rlcZONE Archive of engeniusBLOG

If you’re like most folks, you probably subscribe to an e-mail reflector or two. My subscriptions include engineering digests, but I also receive e-mails about dogs, British cars, toy trains, ecology, hiking, and conservation.

The e-mails in these reflectors sometimes make me wonder whether the senders have computers equipped with spelling and grammar checkers. As a writer, I've come to expect that when ideas are exchanged for public reading, there should be some minimal conformance to the rules of grammar. Stumbling across writing blunders, such as the use of the pronoun "your" instead of the contraction "you're," irks me.

Lately I’m seeing the use of "a couple" instead of "a couple of." Now, the word “couple” is followed by “of” and a plural noun, in which case it's a plural statement. For example, you would say, "There are a couple of cars in the garage." (In informal uses, according to the North American Edition of the World English Dictionary, the strict sense of two implied by this usage can be expanded to several).

Some may argue that grammatical oversights are excusable in e-mails, but I totter on these faults. I especially bristle when I stumble on crudely crafted sentences in newspapers or magazines. Don’t publications have copy desks anymore?

Is our language evolving? Surely. But, is the use of the word “couple” without the “of” (presumably a verbal truncation, pronounced “cupela”) the new custom? If it is, I guess it’s okay to also use “gotta” and “gonna” in technical presentations, manuals, and engineering datasheets.

Brian, one of my technical buddies, contends that technical folks convey technical ideas on graph paper and on the back of dinner napkins anyway. "We don't need to write like Shakespeare," he says. "Moreover, when you've got a point to make, and you have to make it fast, who cares about grammar?" My argument to that is that clear writing and good grammar is a reflection of clear thinking.

Brian says he never did well in English in school. His forte was math and science. In a recent e-mail I asked Brian if he felt there was a dichotomy between mathematics and English skills. "Of coarse," he replied.

Enough said.