On 11/09/2017 09:56, M Harding wrote:
But not only in computing, in every field. The problem is that starting with e-mails and ending with Ph D theses this can encourage the attitude that "anything goes" A poor understanding of the rules of grammar is quite common, particularly, to the recent disgust of senior civil servant in the education department and referred to in a question in the House of Commons to the Prime Minister, among children of primary school age, but this must not prevent us from taking care with what we write. Just look at some recent tweets by very powerful people.
Google isn't offering any: it's pointing to Open Source projectsIn a way, that reply illustrates one major issue about grammar. It's
via its search tools.
subject to variation depending on the context, so that what's
'correct' in an internet dialogue can be much more colloquial than in
a formal one.
My "Whose grammar is Google offering?" is a sloppy shortcut of "To
which link does Google refer: is it American or English grammar?" Or
even "Is the link which Google refers to American or English in
style?" Those versions show 3 variations in grammar, and grammar
checkers might prefer or object to any of them.
My preference is for the precision of classics-based grammar, but in
the realm of computing I recognise that what people write - the
content - is more important than the packaging - how they write it.
Michael Harding
Rev. Preb. M.D. Harding riscos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
