Judging premeds based on aptitude for writing?

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When I was much younger, I used to play online games a lot. Generally, the people on these games were really stupid, used incredibly flawed kid logic, and had horrible grammar as a cherry on top of the cake. I don't know if I just had great grammar as a little kid or if everyone else just typed like that on purpose, but that kind of stuck to me.

Do I judge people based on their grammar? Yes, only if it's extreme. In your case, that would be a little neurotic, seeing how you "cringe" at it, but it's not far from where I draw the line.

Do I like this judgmental quality of mine? No, but I can't really change it. Generally, typing properly shouldn't be a huge problem. I'm fine with "lol" since I use it a lot, am borderline okay with "u", but cannot stand "plz" or "h8" or "1 @m c00l y0".
 
...Are you sure those are native speakers?
The only reason I cringe at bad writing is because I'm not a native speaker and I went through the trouble to master the language, yet I end up being the one having to deal with people who speak like they never passed the fourth grade. -____-"
 
PanicMoon said:
I started an online psych class today & seeing as though this is a forum & applicable here as well, I had to ask. I'm usually not a judgmental person, but I've seen this side of me rear its head on the forums & 1 day into my class, I've already semi-written people off.
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You're clearly judgmental here. Focus on your on short comings, be humble, and if you care so much about what others are putting out, be gracious and help if you can. I am sure there are things you can improve on yourself instead of airing out others problems on sdn.
 
Neither look terrible to me TBH. Both are pretty typical of informal internet typing, which isn't completely unexpected when the professor is just asking a casual "tell us a bit about yourself" question. Now if they wrote like that in a paper or personal statement, then it would be pretty bad. However, it still would be far from the worst I've seen. I've read other students' papers in the past and it made me wonder how some of those people managed to get through high school, much less into college. We're talking mistakes like systematically writing "wood" instead of "would" here, not just forgetting to capitalize "I" or screwing up there/their/they're.
 
Forum and online discussion boards are not bastions of literary works -- but is rather a happy medium between real life dialogue/conversational style and texting.



I didn't give a **** in my online humanity classes -- and I doubt they do either. Can't really get a LOR from it.... so I would do the bare minimum for the "A".



People who don't right good, probably do not reed good... let the mcat weed them out.


^ on purpose
 
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OP, I can see your point to an extent, but I don't think is a big deal. A lot of people aren't super careful of grammatical mistakes in online, casual conversation. This, of course, should not be the case in an academic and/or professional setting. Also some people don't care about some classes. I would say don't worry about others' mistakes, but focus on improving yourself.
 
Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are important to me too. I know some people aren't native speakers, are dyslexic, or have other sorts of problems that impinge their abilities to be literate, and that is totally understandable. However, most of the poor writing that I see seems to just stem from carelessness or the writer not paying attention to the rules of the language. It frustrates me too sometimes. I probably wouldn't call those posts that you shared "cringe-worthy", but it seems a little odd for them to be so casual when it was clearly stated how important college-level writing was for grading purposes.

Whenever I get annoyed by bad syntax, I try to change my mood to simply being amused. I like editing, so I mentally mark up the text with cross-outs and added punctuation as neatly as possible. Then it becomes a bit more of a game, and I stop minding so much that someone didn't pay attention to their sentence structure. Keep in mind that getting worked up about another person's deficits is ultimately much more detrimental for you, because while you get heated, they might not know / probably won't care / almost definitely won't change. I know that that isn't terribly helpful, but it's a good thing to rationally consider.

Being a good writer is a great skill to have, though, for sure.
 
sunflower18 said:
Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are important to me too. I know some people aren't native speakers, are dyslexic, or have other sorts of problems that impinge their abilities to be literate, and that is totally understandable. However, most of the poor writing that I see seems to just stem from carelessness or the writer not paying attention to the rules of the language. It frustrates me too sometimes. I probably wouldn't call those posts that you shared "cringe-worthy", but it seems a little odd for them to be so casual when it was clearly stated how important college-level writing was for grading purposes.

