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Old 10-29-2013, 04:42 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,189 posts, read 84,024,464 times
Reputation: 114483

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Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke View Post
I find it rude. What the grammar and spelling police are saying is: stop the conversation and everybody focus on me while I point out how superior I am because I know how to spell "their" and use it correctly. Well, good for you. Good spelling and grammar will qualify you for a $10 an hour secretary job, but only if you can type 60 words per minute and know how to answer phones. Some people with spelling or grammar issues have disabilities. Some of them have a different language as their primary language. English might be their second, or third, or even fourth language. How rude you all are to think it is acceptable to publicly criticize someone with a disability. However, I do find it amusing that the majority of notes criticizing grammar contain grammar errors themselves. Self-righteousness is never adorable. Keep that in mind. Editing to mention, the above was written with paragraphs. The website removed the paragraphs that were there.
Well, ALL those people who spell and write so terribly can't have disabilities. It's an epidemic. Some people are just lazy, and some just don't care, and some are just outright defiant, saying "neh, neh, I'm special, I don't have to spell correctly because everything I say is so much more important than that." Thinking specifically re the last one of someone who was in a writing class with me. She would not check or correct her spelling because of her high and lofty view of herself as a superior writer and she said as much.

However, I almost always (there have been exceptions--one this week when I saw "whoa is me" for the third time and just couldn't help myself) refrain from pointing out grammar and spelling carelessness on forums like this because a) it's pointless--the person obviously doesn't care about such things or he or she would have fixed their own post in the first place, and b) it just doesn't matter that much. It's an Internet forum, not a business paper or a piece of writing to be critiqued.

If a post is unreadable and the person doesn't capitalize or use punctuation or is one of those who bizarrely delights in tossing random apostrophes into plurals, I just don't read the post and move on.

You are correct in that it's often about "I am right and you are stupid". So, for those of us who DO care--we have a place on City-Data where we go to discuss all this amongst ourselves.
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Old 10-29-2013, 08:11 PM
 
3,463 posts, read 5,635,821 times
Reputation: 7218
It's pedant and annoying. It's an internet forum. It's a few minutes of relaxation -- Not work or a job application. The seriousness of it is commensurate with the amount of time spent checking spelling. If someone needs to take time out of their life that they will never get back to point out something so trivial, I think that time would be better spent contemplating the issues that compel them to do so
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Old 10-29-2013, 08:49 PM
 
Location: Illinois
4,751 posts, read 5,412,881 times
Reputation: 12999
Let me clarify that I'm not only talking about errors on C-D. They are seen everywhere, from Facebook to advertising signs.

When I went back to college as a 32 year old I was *shocked* at the lack of knowledge among my fellow students, and this was for papers and essays being typed on programs with spell check and grammar check built right in! It is the height of laziness if you can't be bothered to check a word that has the squiggly red line right there pointing it out to you.

I am NOT talking about people who have disabilities or are new to English. However, I am potentially going to be an ESL teacher and let me tell you, my students will know the differences between your and you're, there, their, and there, etc.
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Old 10-29-2013, 09:25 PM
 
Location: Illinois
4,751 posts, read 5,412,881 times
Reputation: 12999
Here is an example of virtually unintelligible writing I just found on FB:

"Yea my husband and i have been thinking about headin south fer a vacate, when he gets his ssi settlement, dad got one, big chunk, but yea i would defently do it again if i had the finances. right kno im on ssi fer adhd, could hold down a job cause no one had the patience."

I feel very sorry for this person if that is how she writes in her everyday life.
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Old 10-30-2013, 04:33 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,189 posts, read 84,024,464 times
Reputation: 114483
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoonBeam33 View Post
Let me clarify that I'm not only talking about errors on C-D. They are seen everywhere, from Facebook to advertising signs.

When I went back to college as a 32 year old I was *shocked* at the lack of knowledge among my fellow students, and this was for papers and essays being typed on programs with spell check and grammar check built right in! It is the height of laziness if you can't be bothered to check a word that has the squiggly red line right there pointing it out to you.

