Reply to High school science teacher suggests grammatically incorrect title on paper

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is not a big deal.  Don't make it one.  Tell you daughter to talk to the teacher and take a dictionary with her.  I would suggest a "puzzled" approach.[/quote]

[b]All due respect, I am raising a young woman. I am teaching her to assert herself. Politely and with civility, yes. But never to act confused or deferential when she knows she is right. Pretending to be puzzled is an offensive suggestion.[/b][/quote]

I'm puzzled as to how the teacher could think "affect" is correct.[/quote]

I'm puzzled why people think a student should [b]act dumb[/b] just to spare a teacher their feelings. Do you think the teacher was thinking about the student's feelings when they crossed out the correct word to scribble the wrong word on the student's paper?[/quote]

That's a good point...but going all assertive and challenging is not always the best strategy in a situation where there is a power imbalance. For example, how do you correct your boss at work? In school, this is pretty much the same thing. You don't have to "act dumb"--but you don't have to act as though you think the teacher is an idiot either, because that will not help the student--male or female!

You might say "Ms. Smith, I double-checked this one and it turns out 'effect' with an 'e' is definitely correct here, but I made the other changes you suggested. Thanks for your help." But you wouldn't say "I didn't change 'effect' because it was right the first time, Ms. Smith!" It's a matter of delivery that allows the "superior" to save face.[/quote]

That's ridiculous. I would absolutely say "I didn't change 'effect' because it was actually correct. Effect with an 'e' is the noun, affect with an 'a' is the verb." and I would encourage my children to do the same thing. You don't need to rub it in, but you also don't need to act dumb. Being respectful is not the same as being a sycophant.

[b]And to the person above claiming that scientists have poor grammar, that's also ridiculous. Plenty of scientists have poor grammar because plenty of [i]people[/i] have poor grammar.[/b] Obviously most scientists didn't get into the field as a result of their love of writing, but they should still have half a brain and be able to figure out the correct usage of a 6 letter word that, as a PP pointed out, is actually used in a scientific context all the time. I have a STEM PhD and I know the difference between affect and effect, and I'd expect my colleagues to have a decent handle on it too.[/quote]

+10000

-STEM person 
[/quote]

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