Whenever I get annoyed by bad syntax, I try to change my mood to simply being amused. I like editing, so I mentally mark up the text with cross-outs and added punctuation as neatly as possible. Then it becomes a bit more of a game, and I stop minding so much that someone didn't pay attention to their sentence structure. Keep in mind that getting worked up about another person's deficits is ultimately much more detrimental for you, because while you get heated, they might not know / probably won't care / almost definitely won't change. I know that that isn't terribly helpful, but it's a good thing to rationally consider.

Being a good writer is a great skill to have, though, for sure.
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its not like they're talking in ebonics... They just don't care. And you shouldn't care that they don't care.
 
Writing is both an acquired skill and an innate talent. Only a few people have both the aptitude and dedication required to write well, which also happens to mean few people can correctly judge others' writing. After years of lenient grading and an utter lack of instruction in style in secondary school, the chances of a person's writing being up to snuff when compared to professionals are quite low. Still, if you were to compare these students' posts to a random sampling on the internet, the difference would be apparent. In their professional lives, these students will be held back by their writing only if their bosses are both capable and interested enough to notice errors - an unlikely scenario, even in medicine.

In fact, chances are that a good writer will be incorrectly criticized by a less capable boss. For over a decade, now, I've written and edited lesson plans, IEPs, and other student assessments for my mother's special education classes, and the number of incorrect corrections is astounding. This is probably attributable to managers needing to maintain the illusion of usefulness; I need only look at finalized and approved work by other teachers for proof. Writing in business and the professions also demands compromising work with needless and stupid jargon. All in all, if you're cringing now, prepare for a lifetime of pain.
 
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OCDOCDOCD said:
Neither look terrible to me TBH. Both are pretty typical of informal internet typing, which isn't completely unexpected when the professor is just asking a casual "tell us a bit about yourself" question. Now if they wrote like that in a paper or personal statement, then it would be pretty bad. However, it still would be far from the worst I've seen. I've read other students' papers in the past and it made me wonder how some of those people managed to get through high school, much less into college. We're talking mistakes like systematically writing "wood" instead of "would" here, not just forgetting to capitalize "I" or screwing up there/their/they're.
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I literally laughed at this.

Is that bad? Judgmental?

It's not so much a niggle as it is a pepper en da spot.

I love nonsensical musings. Wood you like a coffee?

Best,
C
 
Holy FranZ said:
its not like they're talking in ebonics... They just don't care. And you shouldn't care that they don't care.
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I don't care at all. Sorry for the misinterpretation. Those samples were fine, in my opinion. I said exactly what you did -- that their grammar probably doesn't matter to them, so it shouldn't to the reader either. I just provided some ideas for calming down the irritation. That's all! 🙂
 
well, while we're judging people on the basis of forum postings...at best you're insensitive, you definitely have poor judgment, & you may be unethical. I'd rather have a colleague who doesn't write maturely.

What made you think it was OK to post the identifiable work of these *pre-med* students on a totally public *pre-med* forum they might use? Whether online or in a classroom, classes are educational because they offer a forum for correction & teaching moments rather than shame when a student makes a mistake. Now would be an appropriate time for you to start acting professionally--respecting your colleagues, being sensitive to people's feelings, & practicing some humility.

You didn't feel comfy posting your own submission here. Imagine how you'd feel if you came to SDN & someone had posted it to mock or put down.
 
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pietachok said:
well, while we're judging people on the basis of forum postings...at best you're insensitive, you definitely have poor judgment, & you may be unethical. I'd rather have a colleague who doesn't write maturely.

What made you think it was OK to post the identifiable work of these *pre-med* students on a totally public *pre-med* forum they might use? Whether online or in a classroom, classes are educational because they offer a forum for correction & teaching moments rather than shame when a student makes a mistake. Now would be an appropriate time for you to start acting professionally--respecting your colleagues, being sensitive to people's feelings, & practicing some humility.

