A good article by Jeanette Winterson in the Times online re language

Carol

Carol

'Language is power, but language has to be learnt. That’s worth thinking about as a new term begins.'

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2361277.ece

I only had a brief scan but it looks interesting.

Nefertari

I read this and agree with a lot of what is in it.I get fed up with reading notices that don't have the correct spellings.

josiehenley

Hey thanks for this link – it was very interesting and I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve posted a ‘have your say’ reply. Also, while there I noticed the Times are running a ghost story comp. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article2361505.ece

dorothyd

yes, agree with the article 100%. Someone rubbed out the apostrophe on the local sign for familie's but that still leaves the bus going around with PARKING IS A MUGS GAME signwritten on it. Illiteracy abounds.  Thank goodness some people survived the educational system. My daughter was told at the age of 7 not to worry about spelling, get the ideas down, but when I came in the other day complaining about Spongebob Squarepants being 'plain ugly' I as told he could not be both plain and ugly, he is either plain or he is ugly.  Of course, she reads Gabriel Garcia Marquez, F Scott Fitzgerald, Carols Fuentes and goodness knows who else, so sometimes there are survivors from the wreckage of the educational system. She read our lease tonight and made sense of it.  Unfortunately she is one in a thousand, I think, judging by what I overhear and read these days.

Carol

She has enough personal standing to be able to say these things without people holding their hearts in shock horror.
We need more writers like her to raise this issue.