Traditionally, the teacher of rhetoric (spoken or written) trained students
in elegance and style as well as correctness.  Now, with down and dirty,
bottom line jargon taking over as lingua Franca, we are called upon as
grammarians to teach our elementary, secondary, and collegiate writing
students the "elegance and style" inherent in such elements as the
subjunctive; that it is courteous to place ourselves last in a series; that
orderliness emerges from using the appropriate case for pronouns.  The rest
of the English-speaking world's dependence upon monosyllables, monocases,
and monomeaning, shouldn't stop our encouragement of language elaborations
that "delight and instruct."

Keep teaching the subjunctive.  Keep reminding students that "their" is
better used as a plural. Tell them where commas belong and where they don't
belong. Then, they will be able to write effectively and creatively even if
they choose not to.

Jeff Glauner
Associate Professor of English
Park University, Box 1303
8700 River Park Drive
Parkville MO 64152
[log in to unmask]
http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm