This NYTimes article presents research that attempts to establish that incompetent people are too incompetent to realize their incompetence. The authors note that those grammatically challenged\u00a0actually believe that they are good writers. Sometimes overall incompetence may be the answer, but there is another possible explanation for why incompetent writers think that they are doing so well. I posted the following response on the NYTimes Comment site. If we\u2019ve got some folks with authority and assumed competence telling students who are incompetent in grammar that they are \u201ccoming along\u201d \u201cimproving\u201d \u201cthat\u2019s better\u201d and everything else to encourage students by giving false praise, the idea of being competent to identify incompetence becomes more complex and perhaps circular. I would say that the authority figures who are giving this false praise are showing their incompetence and that the learners are simply and appropriately learning what they are being taught. But heck, that means that most of the teachers and leaders (us?) are the incompetent ones for saying what others want to hear without regard for the facts of the matter. How well will that fly with the power structure?<\/p>\n