Other people's procedural knowledge gaps

NancyLebovitz

There's been a recent heavily upvoted and profusely commented post about things people want to learn. It's close to having so many comments in a single day that it should probably have a part 2.

However, the subject seems to inspire thoughts about what *other* people ought to know, and while that's got a good bit of overlap, it's emotionally rather different.

So, what do you think other people ought to know? Any theories about why they haven't learned it already? Any experience with getting someone else to learn something when it started out as your project rather than theirs, especially if the other person was an adult?

There's been a recent heavily upvoted and profusely commented post about things people want to learn. It's close to having so many comments in a single day that it should probably have a part 2.

However, the subject seems to inspire thoughts about what *other* people ought to know, and while that's got a good bit of overlap, it's emotionally rather different.

English speakers ought to know that its is the possessive adjective and it's is the contraction for 'it is'. It drives me crazy when people use it's to mean its, and I do not understand why they do it. Do people not learn how to write by reading? (I certainly did, and I don't see how else you could do it, but I realise I'm somewhat abnormal.) Or is the incorrect use of it's so ubiquitous now that even if people learn to write by reading, unless they read mostly stuff more than ten years old they aren't being exposed to a data set from which they can infer the correct rule? Or is it more a question of being published on paper than of age? And incidentally, does anyone know if schools have stopped teaching this and similar rules? (And if so, why?)

ETA: At least two people downvoted this, so perhaps I should make the following two points more explicit.

My comment was not intended to be censorious in tone (and rereading it I still don't think it is). The bulk of what I wrote takes the form of wondering about the cause of this, to me particularly irritating, phenomenon. (Thanks to Vladimir M, I am a little less confused now.)
The reason why I find the phenomenon so irritating is primarily that I value my ability to effortlessly produce correct grammar, spelling, etc., and seeing the same mistake consistently a large enough fraction of the time bollixes up my machinery, tending to decrease the effortlessness with which I can perform correctly. Also, I fear that others are subject to the same effect, and that there could be a threshold of criticality, and even that that threshold may already have been reached. So it's a (fairly minor) group rationality issue.

The error that bothers me the most is using "loose" to mean "lose".

4paulfchristiano15y

I agree that grammar presents a minor group rationality problem. I disagree about what the problem is. The distinction between its and it's does nothing to improve writing, either in terms of clarity or in terms of expressiveness. Reserving "their" for the plural possessive complicates writing and adds nothing. A broad class of grammatical rules fall into one of these classes. Wasting education time on these rules (I would estimate that I've spent at least 10 hours on clearly useless grammar in school) and using them as a status indicator seems like destructive behavior that should be corrected. People who make the error may have simply spent less time in their lives thinking about the distinction, which as far as I can is probably better for everybody. If you don't understand how the error can even happen, as opposed to why people don't learn to correct it, then I think the issue is the variety of human brains (or else a failure of introspection). Personally, I get information from my thoughts to my hands by reciting; the natural failure mode is to switch between homophones freely. The difference between its and it's is an even easier substitution than most (although I believe I generally write the correct one).

1wedrifid15y

Because it is one of the most grating flaws in the language. Whether I say its or Clippy's when trying to indicate ownership depends on whether I wish to use its name or be generic. The ad hoc rules of grammar that we use are a kludgy hack and this is the most annoying kludge. I personally choose to use the prescribed grammar. Defection would be pointless. Yet while I am usually rather particular when it comes to spelling and grammar this is one instance in which I have more respect for those who use "it's" in error than those who indicate contempt for and incomprehension of those who do not understand the mistake.

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Other people's procedural knowledge gaps

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Other people's procedural knowledge gaps

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