International students HAVE better english.

I have noticed that the grammar on these sites is not at all good. I posted a question myself, and apparently it is the same on other sites as well.

English speakers get careless and don’t care. Speakers of other languages who are learning english try harder, and as a result are more likely to speak better english

I agree with xeon. We just had a Spanish student for a month and we talked about how he was learning grammar — by the book vs. by TV or blogs. I’m a technical writer (sometimes) and appalled at the decline in American, Irish, and British English. We are accepting poor grammar whereas the students of ESL (English as a second language) mainly speak/write the language in a classroom – where they must get it right. It’s amazing because English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Our rules have more exceptions than fashion trends. Vocabulary alone has tremendous variations and dialects.

I realize that the Yahoo format certainly doesn’t require proper grammar or even spelling. I enjoy that sometimes. However, it is ironic that you are asking a question on the topic while not using good grammar yourself. I’m risking your vote by pointing it out, but ignoring it would perpetuate the problem…don’t you agree?

With your permission, I’ll offer a bit of knowledge. Oh! I should admit. I’m still a horrible speller, so I rely on spell checks a lot. It’s a constant embarrassment. But, I’m very good at grammar rules! So then, “international” should be capitalized as the beginning of the sentence. Your verb should be the plural form “have” to match the plural subject “students”. English is a language and should always be capitalized. You have 2 periods after English. Could be a mistake or you might have intended an ellipse (three dots meaning a brief pause) before “why”. If you were starting another sentence, you should capitalize “why”. You may want to punctuate with an exclamation mark after “God” (3 points for capitalizing that). It isn’t a complete sentence, but allowed as an exclamation. You have a spelling error in “tis”…should be “this”. And finally, you need a period at the end.

Hope I haven’t offended, but rather illustrated your point? If you’re still in school, pay attention to your teacher’s marks? You WILL benefit in the work world for having good communication skills. Even though we have grammar check and spell check in many applications, your productivity and reputation will certainly benefit from being a good communicator in this age of information and communication.

Again, I apologize for the terse nature of my reply and do hope the international students’ abilities are a motivation for your own growth.