Jacob Rees-mogg’s grammar lesson counters sloppy teaching standards
SIR – Castigation of Jacob Rees-mogg for daring to issue a list of banned terms to his staff (report, July 27) comes from the usual quarters.
In 2013, aged 75, I went back to university with some trepidation, expecting that I would not be able to keep up with the bright young things.
My interview put my fears to rest. My interviewer told me: “We don’t accept ‘stream of consciousness’ here.” I asked what he meant. He explained: “Essays without punctuation.” I asked if it was true that students submitted work without punctuation. He nodded: “All the time. State schools no longer teach formal English grammar.”
At university, I found that academic standards had plummeted since my first time as a student. It explains why I graduated in 2016 with a First.
Mr Rees-mogg is attempting to restore the standard of written English by ridding it of the sloppiness that has crept in unchecked by a hard-left teaching establishment.
Moya St Leger
St Margarets, Middlesex
SIR – Oh, Jacob, what have you done? Go for it, but now there will be hundreds of letters to the Telegraph.
Anyway, on your list of banned words please include, going forward, in actual fact and future plans. But it would help the scientific community, where for many years now SI (metric) units have been the norm, if imperial units were restricted to bananas, milk and so on.
K Dawson
Alton, Hampshire
SIR – Another word for the Rees-mogg banned-wagon: inappropriate.
Joseph B Fox
Redhill, Surrey
SIR – Could he add the difference between floor and ground, lie and lay ?
Mary Bailey
Stonyhurst, Lancashire
SIR – I fear Mr Rees-mogg’s attempt to revive the word esquire is rather pedantic.
Originally denoting a youth preparing for service as a knight, it was used later to identify a gentleman without a title. It is now a recondite and rather class-ridden appendage.
Tom Bliss
Sleaford, Lincolnshire
SIR – Jacob Rees-mogg Esq seems to refer to Members of Parliament as M.P.S. Are they not Ms. P.?
Mark Rayner
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
SIR – Jacob Rees-mogg Esq twice used the phrase sort of in your interview. Tut, tut.
C J Fletcher
Stanton St John, Oxfordshire
SIR – How wonderful to see a Spode cup and saucer sitting proudly on Mr Rees-mogg’s desk.
Perhaps, when Brexit is done, this new optimistic government will look to revitalising our once proud pottery industry.
Avril Wright
Snettisham, Norfolk