Am I the only pedantic grammar nerd?

[gryeyes]

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Affirmative.

I had two (at least) other quirks: The use of "Be advised" at the begining of any transmission. "Be advised, the suspect is running on foot north of the store." Or, "Be advised, the subject here states he didn't make the 9-1-1 call."

Look, the mere fact you are holding up the microphone, SPEAKING INTO IT as you depress the transmit key is "advising" somebody, if not the dispatcher, at least another officer. Be advised it's my job to hear what you say, and to document it, as well as relay it as necessary. That's a superfluous, two word phrase. Stop using it. Shorten your transmissions, let somebody else talk - d'ya just like to hear yourself, or what??? Be advised you sound stupid saying that, AT THIS OR ANY OTHER TIME. <*snark*>

Also, when an officer "ran" a license plate, often s/he would say, "Print it and mark it green." (And hold it for later pick-up. Yes, I am that old; nowadays, the registration return is electronically routed to station printers, or the patrol unit MDC, etc.) I had a box of 64 Color Crayola crayons, and I would make a wide, green swath of color on the printed copy. After a while, the green, red, blue, black, and white crayons got very stubby, the burgundy crayon was slightly used, but all those other colors just sat in the box. So I suggested to a few of my favorite officers (each with an active sense of whimsy) about my box o' crayons.

One or two would come visit the Comm Center and rustle through the box to pick "nifty" colors, then try to use those colors throughout a shift. "Mark it burnt umber," was my absolute favorite, even more so than "chartreuse" or "periwinke."

So, one day, an officer's second radio transmission of the shift - the first was to announce going in service - was this: "Center, be advised, at this time, I am out on an abandoned vehicle with negative occupants, cornflower in color - run this VIN NUMBER [provided the 17 digit series of letters and numbers], let me know if it's stolen and print and mark it cornflower."

Ahhhh.. fond memories of poking fun at each other!

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Reminds me of my courier days ...we had to use ALL the correct terms on the radio.. most of it repititious. This was me calling base..... "Quebec this is Quebec 9 over!"
"rodger Quebec 9 ..what is your transmission over" and on and on .....and if I was running late....

. Worst day of my life was when I ran into the back of a police car.

The whole world heard about it.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I think if the topic was expressed and replied to in a different way, the responses would be more positive. Ie. For those who do correct others publicly on the forum without being asked (if someone feels that really needs to happen, a private message would help eliminate the rather understandable reaction of annoyance and the questioning of motives), a general thread could be started that allows those who view themselves as grammar experts to answer questions others have on grammar, or put together posts describing the different rules they are interested in. Even just general critique of books and other professional products (the "Twilight" books come to mind...I would think a major publishing company and its editors would take more care) help open up discussion without making it seem so personal. Again, I do not personally have any learning disabilities, and was given better education opportunities than others have, but I can definitely see how the general tone of this thread could be very discouraging or upsetting to some. I think you guys could use your know how in a very positive way, that allows people to come to you and encourages learning without self-consciousness.

 

[welsummerchicks]

People tend to not remember why we study grammar or why grammar even exists.

We have grammar because it allows people to be more fully understood when they communicate.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Although there are a myriad of reasons that folks don't use good grammar, I would bet my next paycheck that MOST of the reason is pure laziness. Learning difficulties aside, there is NO reason that children and adults cannot use good grammar to the best of their ability. They just don't want to and don't think it's important.

Why is it that people seems to think that learning disabilities and ADD/ADHD are new diagnoses. When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's there were plenty of kids who had difficulty learning (learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADD/ADHD by today's diagnosis) but they were still required to do their best to learn how to speak and write correctly. And you know what...they did it. It might not have been as easy to learn as some of the others, but they did it well enough to graduate.

 

[ccshambhala]

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[PepsNick]

I'm a grammar freak too. I get very OCD when I read incorrect grammar, I'm so dramatic!

 

[welasharon]

I think I am more of a language geek maybe. I am not well versed in the nuances of grammar. I frequently call the English teacher for clarification of grammatical things but I love words....English and Spanish words...and Latin words (not that I know that many). I am geeky enough to like reading the dictionary and I have my students in Spanish class learn English voacbulary words and test them as bonus points. Their vocabularies are rather slim. They don't read very much unless forced to do so. I found that if they run across a word they don't know, they skip it!! ACK! Even if doing so impedes understanding! Totally foreign to me.
sharon

 

[upcdayz]

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[chickened]

Teachers taught for other reasons than a paycheck back then... simpler times.
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