The reason I believe the literacy level has dropped dramatically is my experience as an office temp for many years and seeing the bad grammar, misspelled words, limited vocabulary and lack of coherence in the thought processes of people my own age (54) and younger. The younger they get, the worse it seems to be. (Occaisionaly there are notable exceptions, but they are exceptions). At any rate, if you don't think there has been a decline in the literacy of Americans over the years, you can check the links below which report how low we are in the standings worldwide, and for a real shock, read some of the letters written on the Civil War battlefield by the "uneducated" blacksmiths, clerks, farmers, etc. who were wearing the blue and gray. They may only have had a rudimentary education (the 3 R's), but their prose is more coherent and literate than what I see and hear on the street these days.
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Your argument might carry more weight if you checked your own spelling, avoided run-on sentences and started new paragraphs for new ideas.
-Randolph Peters Standards? I spit on your standards! _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
