With a 2.3 GPA from BS #1, I don’t have a prayer of a chance of getting in on #1 alone. I took grad level classes to prove myself and did better than I ever dreamed, and I was still turned down. The best (and last) avenue I have left is to get a second BS, and redo all those controls and communications classes I sucked at. It’s not a full 4 years; I’m in essence a senior level transfer student, and the grad level classes I took are counting towards #2.
It’s also a change in specialty. #1 was aimed towards digital hardware engineering, and this one is aimed at embedded software and digital controls.
If I were the instructor, I’d put the email up front using an overhead projector at the beginning of the next class.
“Please take note of this individual’s inability to employ simple standards of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. I understand the informality of email between friends, but this is a college where you are expected to be polishing yourself for a career, in which this sort of communication is so far below the threshold of acceptability as to be laughable. Please further note that I have obscured the name of the writer. I do this so as not to humiliate the individual, as my expectations, apparently, have not yet been made clear. But be advised that the next time I receive an email this impenetrable, I will be displaying it with the writer’s name intact. Please, for the sake of your own future employability, learn how to write in English.”
Actually, I wouldn’t even wait for a bad email to come in. On the very first day of the semester (or quarter), I’d do the above, using a previously received message as my example.
“In my class, there is absolutely no excuse for not hewing to at least a marginally acceptable level of usage. If you find this beyond your abilities, I recommend you drop this class and enroll in a remedial English course. I do not say this capriciously, or to torment you. I merely ask you to take responsibility for learning that which you will need to use in your career. If you don’t want to see a feeble attempt at writing displayed under your name, then don’t be satisfied with feeble writing. This is your only warning.”
On the up side, the size of the class would be cut by a third within a few days.
Damn, that really sucks. I’ve known people in the same position, but at different schools, where they “bent the rules” perhaps a bit more than yours is for you.
I found a flyer on my mailbox the other day from a tree service company with among other hilarities:
Verbatim:
“Trees that are to close to a house, driveway or sidewalks. Can cause damage to the foundation and roof of your home.”
Shows an innovative use of punctuation. However, ‘to’ for ‘too’, has been done before. The singular article ‘a’ limiting the plural ‘sidewalks’ is clever.
To be excruciatingly technical, the word is ‘house’ not ‘home’.
Home is where the heart is. A house is a collection of boards and nails.
The flyer continues with
<more jocularities>
ending with the large and bold font statement:
“SERVICEING <STATE> With over 20 Yrs Experience”
An interesting mix of full word capitalizations, first letter of word capitalizations, and no word capitalization. Why wouldn’t they just spell out ‘years’ – to save two letters? Where’s the period in the abbreviation in ‘Yrs’? Serviceing is a nice touch also, but one might think they could learn to spell after the 20 Yrs experience.
Would you trust this company to drop a 60-foot white pine leaning precariously toward your house?
One of our senior partners, an incredibly smart (if impossible to get on with) guy, writes e-mails that makes that one seem like Hemmingway. He even does so to clients. The rest of the office is horrified by this.
The irony is that when it comes to non-electronic communication he is an absolute stickler for formality. He always gets anything he has written peer reviewed twice (and it’s always bloody good in the first place). He insists on checking over anything that is going out on any project he is working on, regardless on who is sending it. His communication skills are flawless - when he wants them to be.
Who can explain this to me? How can he not understand that e-mail is just another form of formal communication? It’s totally surreal.
