Speling, Gramer, and juts bad writting: A rant.

[Bitter Jeweler]

So, I have a question.

How many people here judge others by their writing skills?
You know, if it looks like an idiot...

 

[SCraig]

So, I have a question.

How many people here judge others by their writing skills?
You know, if it looks like an idiot...

I'm afraid that I do to a certain extent. I'm willing to change that judgement as I learn more about them, but as a first impression poor writing skills on a public forum do give a poor impression.

 

[12sndsgood]

It is like anything else. If you go to someone in the right way it can have an effect on them. A few months ago I reveived a P.M. from a memeber here who mentioned something about my grammer and punctuation and that if I wanted to be seen as a professional I should work on it, It wasn't mean, he\she didn't call me out in a post, it was done in a helpful manner, and since then I have tried to look at what I'm typing out and make more of an effort into what I post. I still have a long way to go because years of not really caring become hard to break out of. It was lazyness plain and simple.

 

[sm4him]

So, I have a question.

How many people here judge others by their writing skills?
You know, if it looks like an idiot...

Guilty as charged.

But, as SCraig said, I do sometimes change that opinion over time.
Very, VERY rarely. Because, generally speaking, if they sound like an idiot...

 

[Alex_B]

So, I have a question.

How many people here judge others by their writing skills?
You know, if it looks like an idiot...

I would distinguish diffferent cases:

1.) I cannot understand what he or she writes, as the writing is totally messed up, or at least it needs more energy to decipher than I am willing to invest.
Then I will ignore the person and not judge it at all.

2.) If the writing contains many typos, this might be annoying, but I would not judge the person. Typos can stem from either an "I do not care" attitude, or from typing in a hurry. The latter sometimes cannot be avoided and happens to myself often.

3.) If the writing is corrupted in a way that looks like the writer does not understand the language although he had all chances to learn, then I have to confess I do judge ...

4.) I have a strong opinion regarding text message style and gangsta talk on a forum. Then the most positive action would be ignoring that person. The only exception might be if the writer is 12 years old or younger.

5.) I know some people who are really challenged / disabled with respect to spelling. If they write in a corrupted way, that is OK for me. They have no chance to improve. But they are normally easy to identify, since the content of their writing will be intelligent and just the outer shell of spelling rules is broken.

 

[yerlem]

Let it go. It annoys the hell out of me to

*too

I know I am guilty of that sometiems

*sometimes

This is one of the things about the internet that really annoys me but what can you do?

[...]annoys me, but what can you do?.


J/K you guys! I, as a non-native speaker, tend to make mistakes, but I really try not to. I'm a grammar nazi in Spanish

You should read this (as well as the entire blog, but this one link in particular):

Hyperbole and a Half: The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

 

[KenC]

Non-native speakers (like myself ) should be "allowed" a higher failure rate regarding language. However, as stated above, in the given example www and mobile phone shortcode plus youngster-language result in maximum annoyance.

Actually, for me this is simply hard to read sometimes.

Personally I wish most Americans spelled and wrote as well as you do.

It seems to me that in many cases non-native speakers tend to be more careful with their grammar and spelling so there is no excuse for those of us to whom it is a native language. I've seen some, particularly on another forum, that I honestly could not read. It wasn't that they were HARD to read, I honestly could not understand what they were saying. It is embarrassing to admit that some of these people live in the same country as I do and had the same educational opportunities as I did.

This is sadly true. At one time I was doing some teaching and found that the foreign-born students often made mistakes in grammar or spelling, but I was able to understand what they were saying because they had expressed a coherent thought. Some (but by no means all, or even most) of the native-born students gave me stuff so jumbled I couldn't understand it at all, even if there were relatively few grammar/spelling errors.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

It is like anything else. If you go to someone in the right way it can have an effect on them. A few months ago I reveived a P.M. from a memeber here who mentioned something about my grammer and punctuation and that if I wanted to be seen as a professional I should work on it, It wasn't mean, he\she didn't call me out in a post, it was done in a helpful manner, and since then I have tried to look at what I'm typing out and make more of an effort into what I post. I still have a long way to go because years of not really caring become hard to break out of. It was lazyness plain and simple.

I bet I know who PM'd you. LOL

 

[Ernicus]

I think it's a matter of laziness at times. Which I am guilty of. I am not that interested in reviewing and proofreading what I put up on the net, unless I am in an instructing position, or trying to get a valid point across.

However, when the red line pops up showing my fingers moved faster than my brain, as I type about 80 wpm, then I will right click and correct it.

One pet peeve of mine is grammar and basic paragraph composition. I hate long run on paragraphs and the inability to assess what the hell the person is trying to say. Those times I do judge a bit as I think to myself "what the hell would a real conversation be like with this person?".

I am also guilty of writing a sentence or two then spacing to another sentence, much like I have done here. Traditionally, if people see long paragraphs...they instantly skip over them, as readers are lazy as well. This way it is not overwhelming and things usually are read.

I am also guilty of using commas and ... mid sentence a lot, to break up my thoughts. My brain has so many thoughts at once that I often even sidetrack myself. lol.

