...picked up a USA today and saw this. One in 20 Americans 16 years of age and older do not have the ability to read, comprehend, and write elementary English. Only 13% were able to compare viewpoints in two editorials or compare the per-ounce price on two cans of soup.

When I think about it though, I honestly believe that this may be a conservative number. Am I the only one who thinks that eleven million adults not being able to read is a major problem?

12/16/2005 11:58:55 PM

well, to be fair, that number includes people who are fluent in Spanish or another language but not English...

12/17/2005 12:00:24 AM

Quote :

"One in 20 adults lack basic English skills"

Quote :

"picked up a USA today "

12/17/2005 12:12:48 AM

r u 4 real?

12/17/2005 12:21:53 AM

the number has got to be higher than one in 20

[Edited on December 17, 2005 at 12:25 AM. Reason : especially in one-language households]

12/17/2005 12:24:06 AM

^yeah, that stat seems pretty generous, not even accounting for literate people who just don't speak english

12/17/2005 12:35:36 AM

writing properly will be a fine art in 20 years.

I guarantee it.

12/17/2005 1:00:50 AM

Shouldn't that say "lacks"? Or am I the one in twenty?

[Edited on December 17, 2005 at 2:50 AM. Reason : "does"?]

12/17/2005 2:49:00 AM

Well, there are 11,000,000 illegal immigrants in the US.

"U.S. authorities estimate there are about 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States, about half of whom are Mexican."
--http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3531388.html

The original post says "One in 20 Americans," though, so perhaps the research USA Today is citing only counted actual citizens and not the numerous people who are here illegally, therefore likely from a non-english speaking country (not to mention a poor one where many people won't even be able to write/read their own language let alone English). Or, perhaps the researchers didn't bother asking that, and USA Today just assumed that they were "Americans," i.e. born, raised, and educated here.

My guess is the latter.

12/17/2005 3:03:27 AM

you know... a 95% literacy rate, historically, is pretty fucking awesome...

seriously...

(just a little perspective)

12/17/2005 8:29:29 AM

shake that laffy taffy

12/17/2005 12:10:45 PM

The literacy bit is not as big of a deal to me as...

Quote :

"Only 13% were able to compare viewpoints in two editorials or compare the per-ounce price on two cans of soup."

WHAT... THE... FUCK?

12/17/2005 12:14:02 PM

my post was convoluted and phrased badly

by "one-language household" i was trying to reference people that only speak english

[Edited on December 17, 2005 at 12:37 PM. Reason : i think the post itself might be ironic, but i don't know what that word means anymore]

12/17/2005 12:17:37 PM

i coulda told you that by reading tww. i would have put the percentage higher though.

12/17/2005 12:34:21 PM

when I read the article two days ago it said that the number was likely inflated. thats my piece

12/17/2005 12:37:22 PM

^^ the tww percentage is probably somewhere closer to 50%.

12/17/2005 12:43:39 PM

Compared to a lot of message boards, this site is a fucking training ground for future Pulitzer-prize-winning authors.

12/17/2005 2:34:02 PM

^ dats da trufe

12/17/2005 4:56:24 PM

yeps, I's agrees

12/17/2005 4:58:47 PM

I could probably fail their second test. I have no idea how many ounces in a fucking pint, or what is quart a quarter of, or why in the fuck can't Americans measure things in (kilo)gramms like everybody else?

12/17/2005 6:10:11 PM

5 Top Mispronunciations by President Bush in 2004

1. a-MERR-ca a-MER-i-ca (America)
2. NEW-cue-ler NEW-clee-er (nuclear)
3. JU-ler-ee JU-wel-ree (jewelry)
4. Anzar Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar
5. Ne-VAH-duh Ne-VAE-duh) (Nevada)

12/17/2005 6:12:37 PM

Quote :

"I could probably fail their second test. I have no idea how many ounces in a fucking pint, or what is quart a quarter of, or why in the fuck can't Americans measure things in (kilo)gramms like everybody else?"

I think you misundertood what they meant. They were asking people to determine the cheaper can of soup if you had like a $1.49 12oz can versus a $2.69 24oz can (or something along those lines)

12/17/2005 7:08:19 PM

well price per ounce is on most grocery store labels. perhaps they just asked, which one is more by looking at these items and labels.

12/17/2005 7:38:22 PM

only 1 out of 5 has them on tww...

[Edited on December 17, 2005 at 7:43 PM. Reason : ]

12/17/2005 7:43:24 PM

Quote :

"Shouldn't that say "lacks"? Or am I the one in twenty?"

20.

12/18/2005 12:16:26 AM

"One ... lacks basic English skills"
you are completely correct Pupils. Good work!

12/18/2005 1:34:48 PM

i could be wrong here, but my thinking is that you could also construe "one in 20" as an adverbial phrase describing how many adults, so "lack" could also be considered proper usage.

12/19/2005 4:06:52 AM

True, and if twenty means hundreds of thousands of Americans, then one would would represent thousands.

[Edited on December 19, 2005 at 8:42 AM. Reason : Just tryin to pwn myself.]

12/19/2005 8:41:39 AM

^^we have the winnar

12/19/2005 9:07:27 AM

is our children learning?

12/19/2005 10:16:07 AM

^^^^ LOL, yep in that sentence adults is the subject. The sentece "One in twenty adults lacks basic english skills" is not standard usage.

12/19/2005 1:11:21 PM

yay, i'm literate!

12/19/2005 5:08:47 PM

I'm not surprised

and its partially because some of you motherfuckers think my major is useless

12/20/2005 12:03:37 AM

I wouldn't be able to do my job if I couldn't write good.

12/20/2005 12:11:23 AM

12/20/2005 12:12:00 AM

Me fail English? That's unpossible!

12/20/2005 12:13:03 AM

Quote :

"one in six older teens and young adults lacks"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1952538

Quote :

"one in three low income adults lacks"

http://www.urban.org/publications/310668.html

Quote :

"One in four Dallas adults lacks"

[link]http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:CPgfXeJK4xAJ:http://www.lift-texas.org/2004/LuncheonNewsRelease9202004.pdf+%22adults+lacks%22&hl=en[/link]

Quote :

"one in five adults lacks"

[link]http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:Ycf84V576C8J:http://www.learningservices.org.uk/extras/brushing_up_skills.pdf+%22adults+lacks%22&hl=en[/link]

Quote :

"one in eight Maine adults lacks "

http://news.mainetoday.com/indepth/healthcare/morenews.shtml

12/20/2005 12:18:37 AM

And most news is written to what level of reading comprehension? If the number is 1 in 20, I'm sure a few journalists and editors are included in that.

12/20/2005 2:30:54 PM

Quote :

"5. Ne-VAH-duh Ne-VAE-duh) (Nevada)"

Who says Ne-VAE-duh?

12/20/2005 2:52:57 PM

^^^

Quote :

"One in 20 U.S. adults lack basic English skills"

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20051216/1a_bottomstrip16.art.htm

[Edited on December 20, 2005 at 6:25 PM. Reason : ^^^]

12/20/2005 6:24:50 PM