I am NOT talking about people who have disabilities or are new to English. However, I am potentially going to be an ESL teacher and let me tell you, my students will know the differences between your and you're, there, their, and there, etc.
I work with documents and I am sometimes shocked at our LAWYERS' inabilities to spell and write correctly.

As I said, we have a place on the CD Writing forum where we complain about this and sometimes have a few laughs--not just about CD posts, but about spelling and grammar errors and horrors we encounter in the real world. Visit the I Can't Take It Anymore thread sometimes--hours of entertainment.

One of the worst that annoyed me was at Whole Foods--snobby, upscale, overpriced food store, and there, hanging from the ceiling in the supplements and vitamins area is an expensive, manufactured sign proclaiming that their associates can offer advise on what to buy.

I pointed it out to the cashier when I paid for what I bought, but he just looked at the sign and then back at me bewildered and confused as to what I was talking about. I meant to write to the manager, but I didn't do it.

I also can't believe how many errors I find on restaurant menus. This is the first impression a patron gets of your establishment--and you could not be bothered to proofread the damn thing before you had it printed and put to use in your restaurant? What mistakes are you going to allow with my food?
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Old 10-30-2013, 04:49 PM
 
204 posts, read 349,523 times
Reputation: 143
I've always been a good speller but my grammar hasn't been up to par, that was until I started reading again on a weekly basis. If one would just read a little each day and focus on the grammar as well as the story it won't be too long before we have more grammar police around. Feels good not being referred to as a illiterate moron anymore
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Old 11-01-2013, 09:09 AM
 
16,376 posts, read 22,386,094 times
Reputation: 14396
Even today when I used the phrase "couldn't have cared less", I mentally thank the person that corrected my grammer (on a forum) when I incorrectly said "could have cared less".
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Old 11-01-2013, 10:18 AM
 
Location: Currently living in Reddit
5,652 posts, read 6,953,482 times
Reputation: 7323
Americans in general tacitly approve of everything being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Idiocracy is a reality.

The "grammar police" will come to realize they are no more effective than the Maginot Line and they will loose.








Spoiler
(waiting for the "I see what you did there")
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Old 11-01-2013, 10:26 AM
 
Location: Pueblo - Colorado's Second City
12,259 posts, read 24,378,209 times
Reputation: 4395
I am the worst speller and fully admit it. My spelling is so bad that at times even spell check cant figure out the right word. Now when I am texting someone or engaged in a good conversation and they constantly bring up my spelling that I already admitted is bad does get annoying. Its not like I am writing a formal paper where I am going to spend hours going over my spelling and grammar so I am like build a bridge and get over it.

BTW Hooked on phonics does NOT work!
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Old 11-01-2013, 10:38 AM
 
Location: Native of Any Beach/FL
35,384 posts, read 20,762,276 times
Reputation: 14141
Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke View Post
I find it rude. What the grammar and spelling police are saying is: stop the conversation and everybody focus on me while I point out how superior I am because I know how to spell "their" and use it correctly. Well, good for you. Good spelling and grammar will qualify you for a $10 an hour secretary job, but only if you can type 60 words per minute and know how to answer phones. Some people with spelling or grammar issues have disabilities. Some of them have a different language as their primary language. English might be their second, or third, or even fourth language. How rude you all are to think it is acceptable to publicly criticize someone with a disability. However, I do find it amusing that the majority of notes criticizing grammar contain grammar errors themselves. Self-righteousness is never adorable. Keep that in mind. Editing to mention, the above was written with paragraphs. The website removed the paragraphs that were there.
I agree_ I post when working and some times do not have time to checkspell when I gotta to get back to work on something- and at home my PC doesn't have spell check and Iusually post between jobs, and always rushing- so who cares, its just a forum?? Read it don't read it up to you-- but you are not my parent, teacher, or employer and I do know how to spell,,, but not a great typer... that is what is different---and forget Iphones... the have a mind of their own.
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