The members of the Consitution Committee for the LeTourneau University Student Senate should all be enrolled immediately in the English Review class.
After much thought, I decided that I did not want to attend the Senate session this morning. I quickly scoured my floor and bullied a poor, unsuspecting freshman into going for me and collecting any papers I might need from the session. He returned with a resolution that causes me to cringe every time I look at it.
The resolution concerns debate guidelines for Senate sessions. Here are some of the more horrendous errors:
"After stating his thoughts without interruption, the Senator is to take his seat."
(Can someone please tell me what the Senator should do if he is interrupted? That isn't anywhere in the guidelines and I'm not sure what I should be expecting.)
"When the rules of debate are in effect, the elected Speaker Chair is responsible for making sure debate moves along without problems, and is in charge of calling on Senators to speak. If more than one person has raised their hand, and is waiting to speak, it is the job of the Speaker Chair to choose the person who has not yet participated in the debate."
"The debate will conclude before or after the hearing of a maximum of 6 Senator opinions on each side of the issue (12 total)."
These people are representing their respective floors both to the administration and to the student body. Is it unreasonable to expect from them a certain amount of skill in writing?
Posted by Randy at April 15, 2004 02:02 PM | TrackBackAs a grammar god i will strike down the unfaithful with lightning and thunder.
Posted by: Hookah at April 16, 2004 09:20 AMWow... um... wow. When I was a young frosh, I used to have hope that Senate would do something useful. I have since been disabused of such notions by statements such as this one, issued by that august body.
Wow...
Posted by: Vengeful Cynic at April 16, 2004 04:49 PMAfter working as a tutor in the English Review class for 3 years, I can wholeheartedly say that students on this campus desperately lack any resemblance of decent writing skills. The symptoms are everywhere--the newspaper, advertisements/signs, chapel, blogs, Senate (apparently), emails, reports, and even tests (ahem to a certain professor in the computer/math department who has a certain fondness for powerpoint and double negatives). I know I don't have perfect skills (even though the silly quiz said I'm a grammar god), but golly, I can put a few coherent sentences together for formal writing!
I think one of the main problems is that many people get into the habit of how email/IM is done--write once, send away. Few people take to heart the mantra of English Review--write, read it aloud, rewrite, send it off. Reading things aloud helps people identify many, many mistakes.
Maybe Senate ought to stop sounding so high-and-mighty if they can't write that way. Very formal language has some "gotchas" if you aren't well practiced in it. Would writing bills and the consitution in practical language be that big of a deal?
Posted by: Eliot at April 17, 2004 08:17 PM