Recruiting for a job and I'm struck by the ineptitude of graduate CVs.

[Burney]

Ah the yoot of today. I bet this is how our parent's generation spoke about us when we were all fresh out of college applying for jobs? I can't imagine anyone of the Generation Xers putting "emotional intelligence" into a CV though?

Of course, they did it down the pub, not online.

I do try and check myself on that basis, but I do genuinely think things are infinitely worse now.

The lack of awareness to include things like 'Cosplay' in a job application and just assume the person reading it will a/ know what that is and b/ be fine with it and not just dismiss you as a sad weirdo is stunning. Do they really not know how the world works?

[Peter]

I know. I had to explain the passive voice to someone the other day. I ended up explaining it as I would to a child by saying that, if they appended the phrase 'by monkeys' to the end of the sentence and it still made sense, it was the passive voice and if they added it and it didn't make sense, it was in the active voice. There was no point talking about subjects and objects because they just don't understand the terms and switch off when you use them.

They now all think I'm some sort of pedantic old grammar Nazi of course (and they may not be entirely wrong) but, as I pointed out to one the other day, they work with the written word and it is actually my job to make sure they know how to use it correctly.

Indeed. Of course in some circumstances incorrect grammar and punctuation drastically changes the meaning of the sentence- the Jameson Raid being perhaps the most famous example.

It is quite funny how pedantry has become synonymous with Nazism. Were the Nazis particularly pedantic?

[Peter]

I would put people who say 'mischiev-ee-ous' rather than 'mischievous' in camps until they learn to stop doing it.

I mean there is literally no justification for adding the extra syllable. Why do they do this?

Project (pronounced as oh) does my head in. There is a guy at work who says it all the time.

[Peter]

I do try and check myself on that basis, but I do genuinely think things are infinitely worse now.

The lack of awareness to include things like 'Cosplay' in a job application and just assume the person reading it will a/ know what that is and b/ be fine with it and not just dismiss you as a sad weirdo is stunning. Do they really not know how the world works?

We are all getting too old to adjust to this sort of bull****. That said, it isnt unreasonable to expect a graduate to have a basic grasp of the english language and to be reasonably numerate. Unless they have studied business, obviously.

[Burney]

Indeed. Of course in some circumstances incorrect grammar and punctuation drastically changes the meaning of the sentence- the Jameson Raid being perhaps the most famous example.

It is quite funny how pedantry has become synonymous with Nazism. Were the Nazis particularly pedantic?

Actually telling children and young people they are wrong and that this is a matter of fact, not opinion is now synonymous with right-wing authoritarianism. It goes against all the principles (ha!) of post-modernist relativism.

This is why teachers fight shy of it. Also because most of them are ignorant cvnts themselves.

[barrybueno]

Oh, r. You're just the most 80s man in the world, aren't you?

The lad reds has totally out 80'd me there B

[PSRB]

Project (pronounced as oh) does my head in. There is a guy at work who says it all the time.

Is it Shed-ule or Sked-ule? I think the former.

[Burney]

Is it Shed-ule or Sked-ule? I think the former.

Always the former unless you’re a foul American.

[PSRB]

Always the former unless you’re a foul American.

and lets not even start on 'Herbal'

[Burney]

and lets not even start on 'Herbal'

It is very strange, that. Most US spellings were changed by Noah Webster in order to remove the French influence, but when it comes to food, Americans insist on French pronunciations like ‘’erbs’ and ‘fil-ay’ for fillet even when they’re plainly wrong.