Business Pet Peeve

[bjarvis]

Lest there be any confusion on this point, let me be clear: the next time anyone sends me business correspondence which uses "sup" as a greeting, "u" as a pronoun and ends questions about location with "at," I will publish that text for public ridicule.

I have some tolerance for abbreviations in text messages between mobile devices, but none whatsoever for full-length emails, online documentation or written correspondence. We're supposed to be educated professionals in real-world business, not pre-teens playing "The Sims" online with your bffs.

Thank you.

I will now finish my day by practicing yelling at kids to get off my lawn and complaining about how young whippersnappers drive too fast.

Comments

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

Tell them to durn down that damned music while you're at it.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

mockery and ridicule is a faaabulous idea, and I would applaud such actions.

(go on, tell us what provoked this post. you know you want to)

could you also move to squelch the creeping use of "to go" as a substitute for the verb "to say" ?

I would applaud that too.

Simply because I'm a smart ???

[airporter.livejournal.com]

I will now finish by day by practicing...

Should that first "by" be "my" perhaps? (AUUUUGGGHH)

Re: Simply because I'm a smart ???

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, smartass... fixed. :-)

Re: Simply because I'm a smart ???

[airporter.livejournal.com]

Yes, well. It would have been so much better had I not mistyped mine as well...

BTW: I tried to be cute and cuddly once. It didn't work.

[dendren.livejournal.com]

hahaha... yeah, I know I love playing around with grammar in places like LJ and the like but it really does drive me up the wall when it comes to workplace email being so poorly written.

[wescobear.livejournal.com]

While you're at it, drive 15 MPH below the speed limit in the left lane with your turn signal on... *g*

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

It's the latest features in the new models from Detroit: the cars automatically detect one's old age and automatically fix the cruise control below the speed limit, lock the turn signal on and keep the headlights on high beam. The upscale models equipped with GPS will remind one to ask for the senior's discount when they're in fast-food drive-thrus.

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

And they call that music? It's just noise. They'll ruin their ears.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Are you sure you're 20 years younger than me?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I'm a precocious little scamp.

[thaaang.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree with you about the 'ending a sentence with a preposition' beef. From what I understand it comes from Strunk and White, and that book really isn't the Bible it's made out to be. They ended sentences with prepositions in the book, even though they said it was naughty.

And it often flows better to end with a preposition than the tortured workarounds people employ to avoid breaking the rule. Call me illiterate if you must, but I'm a supporter of ending sentences with prepositions when that's what you gotta do.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

as sir winston churchill said, of [not] ending sentences with a preposition:

That is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put

using "sup" as a salutation, or "u" as a pronoun, are indeed heinous.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I'm not especially defensive about not ending a sentence with a preposition in general. I can understand using sentence structure such as "The things I put up with!" or such. The truly grammar-religious may claim you're going to hell, but I wouldn't give it a second thought.

That said, there's something unforgivably ghetto-trash --in a bad way-- about asking "Where you at?" instead of "Where are you?" or "Where is the paper at?" instead of "Where is the paper?" It grates on my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard. It's like they don't understand even understand what the words are that they're speaking.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

the real problem with where you at? is not a terminal "at", the problem is the absence of a verb.

[bradferd23.livejournal.com]

BTW... it is a very western thing to end questions with at. Like where are you at? Just like: Where are you from? It is the way we speak and most don't know it is incorrect. I get called on it half the time. Sigh...

[weekilter.livejournal.com]

Many people just do not realize where they are and think that the real world is not that and is just an extension of an SMS. That combined with people's ignorance of simple differences not knowing that there's a difference between to and too or there, their or they're or your and you're.

[beartalon.livejournal.com]

Yes, salespeople on Blackberries who send me commands with smiley faces to get it done, along with chat speak are getting on my nerves.