 

[Ernicus]

NEED HELP TO DICICED

I wanna get a nikon d3200 duty idk if I should is it a good camara I'm moving from a coolpox p500

you fail before sucsess

For many people, English is not their first language. For others, dyslexia and other issues may present challenges. I understand we all have differences in education. Some things cannot be helped, and that's okay.

But, then there is the post above. It's recent and I'm not identifying the poster; it doesn't matter who wrote it or what it was about. What does matter is how ubiquitous such poor writing is on this forum. We have a spell checker that tells you when a word is misspelled. There is Google. There is the whole goddamm internet! Is it so difficult to use these resources? I even thought this post might be a troll, but it's just too horrible.

And how does one screw up his/her own signature? That takes time and thought and it appears below every post. "You fail before sucsess" You don't say!

:facepalm:

It is funny that you quoted that thread entry, I almost replied with "you fail at spell-check"; but I didn't want to be a dick. I had to tell myself no about three times. lol. It's hard, for me anyway, to not reply to such things...how are you supposed to be taken seriously if you truly have a serious question when you post jumble as such?

 

[TamiAz]

I've never understood these types of posts...:scratch: There are people from all over the world that post on here and English is not their first language. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and not get my panties in a bunch. Even though it's the internet, there is a human being on the other side with feelings and I don't see the need to make someone feel like sh*it for something so trivial. Just my .02.

 

[HughGuessWho]

I couldn't care less about any of it. This is a photography forum, for those interested in photography to have an informal virtual dialog and conversation about photography and and related interests. In addition to the fact that I dont feel that it is my place or right to judge anyone for anything.
It is annoying when you cannot understand what the poster is even saying, but, if that's the case, I just move on. No need for a grammar lesson or lashing from me for poor spelling or grammar.
Anyone who feels so compelled, should look in the mirror and correct all of their issues before judging others.
Just my opinion.
**steps off of soap box**

 

[Stradawhovious]

So, I have a question.

How many people here judge others by their writing skills?
You know, if it looks like an idiot...

Eye due.



My oldest kid likes to text message as a main form of communication. I have had to take some pretty drastic measures to make sure he is using correct grammar, and spelling out his words.

There was a time when all of his messages looked like this "Ru cmg hme erly 2day? can u get sda?" Drove me up the wall.

If he sends me a text (and it is always him asking for something) and the words aren't correctly spelled out (i.e. "you" instead of "u" etc.) and he isn't using proper punctuation and grammar, the answer to whatever question he has will automatically be "no". Period. That has nipped that little habit in the bud, and his texts (to me anyways) are now spelled out, clear and appropriate.

As far as other people I don't have any authority over..... I can understand the occasional misspelled word, hell I'm as guilty as the rest. It's the blatant laziness of some of these posts that irk me. The constant misspelled words, the inappropriate abbreviations, the lack of proper punctuation and capitalization.......

It sets the bar pretty low for humanity as far as I'm concerned. What does it say about you when you aren't willing to take the time to clearly communicate with your peers? Don't get me wrong. It's not my place to try to correct this behavior in random intrawebz strangers.... but it certainly does help me form an opinion about them.

What can I say? I'm shallow like that.

ETA, this above post doesn't apply to ESL folks that are trying to succesfully communicate, to the best of their ability, with those who have English as a first language.

 

[tmjjk]

I am an editor by vocation, so I feel your pain. However, I discovered long, long ago that my Grammar Police badge simply doesn't command the authority that I think it should.

It is not just THIS forum; the internet is a haven for editorial laziness and ignorance. But we--the few, the educated, the grammar police--are simply not likely to change this.

What is way more disheartening to me is to see the way our youth write these days, and what English teachers are allowing!
I blame it all on the elimination of sentence diagramming in our schools.

Anyway, here's what I do:
--If I think there is any chance that English is not their first language, or they have some sort of disability, I overlook it.
--If I think perhaps they are posting from their phone, I overlook it (but think to myself, self--this is why one should not post comments from one's phone).
--If I think it is an unusually egregious misuse of the language, AND I think that the individual is usually more editorially precise, then I might point out the error.
--If I find the error particularly humorous, then I put my "snarky" hat on and have fun with it.
--If I think the poster is just a sloppy, lazy, editorial ignoramus then I also assume that they will not care nor change their ways if I point out their errors, so I simply ignore them.

And finally:
--I try to remember that in a forum such as this, grammar need not be as precise or accurate as it should be for a paper. This is a relaxed, casual atmosphere and people are going to type the way they might talk to each other. I do the same thing, using ellipses and run-on sentences and phrases that I would NEVER use in writing.
--I also try to remember that if you choose to point out other people's misuse of the English language, you are putting a target on your back to get attacked the next time YOU make a mistake.

Just grit your teeth and IGNORE the OP. And be thankful that YOUR momma raised you better.

I think Vacation is spelled with an A....
Sorry I couldn't help myself.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Dude.

ETA is Estimated Time of Arrival.

Get your acronyms right!