Do you judge people by their spelling?
- Thread starter the27thvoice
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I don't dismiss everything people have to say because of a typo, but if someone consistently misspells commonly known words, then I begin to wonder how intelligent they are. Not that English is the only language in the world, but I would also expect people from France to spell French words correctly. I usually try to help people who seem to have trouble with spelling, because they may not know the correct spelling. Often I have noticed people who are bad spellers are those who slacked off in school or even dropped out. Dyslexia has nothing to do with it, because dyslexia is doing it backwards. It's easy to tell when someone has dyslexia as opposed to bad spelling. Dyslexia is a disorder. I even have that at times. For me, I misspell a lot while typing, but I constantly proofread what I am writing and fix it as I go along. I am just rather skilled at spelling and grammar usage myself, so I suppose I want to help those who are not.
Not if they have dyslexia. If it is a well thought out point that they are trying to make then I can overlook spelling and grammar errors. No-one is perfect after all. However, if it is someone trolling and saying something completely unrelated to the topi, then I will disregard their post.
I tend to disreguard people who constantly use "U","R", use the word "There" for every word that sounds like there, or abuse the term lol or noob.
One thing that bothers me the most, is when people type very long sentences with little to no punctuation at all. No quotes, commas, periods, anything. Just a continuous stream of uselessness and bad spelling.
One thing that bothers me the most, is when people type very long sentences with little to no punctuation at all. No quotes, commas, periods, anything. Just a continuous stream of uselessness and bad spelling.
yes and no. No, because some people don't exactly speak english well or have time to recheck their stuff. Yes, because 1: isn't there a line of red dots underneath all misspelled words? (to accidentally prove my point, I spelt misspelled wrong, and it told me so).
Of course this doesn't count for the idiots wh0 t@lk l1k3 tHi$. That just gets on my nerves and does make me judge you.
Of course this doesn't count for the idiots wh0 t@lk l1k3 tHi$. That just gets on my nerves and does make me judge you.
No. Friend of mine majoring in Biomedical Engineering has always had horrible spelling (to a degree) and handwriting. He has a fairly above average vocabulary, higher when concerning engineering and other lexicon- he just can't spell words very well. But what does that really matter? He's good at what he's interested in, what he's putting his time into and I generally see him as being far more intelligent in maths than I am- what do I care if he misspells things from time to time.
I just debated this with a friend and he ended up writing a post about it. I hope it's okay if I post it here. I think he captured it really well: http://wordsanonymous.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/298/
Depends on the situation, really. Everyone makes the occasional typo, and it's usually fairly easy to spot the wonky grammar that can come with speaking English as a second language, so obviously I let that go, as well. (I mean, honestly, how many of us would do half as well if we had to post coherently in something other than our native tongue?)
But it's also usually pretty easy to spot those folks who simply don't care enough to try and be correct. And those people, I simply have no time for. Admittedly, my chosen profession makes me more sensitive to how language is treated, but if you can't be arsed to respect the words, I can't be arsed to bother with you.
But it's also usually pretty easy to spot those folks who simply don't care enough to try and be correct. And those people, I simply have no time for. Admittedly, my chosen profession makes me more sensitive to how language is treated, but if you can't be arsed to respect the words, I can't be arsed to bother with you.
Love the P.S.the27thvoice said:
I understand that quite a bit of the Escapist demographic are younger than I am, but I speak to everyone, except small children, as though they are adults. There's no reason to treat anyone any differently because your interactions with them are online. If you and I were speaking in person and you continually mispronounced things, didn't know of any of the concepts I mentioned, and failed to grasp some of the basic concepts when I explained them, I would not think you are very intelligent. Therefore, when I meet a person online who can't spell, doesn't know how to punctuate, frequently misuses words and argues against concepts that I'm not even postulating because of their inability to grasp basic English, I don't presume they are very intelligent.
Now, some people on here have after a heated debate called my corrections to their spelling cheap shots, claiming that English is not their first language. To this I have two answers. 1. Why are you really going after an argument if you're not even sure what you and the other person are asserting? 2. I don't speak or write much Spanish. At all. I can't follow a conversation on a Spanish soap opera. But when I do write/type something in Spanish, to be cute or whatever, I use the knowledge I have of the rules of the language to figure out if I'm spelling it right or using the correct syntax, and if I don't, guess what? I'm on the web, and there's another tab right there in the upper-right-hand corner that I can use to find out, so that all the Latin and Spanish-speaking people don't think that I'm a fool having a Mom-and-Dad-stick-this-on-the-fridge moment.
