O'level group was some way behind the CSE group ( who were supposed to be less proficient.) Coming to the present, I do find that the standard of punctuation , spelling and rounded comprehension, is often quite poor among post-grad candidates we interview, even those from Oxbridge.We now require short handwritten essays, to be written on site, just to demonstrate clarity and command of general English. The exercise is based around an older junior school manual, 'The First Aid in English'.We are amazed at just how many struggle. Yet these are candidates who are well educated, possess really good ability and collation skills and brain power. But do not appear to have been thoroughly grounded in basics.
Raymond Havelock ● 2806d