You didn't feel comfy posting your own submission here. Imagine how you'd feel if you came to SDN & someone had posted it to mock or put down.
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Amazingly well said. Spot on.

Shame on the OP for starting this thread, violating the academic privacy of others, and not presenting their own work. Shame on the pre-meds in this thread for validating and condoning this behavior.

Awesome pietachok
 
Grammar is important in the work and academic environment. NOT SDN. You are taking it too far if you discredit posts because of a few typos.

And even in the case of "introducing yourself" or whatever, grammar doesn't really matter. Judging grammatical skills in a social environment is condescending.
 
PanicMoon said:
Ugh, nevermind.

...I don't take it lightly when people take their education for granted. I think that's a somewhat valid pet peeve.

...Iwas very surprised to see that sort of carelessness from fellow premeds.

...Sorry, can't hear any of you over the sound of how hypocritical you're being.
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People ask for advice & guidance frequently on SDN. When self help is truly the focus, a hypothetical suffices without using other students actual work. Other posters responded as if you used an unflattering snapshot to represent them -- we all misgauge things sometimes (& perhaps write too casually on a class bio), & frankly it sucks to think our peers are using those moments to embarrass us. When you were earning the 1.8 sGPA you've previously bemoaned, perhaps your classmates at the time weren't too pleased with your contributions to the course & wondered how you could be so "careless" ... different people have different life circumstances. Maybe those students are ESL, maybe they come from backgrounds where nobody cared enough about education for them to know their writing was unusually casual, or maybe they also had a bipolar parent who interfered with schoolwork such that they wrote their blurb in 30 seconds on an iPhone.

Does it speak to the same concern about your personality when you erase all your prior posts & call posters (who gave valid opinions) self-righteous hipocrits instead of taking the comments to heart or acknowledging you did something inappropriate? Do you really want to present yourself, a future doctor, as someone who neither admits mistakes nor really listens to others valid input when it's hard to hear?
 
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PanicMoon said:
These responses are hilarious. Truly, they are. While most other people were either fairly ambivalent or mildly sarcastic, this takes it to a whole different level.

I did realize after some time to reflect that what I posted probably crossed the line a little & that my feelings were mostly redirected anxieties over starting school again along with what I had expressed initially, which was disappointment, in that I wasn't really connecting with the 1st couple of premeds with whom I shared a class.

When I went to modify the post, I saw those gems of replies & it's quite unfortunate that that sort of attitude is prevalent in these forums. A mistake was made & instead of replying tactfully, people go into full-on personal attack mode. There are a lot of nice & supportive members on these forums, but there are enough people that seriously need to tone it down & make the experience quite unpleasant.

Seriously? You went out of their way to scrounge through the forums after I deleting my posts to start to make an exit from this community to try to find "ammo" against me? No, I'm not embarrassed that I had to drop out of my 1st attempt at college & I am certainly not embarrassed by the fact that my mother is mentally ill. Why should I be & what would make you think that trying to bring up those unfortunate aspects of my life is in anyway applicable to this situation? As a future doctor yourself, how do you justify being petty & vindictive to a complete stranger over something in which you have no personal stake? Take some of your own advice, for real. Had you taken the time to properly read what I had written, you would have know that neither of my classmates really had any "excuse" for their poor work. I actually did PM both of them asking if they had read the directions & received snotty replies from them both.

With that being said, I don't really think these forums are the right place for me. It was a learning experience & I definitely benefited from it at times, but it's become more of a source of tension since people tend to act out online in ways they never would in person. I have enough real-world support that it really makes no sense to continue on in something completely optional where the annoyances outweigh its potential resources. There are other avenues in which I can seek out what I need that suit me much better.

Anyway, thanks to the couple of people who were civil in this thread & good luck to you all. Some of you are gonna need it 😛
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Your use of "&" instead of "and" is making me cringe :scared:
 
person crying about others being judgment for being judgmental...priceless

nice aptitude for writing
 
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