Comments on: Freelance Writers: A Caution About Content Farms http://www.surefirewriting.com/grammar-ranter/freelance-writers-a-caution-about-content-farms/ New-Media Income for Writers and Marketers Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:18:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Robert Earle Howells http://www.surefirewriting.com/grammar-ranter/freelance-writers-a-caution-about-content-farms//comment-page-1#comment-138 Robert Earle Howells Tue, 04 May 2010 17:41:31 +0000 http://www.surefirewriting.com/?p=319#comment-138 I'm often surprised at how many people DO care, Terri. But you might be right—maybe we're a bunch of stodgy codgers. Anyway, I'm glad we have teachers like you who care. Introducing your students to great language will get some of them to care about good writing. As for getting them to care about grammar, I wonder if ANY teachers are succeeding. My guess is that it has to start early, before they get corrupted by cell-phone baby talk. I’m often surprised at how many people DO care, Terri. But you might be right—maybe we’re a bunch of stodgy codgers.

Anyway, I’m glad we have teachers like you who care. Introducing your students to great language will get some of them to care about good writing. As for getting them to care about grammar, I wonder if ANY teachers are succeeding. My guess is that it has to start early, before they get corrupted by cell-phone baby talk.

]]> By: Terri Hunter http://www.surefirewriting.com/grammar-ranter/freelance-writers-a-caution-about-content-farms//comment-page-1#comment-137 Terri Hunter Tue, 04 May 2010 17:10:26 +0000 http://www.surefirewriting.com/?p=319#comment-137 As a high school language arts teacher, I fight the good grammar fight with my students on a daily basis. They see no need to even capitalize properly if it takes one extra key stroke, let alone put in a new paragraph. Their defense? Who cares? Nobody really cares! (Sorry for the overuse of the exclamation point.) And, they have something of a vallid point: who really cares about good grammar and proper sentence structure except us stodgy old codgers? Most young people reading the above paragraphs would have no clue that there is anything wrong, no matter how many times I have explained independent clauses, and run-on and comma-splice sentences. That's how they write to each other. They regard "sentence flow" as something they know when they see, not as an actual editing skill. They don't know beautiful language from ugly language, and they don't care, as long as they get the basic message being conveyed back and forth in SMS. Beauty is in the movies, not in words, and as long as movie dialogue contains some catchy phrasings totaling less than 140 characters which they can mimic to sound cool, their aesthetic sensibilities are satiated. Where are the people who long for beautiful language? Who hear the music? And, I dare say, they, if they still exist, as with all artists, are not the ones necessarily commercially successful. The eHow editors don't care what their content looks like as long as the advertisers keep the revenue coming. They don't know a comma splice when they see one either. It is a hard to get students to care about the proprieties of the English language when the adults with the money don't care. Why should they? How's that for grammar rant? As a high school language arts teacher, I fight the good grammar fight with my students on a daily basis. They see no need to even capitalize properly if it takes one extra key stroke, let alone put in a new paragraph.
Their defense? Who cares? Nobody really cares! (Sorry for the overuse of the exclamation point.) And, they have something of a vallid point: who really cares about good grammar and proper sentence structure except us stodgy old codgers? Most young people reading the above paragraphs would have no clue that there is anything wrong, no matter how many times I have explained independent clauses, and run-on and comma-splice sentences.
That’s how they write to each other. They regard “sentence flow” as something they know when they see, not as an actual editing skill. They don’t know beautiful language from ugly language, and they don’t care, as long as they get the basic message being conveyed back and forth in SMS. Beauty is in the movies, not in words, and as long as movie dialogue contains some catchy phrasings totaling less than 140 characters which they can mimic to sound cool, their aesthetic sensibilities are satiated.
Where are the people who long for beautiful language? Who hear the music? And, I dare say, they, if they still exist, as with all artists, are not the ones necessarily commercially successful. The eHow editors don’t care what their content looks like as long as the advertisers keep the revenue coming. They don’t know a comma splice when they see one either. It is a hard to get students to care about the proprieties of the English language when the adults with the money don’t care. Why should they? How’s that for grammar rant?

]]> By: Mary Lou http://www.surefirewriting.com/grammar-ranter/freelance-writers-a-caution-about-content-farms//comment-page-1#comment-95 Mary Lou Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:03:13 +0000 http://www.surefirewriting.com/?p=319#comment-95 Robert you make some valid points and thank you for the heads up. It's a great reminder that enough editing can never be overkill. Robert you make some valid points and thank you for the heads up. It’s a great reminder that enough editing can never be overkill.

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