I Hate Plagiarizing

@OmSigDAVID,

Thank you!

I'm guilty of inconsistency, too - I would never used the word "grow" as in "grow your business" (I just hate that phrase), but I do say, "Google it!" What's the difference? None, but there it is.

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

I haven't been back to Detroit in so many years that most of the restaurants I would have known are probably closed.

Where are you going to be? Detroit, as you probably know, is large. A roughly triangularly shaped city, the northern border, 8 Mile Road, is 22 miles long. You might not want to take a very long trip for dinner.

I will ask my brother for recommendations but it may not be today. I owe him a call but I have a lot to do through the afternoon.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

In re: split infinitives

That is an old rule that isn't taught anymore because nearly all the writers we admire in England and America split infinitives.

In re: sentences beginning with conjunctions

I hate that form as well and, yes, you are right. Logically, a sentence that begins with a conjunction is a fragment. However, such sentences sometimes work well when used for emphasis and as pieces of dialog.

In re: attendee

The word attender, which would be the alternate you would approve of, sounds strange. Whether the strangeness is due to the fact that we use attendee, I don't know. The on-line dictionaries acknowledge the existence of the word attender (which sounds too close to attainder for comfort) but only one defines it. There seems to be a consensus that the word attendee originated during the 1930s.

0 Replies

@plainoldme,

I learned good grammar intuitively,
just from listening to my mother during the first years of my life.

plainoldme wrote:

As for sentences ending in prepositions,
well, avoiding a final preposition sometimes creates a very wordy and awkward sentence.

That creates a circumstance up with which I shall not put.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Nobody says "To whom were you speaking?" or "With whom did you go?"and it would sound archaic, if not laughable, if they did. Some things we just have to let go and that would be my pick.

2 Replies

@Mame,

Those sentences have an angry sound to them. I can imagine an martinet boss saying, "To whooomm were you speaking?" I can also imagine a worried and frazzled mother asking an 11-year-old, "With whom did you go?"

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

I haven't been back to Detroit in so many years that most of the restaurants I would have known are probably closed.

Where are you going to be?

Well, even tho thay call it the Detroit AG, the Annual Gathering itself will be in the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn
for the meetings n presentations, with several overflow hotels. O.M. SIG members r staying in the Hyatt itself.
That is not an unusual Mensa practice; e.g. Chicago Mensa runs HalloweeM, which is the best of the Regional Gatherings,
but it is actually in Arlington Heights, about a half hour from Chicago.
When we arrive at O'Hare, we always go in the OPPOSITE direction,
toward our favorite restaurants in Chicago, e.g., The Russian Tea Room.
We can apply the same philosophy upon arrival at the airport in Detroit. I 've never been there b4.
I don 't know what 's good in Detroit or Dearborn.

plainoldme wrote:

Detroit, as you probably know, is large.
A roughly triangularly shaped city, the northern border, 8 Mile Road, is 22 miles long.
You might not want to take a very long trip for dinner.

I usually like to stay fairly close to the hotel, but I have ofen been outvoted.
It has been our practice to hire chauffeured limousines to enjoy the best that the convention city has to offer.

plainoldme wrote:

I will ask my brother for recommendations but it may not be today.
I owe him a call but I have a lot to do through the afternoon.

Thank u; I 'm not leaving until Wednesday morning.

David

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Those sentences have an angry sound to them. I can imagine an martinet boss saying, "To whooomm were you speaking?"
I can also imagine a worried and frazzled mother asking an 11-year-old, "With whom did you go?"

I never mean it emotionally when I do so.

It just comes out naturally.

David

0 Replies

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Nobody says "To whom were you speaking?" or "With whom did you go?" and it would sound archaic,

I 'm an archaic kind of guy.

Mame wrote:

if not laughable, if they did.
Some things we just have to let go and that would be my pick.

Yeah; that 's what I usually DO. I 'm usually big on minding my own business.
Sometimes, its heartbreaking, tho; e.g. there was an 18 year old lad who gave a resplendently brilliant presentation
at a Mensa Regional Gathering some years ago qua Astrophysics; it was a beauty to behold.
His personality was one of pervasive n expansive ebullience; he was the son of a schoolteacher
and his enthusiasm for education and cultivating the minds of the young to bring their optimal potential to fruition
knew no bounds. He was a talented mathematician. He said that he tawt younger students in hi school, tutored them,
after classtime. He expressed intentions teaching professionally, on a full time basis.

