in re the following post and the ones to which it was responding . . . . ***ORIGINAL MESSAGE*** > > > > I cannot believe the seriousness of now two posts concerning the spelling > > of one person's post. > > Bravo! I'm so glad someone finally came out and said this. I found these > complaints even more scandalous than those messages a few weeks back > prescribing the "proper usage" of Screen-L, and bemoaning the substitition > of on-line information exchange for "good, old-fashioned books." > > If we want to insist that interactions on Screen-L proceed according to > traditional academic conventions, let me suggest that--if only for the sake of > consistency--we save the fascistic pedantry for the graduate seminars, > and the bombastic viciousness for the faculty meetings. ***END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE*** . . . . the issue had NOTHING to do with spelling per se . . . it had everything to do with the seriousness with which one ought to take a post that insists, without evidence or support, that the usa has more prisons than schools . . . one wonders just how seriously to take that kind of claim, and by extension one wonders how seriously the writer of the claim takes her/his audience . . . . . . there's a hell of a lot self-righteously polemical posturing on these lists [it's something academics tend to be pretty damned good at] and often enough--as comp teachers know all too well--slovenly syntax can point to the difference between a carefully thought out idea and a sloppily formulated one . . . spelling is no doubt just a matter of convention [though i'm not convinced it follows that those who care about it are "fascist pedants"] but syntax is not a matter of convention, it's a matter of meaning, hence of thinking . . . is caring about clear thought pedantic, and is pointing out its absence vicious? i imagine not . . . but in any case it's not the same as carping about spelling errors mike frank ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]