Starred in Thursday, February 02, 2006
"Its" hard to tolerate
When I was a super senior (my second senior year, for those of you not hip to that colloquialism), I had a part-time job working for University Housing. I worked in the marketing office (I even had the title "Marketing Specialist"), but my job was primarily web programming. I had some larger projects, but there were a lot of little random things that always needed doing. I'd crack open Photoshop or Illustrator and make little graphics or have to throw some "copy" up on a page.
I had to do a lot of proofreading too--try to catch obvious mistakes from getting up on the site (bad) or going off to the printers (really bad). This wasn't anything I saw as out of the ordinary. I had to write a lot in college.
I was a triple major, so, every semester, I had some combination of political science, economics, and computer science classes. At the end of the term, I'd have CS projects due, then I'd have to shift gears entirely and pump out a paper or seven.
I am, now, a bona fide software engineer. I go to work and I work with other software engineers. They talk to me. They send me e-mails. They send me IMs. They write comments in their code. And I'm constantly correcting their spelling and grammar. It drives me nuts.
For a lot of engineers, it's apathetic ignorance. Other than variable and method names, spelling doesn't matter in programming. I realize now that not everybody had to write extensively in college. That's kind of foreign concept to me.
Sometimes, I'm worried that I'm pushing the boundary of becoming a grammar nazi. I can't really tell if my coworkers' patience is wearing thin.
My interest in writing grammatically is appearance. Subconsciously or not, I know I judge a person's intelligence by his or her writing. Good word usage, flow, spelling, and grammar all convey to me that the person on the other end isn't a moron. As I don't want to appear a moron, I make a point of being careful when writing.
But a lot of the really crappy prose I get from people at work is from very smart people. I'm still getting over this fact.
This, I guess, is what happens when you turn a BA into an engineer.
I had to do a lot of proofreading too--try to catch obvious mistakes from getting up on the site (bad) or going off to the printers (really bad). This wasn't anything I saw as out of the ordinary. I had to write a lot in college.
I was a triple major, so, every semester, I had some combination of political science, economics, and computer science classes. At the end of the term, I'd have CS projects due, then I'd have to shift gears entirely and pump out a paper or seven.
I am, now, a bona fide software engineer. I go to work and I work with other software engineers. They talk to me. They send me e-mails. They send me IMs. They write comments in their code. And I'm constantly correcting their spelling and grammar. It drives me nuts.
For a lot of engineers, it's apathetic ignorance. Other than variable and method names, spelling doesn't matter in programming. I realize now that not everybody had to write extensively in college. That's kind of foreign concept to me.
Sometimes, I'm worried that I'm pushing the boundary of becoming a grammar nazi. I can't really tell if my coworkers' patience is wearing thin.
My interest in writing grammatically is appearance. Subconsciously or not, I know I judge a person's intelligence by his or her writing. Good word usage, flow, spelling, and grammar all convey to me that the person on the other end isn't a moron. As I don't want to appear a moron, I make a point of being careful when writing.
But a lot of the really crappy prose I get from people at work is from very smart people. I'm still getting over this fact.
This, I guess, is what happens when you turn a BA into an engineer.
posted at 1:04 AM 
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Yea well their just trying to do there job. May be its alright for u to corect them some times but to much nagging will negitively effect you're working relationships!!
# posted by 
: 2:02 AM
: 2:02 AM Bad spelling/grammar/syntax drives me nuts, too. I don't expect people to write beautifully...but correctly would be nice.
interesting ... a comment referencing your entry about incorrect grammar exemplifies, erm, incorrect grammar. :)
Can you put it behind with the prioritization cliche of "choose your battles"?
Would you mind telling me that question mark should be before the quote?
Are you simply annoyed at their grammar and spelling or do you want to reach over and strangle them in the hubristic amalgomem of over personified, self directing, gratuitous over abundance of the conversation tone?
How can you tolerate the blogosphere?
Bask in the glowering power of Dogma 2k. Start, and end, here.
Would you mind telling me that question mark should be before the quote?
Are you simply annoyed at their grammar and spelling or do you want to reach over and strangle them in the hubristic amalgomem of over personified, self directing, gratuitous over abundance of the conversation tone?
How can you tolerate the blogosphere?
Bask in the glowering power of Dogma 2k. Start, and end, here.
(psst... I think that was purposeful)
yes, i know ... that's what i was alluding to. however, i may have been too subtle. :)
yes, i know ... that's what i was alluding to. however, i may have been too subtle. :)
You once told me you were the only person there with a BA.
I always new you could code, but welcome to the industreealized version of "software engineering"
And I'm sorry for making you cringe for my mispeling and not good use of grammar ;-)
-Webb
I always new you could code, but welcome to the industreealized version of "software engineering"
And I'm sorry for making you cringe for my mispeling and not good use of grammar ;-)
-Webb
# posted by : 2:05 AM
: 2:05 AM I read part of the post aloud to John because I thought it was funny. His response: "Wait wait wait--did you just say Nathan puts comments in his code?"
I reassured him that you were in fact referring to other software engineers.
P.S.--I do not like having my name forced into lowercase. Bad blogger.com.
I reassured him that you were in fact referring to other software engineers.
P.S.--I do not like having my name forced into lowercase. Bad blogger.com.
# posted by : 5:14 PM
: 5:14 PM I do, actually, put comments in my code. More than my teammates. It's becomes necessarry when the number of engineers becomes larger than two.
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