Can't you cut people some slack when it comes to spelling, grammar and punctuation?

[The Iron Ninja]

haven't had anyone call me out on spelling or grammar yet (allthough I'm kind of asking for it now that I've said this). I don't think it's too much to ask for people to check their spelling at least a little bit, If I post something and notice I mispelled something or left out a word by mistake, I edit the damn thing and fix it. pretty simple really. Oh and I don't even try to use words that I don't know how to spell (like Tchaikovsky, oh wait... I guess I can spell that)

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

Damage control. Stop the small mistakes now, they wont grow into larger ones because the person will make an effort to look over their posts before posting them.

Brilliance. Now tell me the one about how if we take 1 step on the slippery slope, we'll slide all the way down.

 

[BardSeed]

I'm not American, I'm British (but I don't see what that has to do with anything) and I don't use Firefox because I can't. Also I'm talking about intellectual snobbery not social snobbery. Assuming you're British you know that grammar is very rarely tought at our schools; I only learnt about comparatives and superlatives from French lessons.

Firefox uses American spellings; the Americans tend to use the letter Z instead of an S quite frequently. I am British and I agree that our education system is poor, unless you're paying of course but that's another rant.
I like your user-name.

 

[Larenxis]

I think this isn't looking at the whole picture. To give an example, PurpleRain, pretty much the most popular forumgoer, consistently spells it 'medicle' (as well as many other typos) but he goes about things in an intelligent manner, so nobody minds. If the post as a whole has a good point and is conveyed with an intent to be legible, I don't think anyone calls out poor spellers. The only times people are called out for spelling that I've noticed is when the post is either copiously misspelled or there's a delightful malapropism just waiting to be exploited.

 

[Susan Arendt]

There are some folks who point out others' mistakes simply to make themselves feel superior, and you'll find those people in virtually any online environment. Everyone makes mistakes, typos are a sign of being human, and not everyone heeds every last rule of grammar. Nor should they.

That said, when the grammar and spelling of your post breaks down to the point that the reader has to struggle to understand your meaning, you're due for some criticism. When the only communication you have with an audience is the written word, it behooves you to make an effort to communicate your thoughts clearly and well.

Also, "u suk" and other such shortcuts simply make you appear lazy and careless. If you're texting on a phone, that's one thing (though I don't like it then, either), but if you're at a computer keyboard there's simply no need for that kind of shortcut.

 

[D2wontdie]

has anyone ever thought that current language is devolving into a slur of a few reused words

 

[zirnitra]

I'm not American, I'm British (but I don't see what that has to do with anything) and I don't use Firefox because I can't. Also I'm talking about intellectual snobbery not social snobbery. Assuming you're British you know that grammar is very rarely tought at our schools; I only learnt about comparatives and superlatives from French lessons.

Firefox uses American spellings; the Americans tend to use the letter Z instead of an S quite frequently. I am British and I agree that our education system is poor, unless you're paying of course but that's another rant.
I like your user-name.

I use an English dictionary app on my firefox. and I'm sorry but having gone from private to mainstream education I can tell you that the British education system is fantastic, more and more private schools are shutting down all the time from lack of business. I mean to be fair my school was rated something like 15th in the country but I think it provided a fantastic education and did teach grammar, hence one of the reason grammar is required in exams in England.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I use an English dictionary app on my firefox.

Which one? I can't find one that works with 3.0.1.

 

[BardSeed]

I'm not American, I'm British (but I don't see what that has to do with anything) and I don't use Firefox because I can't. Also I'm talking about intellectual snobbery not social snobbery. Assuming you're British you know that grammar is very rarely tought at our schools; I only learnt about comparatives and superlatives from French lessons.

Firefox uses American spellings; the Americans tend to use the letter Z instead of an S quite frequently. I am British and I agree that our education system is poor, unless you're paying of course but that's another rant.
I like your user-name.

I use an English dictionary app on my firefox. and I'm sorry but having gone from private to mainstream education I can tell you that the British education system is fantastic, more and more private schools are shutting down all the time from lack of business. I mean to be fair my school was rated something like 15th in the country but I think it provided a fantastic education and did teach grammar, hence one of the reason grammar is required in exams in England.

Don't praise anything the government does, ever! The British education system is so great that after Blair praised it he sent his own kids to a private school. I didn't go to a high-ranking school but I was top set in everything but maths(set 2). The top set wasn't too bad but everything below it was 60%-70% crowd control with the remainder being teaching, poorly in some cases.