Context clues. The information you already have in your head about the language. This isn't hard. You're telling people something about yourself when you take the time to make a statement but don't take the time to make it sound like it came from an intelligent person. You may not even be telling others that you are stupid, but that you are lazy. And it's a super-easy fix.
Also, intentional misspelling isn't cute or clever, at all.
Yes, really.
I think that this is about right.Sober Thal said:
On the one hand, I won't completely and utterly dismiss someone who doesn't employ high-level of spelling/writing/vocabulary skills (especially on the internet).
On the other hand, there is a direct relationship between how well something is written and the time and attention I give it when reading it. I believe that's there's nothing wrong with this.
After all, in the world of spoken communication, let's say you have 1) a well-spoken person who expresses their ideas clearly and 2) a person who constantly uses slang and vernacular and doesn't necessarily express their ideas clearly.
Most of the time, especially if you're wanting to discuss a subject intelligently, you'd much rather talk with person #1. On the other hand, if it's just a casual conversation, you may want to talk with person #2, especially if their slang and vernacular is the same as your own.
I realize that I picked two polar opposites for my example, but you see my point. In the end, whether it's spoken or written, proper language expression IS important. Just how important it is varies depending the subject. It also varies depending on the people involved; some value proper language expression more than others.
Take me for instance. I value it a lot. Then again, I'm a English teacher who proofreads his forum posts and sends grammatically correct text messages. I don't look down on those who don't express themselves the way I do, but I do tend to assume that those who strive to express themselves well will contribute more to an intelligent discussion.
Not really. Errors like that are tame to me.
It's only when they spell a word in a way to completely mangle it that I might do so... Like "gorjus." Stuff like that makes my eyes bleed and it's hard to pay attention or read 'cause it'll drive me effing mad.
It's only when they spell a word in a way to completely mangle it that I might do so... Like "gorjus." Stuff like that makes my eyes bleed and it's hard to pay attention or read 'cause it'll drive me effing mad.
I will never ENTIRELY dismiss them unless the content of the posts themselves are stupid, but to me, it surely devalues anything that they have to say. I try to be courteous in my replies to them, but it still irks me that they misspell simple things, or things that the BROWSER says is spelled wrong. Though I don't know if other browsers do that or not...
*ahem*
Anyways, like I said, not totally dismiss, but it takes a few points off of their validity.
*ahem*
Anyways, like I said, not totally dismiss, but it takes a few points off of their validity.
Yes. I can't help it. The odd spelling mistake is fine; everybody presses an incorrect key now and then. However, if people can't be bothered to press the shift key to capitalise letters or actually look at what they're typing, or consistently make no effort to even try and spell correctly, then why should I be bothered to put effort into reading their post when they clearly put no effort in constructing it?
Besides which, experience has taught me that bad spelling is almost universally a good indicator of content.
And I'm a dyslexic person saying this. If I put effort into spelling correctly, then what excuse do others have?
Besides which, experience has taught me that bad spelling is almost universally a good indicator of content.
And I'm a dyslexic person saying this. If I put effort into spelling correctly, then what excuse do others have?
Yes I do, I admit it. Like most people have been saying, I won't care about the occasional typo or grammatical error, but constant really poor spelling/grammar or, especially, txt spk (spit) really bugs me and tells me this person isn't worth dealing with.
Also People Who Capitalise The First Letter Of Every Word, It's Incredibly Annoying. Where the hell did this come from and why are people doing it?
Also People Who Capitalise The First Letter Of Every Word, It's Incredibly Annoying. Where the hell did this come from and why are people doing it?
I notice spelling/grammatical errors, but forgive them if they appear to be the odd typo, non-native English speaker/writer, etc. Granted, it does surprise me that in the era of spellcheckers people aren't more careful - I'm far from perfect when it comes to spelling, but I can at least be bothered to hit F7 before firing off an email or comment, ESPECIALLY when I'm trying to prove a point. Still, simple mistakes can be made and ought to be forgiven...
I think context and tone are what matter more. What gets me is are the haughty dissertations that are filled with typos. Someone making a long "nyah-nyah, I'm the smartest person in the room because I like Thing X, and you're stupid for liking Thing Y" rant. (It amazes me you can take the time to edit a 7 minute YouTube clip, but it never dawned on you to run your text through a word processor?) These fools don't realize it totally takes the wind out of their argument.
I think context and tone are what matter more. What gets me is are the haughty dissertations that are filled with typos. Someone making a long "nyah-nyah, I'm the smartest person in the room because I like Thing X, and you're stupid for liking Thing Y" rant. (It amazes me you can take the time to edit a 7 minute YouTube clip, but it never dawned on you to run your text through a word processor?) These fools don't realize it totally takes the wind out of their argument.