I come across stories like this and I think - good grief! Then, on second thoughts, having got over the initial incredulity, I resign myself to the belief that anything to improve the standard of education in this country (UK) has, surely, got to be a good thing. For example...

The following is a genuine note taken from a relatively recent (2010) job ticket.

the limit striker plate is the problem when hitting upper limit is over time bent down this has been happening since it was taken apart by XXXXX the plate is not tight enough and due to lack of room cannot manage to tighten enough to stop this have adjusted back to a position where cuts through and tested it not handed back as XXXXX in to service so have made them aware of this problem which they will try to rectify whilst here servicing

Anyone care to have a go at deciphering it; i.e. add the punctuation?


Note: I do not profess to be an academic, but even my somewhat average 60's secondary modern education screams when I see something written without a single capital letter, comma or full stop. (Oh, and I've never once used a Venn Diagram in anger.)

no


the sad thing is that I don't think it will make a difference, sometimes I get a "1984" vibe where 2+2=5 (i.e. who cares if it is wrong, we want to believe it so we should pretend it is right)

Ah...

Given my original post I find this somewhat unbelievable. Some of the comments are interesting too.

Punctuation is not enough.  This person has never tried to decipher his own writing six months after writing it.  Somehow I came up with that concept early on in my career, and it has served me well.  I graduated US High School in 1965 in California, where people cannot even count any more.  Note the state budget.


I am baffled by the part I left in italics.  Also, if the rest of it now makes sense, the first statement is wrong.  The problem is whatever causes the striker plate to become bent.

XXXXX represents the name of the equipment manufacturer, so in true Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote fashion, one could substitute Acme. The amusing thing, however, is that we do actually have a machine manufactured by Acme (cue numerous jokes), but it's not the machine that's the subject of the original quote.

djy I moderate a facebook group and I have to remind people daily that English is the default language.

Hot on the heels of this madness (and our battling this idiot) we have now been confronted with this consultation.

I started this thread as a bit of a dig at our (UK) declining standards of education, but having followed a number of the interconnecting links I cannot see how, given the variety of committee led reports (all full of corporate bullshitspeak), any single person can assess it all and give a valid critique.

Perhaps that's the reason for the dumbing down: they don't want you to understand.

Umm, what language is it? Google translate says it is English but that can't be right. ;)

One of the "joys" of supervision I don't miss: trying to make sense of job notes.

I'm also belief that anything to improve the standard of education in this country has, surely, got to be a good thing

This discussion, while actually of eternal interest, was made ephemeral when you chose to use links to targets that can disappear... and they have... making your comment worthless.

That's really too bad. I was interested to see what you were talking about but you left, actually, zero clue.

Such is the 'ephemeral' nature of the interweb: things regularly change. One only has to check the song titles game in the Intermission Forum to see how alterations to YouTube video sharing has screwed up a number of previous links.

As for your complaint, the post is almost seven years old and even I can't remember to whom or what I was referring - though it appears to have been something to do with a local planning application/consultation exercise. The disappearance of the examples, though, doesn't detract from my follow up comments...

"I started this thread as a bit of a dig at our (UK) declining standards of education, but having followed a number of the interconnecting links I cannot see how, given the variety of committee led reports (all full of corporate bullshitspeak), any single person can assess it all and give a valid critique.

Perhaps that's the reason for the dumbing down: they don't want you to understand."

Perhaps your inability to appreciate the main thrust of my comment (without the previously available examples) is, itself, telling?

PS
Having now checked, the first link was to do with the closing of a main road within the city, the second a planning application for some 'rabbit hutch' houses at the end of our street, and the last a consultation exercise on the Herefordshire Local Plan Core Strategy 2011 - 2031.

The first two links have since been rendered moot and the 'Core Strategy' was adopted in 2015, but if you're really that keen...

[Link: herefordshire.gov.uk]

The United States spends all their money on war. Nothing left for education.

Poor education is a tool of the autocrats. The poorly educated are much easier to manipulate.