another day another dollar

I met with a new student last week He is not dyslexic but does have a disability. He needed some support with his dissertation. We did a couple of hours last week looking at the literature review which was the main problem. We discussed this together through a self reflective learning session and reached an agreement on what needed he needed to do and stratagies for doing it. Then I basically showed him a couple of times what he needed to do. We then we did a bit more of the work together and finally I let him carry on with it himself to show me he understood what I was asking hime to do. At the end of his session we set his goals for the next support session.

Today he came back looking much happier. He had achieved the goals set and his literature review is much better. One more happy student for me more to the point a happier student.

I have the form to fill in for the Ignite Programme when I get home. It has to be completed and handed back tomorrow so time is tight. Its when I have to react to events that the dyslexia issues impact. I will not have time to plan as well as I would like. I don't have nearly enough time to proof read as I would like.

On the plus side I do have everything there in my head that I need to write, all the ideas are there and that is a very big plus side.

I have a linked in account and am a member of a number of groups there. I found a discussion about writing funding bids and letters etc. One person was harping on about correct grammar and how it irked him when bids and letters were not written in a queens english style. A few contributors admited they just discarded out of hand anything they felt didn't conform to their standards of english.

I read this with dismay because it is so short sighted and discriminatory. Now I understand the need to have writing standards and the need to communicate ideas on funding bids as clearly possible. But english grammar is a specialist subject on its own and at a rough guess about 90% of the population do not know the exact ins and outs of english grammar.

Seems crazy to me to think that some funders will potentially accetp a poor idea for funding bid on the basis it uses a level of english grammar they see as acceptible. On the other hand they could potentially turn down a great idea because of issues with grammar and correct usage queens english that meets their personal standards.

I have written many funding bids, some successful some not, and each one has taken a lot of work on my part. To think someone might discard my bid in such a cavalier fashion gets on my threpenny bits.