This discussion centers on the inadequacy of English grammar education at the university level in the United States. Participants argue that many college graduates exhibit poor grammar skills, such as incorrect verb tenses and pronoun usage. The consensus is that universities should mandate English grammar courses, as current curricula focus on composition rather than grammar fundamentals. The discussion highlights the need for both Basic and Advanced English Grammar courses to ensure graduates possess essential communication skills.
PREREQUISITESEducators, university administrators, curriculum developers, and anyone interested in improving communication skills in academic and professional settings.
Wikipedia says this:martinbn said:May be it isn't Slavic, but I think it is classified as such.
The lack of case declension was a surprise to me.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_language said:Bulgarian is an Eastern South Slavic language spoken in Southeast Europe, primarily in Bulgaria. It is the language of the Bulgarians.
Along with the closely relatedMacedonian language (collectively forming the East South Slavic languages), it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund and South Slavic dialect continuum of the Indo-European language family. The two languages have several characteristics that set them apart from all other Slavic languages, including the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, and the lack of a verb infinitive. They retain and have further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system (albeit analytically). One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information: witnessed, inferred, or reported.
I initially said that your sentence above is a comma splice. Your above sentence is not a comma splice. The moderator Alan at englishclub.com knows more about English grammar than anyone on the face of the Earth, including you or me. I asked Alan at the englishclub.com about your example sentence, and Alan told me that it is not a comma splice.DaveC426913 said:You make a good point, I am embarrassed to say.
All right. I'll take that as a concession.sevensages said:I initially said that your sentence above is a comma splice. Your above sentence is not a comma splice. The moderator Alan at englishclub.com knows more about English grammar than anyone on the face of the Earth, including you or me. I asked Alan at the englishclub.com about your example sentence, and Alan told me that it is not a comma splice.
If Alan says that it's not a comma splice, then it's not a comma splice.DaveC426913 said:All right. I'll take that as a concession.
You are conceding that I am - and was - correct, are you not?sevensages said:If Alan says that it's not a comma splice, then it's not a comma splice.
I am conceding that you are and were correct that what you wrote in post #68 is not a comma splice.DaveC426913 said:You are conceding that I am - and was - correct, are you not?
It's more convincing to note that Dave's sentence could have been rewritten as "I am embarrassed to say you make a good point."sevensages said:If Alan says that it's not a comma splice, then it's not a comma splice.
Ok well that was the point of contention.sevensages said:I am conceding that you are and were correct that what you wrote in post #68 is not a comma splice.
I'm not sure that's my idea. Are you sure I said that?sevensages said:I still disagree with your idea that universities should not require undergraduates to take courses on English grammar in order to get a Bachelor's Degree.
DaveC426913 said:I'm not sure that's my idea. Are you sure I said that?
Well it's just that you've phrased both in terms of your own thinking. I'm trying to tease out of that whether they're mutually exclusive and comprehensive.sevensages said:You certainly implied that that is your idea on post #8 on this thread and several other posts on this thread.
My thesis is that universities should mandate that students take courses on English grammar in order to get a Bachelor's Degree. You responded "Isn't that what grade school is for? Why waste time in uni on the basics?"
Why did you write that if you agree with my thesis?
Lol. I'm not ok with it. How far do we let it slide? Soon no one will be able to spell upon graduation? That's bad enough already. It makes no sense to have students who are math experts and can't put together a sentence that is understandable when they graduate high school. I don't believe anyone here has said we should do this, just my 2¢.DaveC426913 said:I'm OK with you and I having different opinions on where and when grammar should be taught.
I didn't say I agree. I merely said I don't take umbrage with the OP having his own opinion. (By contrast, I did take umbrage with being told I got a grammar issue wrong. But that's resolved now.)Averagesupernova said:Lol. I'm not ok with it. How far do we let it slide?
Is that possible! How many math experts do you know that cannot put together a sentence?Averagesupernova said:It makes no sense to have students who are math experts and can't put together a sentence that is understandable when they graduate high school.
The point is maybe we should ditch some more advanced type courses and concentrate on the basics in high school and grade school. People who won't utilize the math (for instance) after high school are going to forget it anyway. It just seems silly to educate kids on stuff they intend to forget. The USA requires four years of English in high school. As far as I know the only subject that requires four years. And yet kids out of high school sound and write as if they "ain't got no good book learnin". Having advanced subjects available is one thing. Turning out kids who don't have a basic education while having taken advanced courses is quite another. Something is broken.martinbn said:Is that possible! How many math experts do you know that cannot put together a sentence?