He continually fell into the grammatical errors which we 've discussed here. I felt moven to bring these errors to his attention,
but the topic was Astrophysics not grammar and truly: I did not have the heart to say anything to demoralize his spirit.
I kept my mouth shut, but I thawt that his speech patterns will subconsciously affect his students.
As we observed, grammar purveys logic, which is mathematically accurate. Being a competent mathematician
is inconsistent with being a poor logician = a poor grammarian,
but as u 've said: "Some things we just have to let go".

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I admit I think a little less of people who speak ungrammatically. It is such a simple thing to learn and if they can't be bothered to learn it, to communicate properly, to care how they sound, it affects my regard for them. I know it doesn't necessarily mean they're unintelligent, but they sound it.

People can say it's not easy, but there are rules, and anybody can read them. I know, I'm a hard-case.

1 Reply

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

I admit I think a little less of people who speak ungrammatically. It is such a simple thing to learn and if they can't be bothered to learn it, to communicate properly, to care how they sound, it affects my regard for them. I know it doesn't necessarily mean they're unintelligent, but they sound it.

People can say it's not easy, but there are rules, and anybody can read them. I know, I'm a hard-case.

If I were to engage the services of a surgeon and his patterns of speech were illogical,
I 'd wonder how many OTHER mistakes of logic he harbors that I don't know about.

Figuratively speaking: we know that his hands r not perfectly clean,
but we don 't know how dirty thay r.

David

0 Replies

Another error of speech, that I have NEVER heard corrected
is endemic to the medical profession (from whom we 'd hope for better):
the body 's IMMUNITY SYSTEM is always called the "immune system"
as if of all of the systems of the body THAT one is "immune" but the others r all vulnerable.

U might expect some brilliant, logical medical mind to point that out.

David

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

Dearborn is my hometown, it's in between the airport and Detroit proper, to the west of the city.

There was no Hyatt there when I left in 1976.

The Dearborn Inn is a very lovely, small older style hotel, or, at least it was when I lived in the area. I never ate there although I suspect it has high styled, formal service and a classic hotel menu. It is on Oakland Blvd., easily accessible from the airport which is probably less than 10 miles away.

I haven't phoned my brother yet as I was out all day. I won't call him now because he rises early.

1 Reply

BTW: The student who plagiarized was supposed to send me another essay, this time, one that he actually wrote. There is nothing in my inbox and I am disappointed.

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Dearborn is my hometown, it's in between the airport and Detroit proper, to the west of the city.

There was no Hyatt there when I left in 1976.

This one is:
Hyatt Regency Dearborn
600 Town Center Drive,
Dearborn, Michigan, USA; perhaps u recognize the area ?
http://dearborn.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp?src=agn_smg_hhc_ppc_google_ss_propertyspecific_dttrd_hyattregencydearborn&k_clickid=713697a0-3970-3ec9-d350-00002e266bfc
It looks nice in its picture. I like the Hyatt chain; I joined its frequent use club.

plainoldme wrote:

The Dearborn Inn is a very lovely, small older style hotel, or, at least it was when I lived in the area.
I never ate there although I suspect it has high styled, formal service and a classic hotel menu.
It is on Oakland Blvd., easily accessible from the airport which is probably less than 10 miles away.

I haven't phoned my brother yet as I was out all day. I won't call him now because he rises early.

That 's OK; our friend Marty is our ferret. He called me. He has now detected more attractive restaurants
than we can use during our visit, but thanx for your good wishes on our behalf; no need to disturb your brother.

David

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

BTW: The student who plagiarized was supposed to send me another essay, this time, one that he actually wrote.
There is nothing in my inbox and I am disappointed.

Maybe he intends to bribe u.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Town Center Drive is a development that was created long after I lived there. (This a personally interesting tangent.) I had heard of it from my family, particularly my youngest brother, who regularly gives me his personal restaurant reviews. It is at the western edge of the city of Dearborn. Your trip from the airport will be brief.

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

I can not be bribed. He is shooting himself in the foot. Fortunately, for both of us, I will not grade his final and he will not pass.

As Mame has pointed out and as I have said repeatedly, one can not learn English well enough in so short a time to operate at the college level.

0 Replies

As Mame has pointed out and as I have said repeatedly, one can not learn English well enough in so short a time to operate at the college level

*****************************************************8

Absolutely.

So just assign him a creative writing lesson that will describe a favorite thing he likes to do. Let him show you where he is in terms of organizational skills, vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar, etc.

Maybe this kind of student just needs outlining and sentence diagraming skills.

2 Replies

@plainoldme,

Then you must hate Lawrence Tribe --- not to mention Joe Biden and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

1 Reply

I Hate Plagiarizing

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know