 

[afrophysics]

I completely agree with the people who say that lazy shortcuts and illegible posts aren't acceptable, and I am actually pleasantly surprised at the amount of people who agree with me here about the accidental mispellings.

has anyone ever thought that current language is devolving into a slur of a few reused words

I don't, I think our vocabulary is expanding, although some new words I dislike (such as "tanorexic"- It doesn't make sense!) are a bit stupid and others (such as lol) are overused, but I still don't think it's devolving.

I'm not American, I'm British (but I don't see what that has to do with anything) and I don't use Firefox because I can't. Also I'm talking about intellectual snobbery not social snobbery. Assuming you're British you know that grammar is very rarely tought at our schools; I only learnt about comparatives and superlatives from French lessons.

Firefox uses American spellings; the Americans tend to use the letter Z instead of an S quite frequently. I am British and I agree that our education system is poor, unless you're paying of course but that's another rant.
I like your user-name.

I don't actually think the British education is poor, it just is lacking in some aspects. Although like zirnitra I go to a pretty good school (A grammar school, not a private school) so I can't really make a fair comment of schools in general.

Damage control. Stop the small mistakes now, they wont grow into larger ones because the person will make an effort to look over their posts before posting them.

Brilliance. Now tell me the one about how if we take 1 step on the slippery slope, we'll slide all the way down.

Thank you, it's a similiar argument people here use to complain about immigration. I don't think that the allowance of small mistakes leads to a complete ignoration of basic rules of grammar.

 

[zirnitra]

I use an English dictionary app on my firefox.

Which one? I can't find one that works with 3.0.1.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3366 this is it I do not know if it works with 3.0.1. though because I don't know how up to date my version is.

 

[Shivari]

As someone who has quoted someone's post and then bolded mistakes to correct them, it's a mixture of two things. Now if you spell one or two things wrong in a longer post, I can tolerate that, it happens. But if someone consistently spells words wrong or it's just something that they should really be doing right (misusing then or than being an example) I'll call them out.

But really spelling and grammar are just a huge pet peeves of mine.

 

[BardSeed]

Most schools are, probably, going to be more like mine than both of yours if you went to high-ranking schools. My school isn't terrible, some of the departments do well, I believe. Our budget is so tight that the sixth form have to share a single computer that, regularly, has a broken mouse or missing keys. The teachers rarely get a chance to do their job and there are large number of people in the UK that come out of secondary school who can hardly read.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Well at least no one "tlks lyk dis" on here.
I'm forever correcting my friends.
But yeah, no one is perfect.

 

[blarggles]

Do not mind the odd grammatical error. Or Spelling mistake. However if text speak and words like "Dat" etc are used. Then I get somewhat annoyed. On the forums I moderate they get a PM with the message.

I make mistakes and do not use full correct grammar in my posts but I try to make it easy to read and digest. As I do not want to have to go back and proof read all my posts.

"(Quote of original post)

If you can not even be bothered to try and use language we can understand easily. Then I can not be bothered to have your post taking up site bandwidth and my time trying to translate it. As a result your post has been deleted.

Please feel free to continue posting however just have the common decency to make it legible for all. Not all of us want to spend 10 minutes translating it and inducing a migraine in an attempt to work out what you were trying to say."

And normally you get 1 of 2 replies either they apologise and improve their grammar. Or they go off at me and I get to ban them. Either way it is a win, win situation as I just love the ban button.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I use an English dictionary app on my firefox.

Which one? I can't find one that works with 3.0.1.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3366 this is it I do not know if it works with 3.0.1. though because I don't know how up to date my version is.

Just visit the Firefox site and download the latest version, you'll keep all your bookmarks and settings, methinks.

 

[Radelaide]

It's just a common courtesy really. I mean, you get marked down in essay and assignment writing if "u spel evrythin liek dis". Plus, you look like an idiot when you write like that. If you can write properly on assignments, why not do it in everything? It's really good practice.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

We only get pissed off if there's a lot of mistakes.

 

[afrophysics]

It's just a common courtesy really. I mean, you get marked down in essay and assignment writing if "u spel evrythin liek dis". Plus, you look like an idiot when you write like that. If you can write properly on assignments, why not do it in everything? It's really good practice.

You seem to be missing my point a bit, I meant small, unintenional mistakes. An example, a recent one, is this
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.69507.662220

 

[Radelaide]

It's just a common courtesy really. I mean, you get marked down in essay and assignment writing if "u spel evrythin liek dis". Plus, you look like an idiot when you write like that. If you can write properly on assignments, why not do it in everything? It's really good practice.

You seem to be missing my point a bit, I meant small, unintenional mistakes. An example, a recent one, is this
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.69507.662220

I'm not missing your point. I'm making my own. And I don't see the point of that link. Like I said, trying to watch your writing and improve your grammar, spelling and punctuation is good practise.