Quote:
Originally Posted by Zach O
The grammar errors have never made a difference to me, since these improper terms have become the standard in FIRST. Teams "graciously accept" other teams, and alliance selection students say "we" would like to select, as opposed to "I" would like to select (I say "we" because although I am selecting a team, I am representing the whole team and the selections of the whole team, not myself). In fact, it's always weird to me when someone switches from the usual (unspoken but agreed upon) vernacular for FIRST robotics alliance selections.
I think as long as people are acting professional on the field during selections, it doesn't matter what adjective you use to accept.
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Ur rite. It's jst lk txtN. evry1 dz it, so it's fyn. It's nt lk Ull 4gt h2 typ lk a norml pRsN, amirite?*
The point is that using poor grammar is habit forming, and thus a bad idea. If you don't try
and use proper grammar all the time, you're going to get sloppy and sound foolish.
If the "and" I bolded up there sounds normal to you, you've already succumbed to an extraordinarily common mangling of English that still doesn't make sense to me.
So, back on point, "graciously accept" or, heaven forfend, "graciously invite" is a ridiculously bad usage. In the former you sound like a high-society blowhard that's kindly doing a team a favor by accepting their invitation. In the latter, you sound like a high-society blowhard that's doing a team a huge favor by oh so kindly stooping to lift them up out of their poverty and offer them the enormous opportunity of working with your team. This is seriously what you sound like to any person that speaks proper English.
Yes, I know, "but we all know what it means". Which is true for someone in the FIRST culture. In case you haven't noticed, we're trying to change the rest of the culture to bring more people in. Sounding like a high-society snob is not conducive to this.
And I pity the kids that this becomes ingrained in. I shudder to imagine them "graciously accepting" a college's admission acceptance. "Graciously inviting" friends, parents, or their
teachers to their graduations. "Graciously accepting" job interview offers. Or client invites. Or bid opportunities. Or proposals. Hopefully not the Pulitzer Prize, though. I fear that they will wander through life never understanding why people around them give them funny looks every time the word "gracious" passes their lips.
*Yes, I found an english to text translator for this.