Importance of Grammar/Spelling

[Dog Moon]

Here's a question for everyone, which I was thinking about when reading some posts by several different people. I have noticed that if someone makes a post in which they are either bad with grammar or spelling, someone nearly always points it out. I'm not just talking about a single spelling error or anything cause we all make mistakes, but like an entire post of them.

As you [hopefully] notice, my grammar and spelling isn't too bad [except I keep wanting to spell grammar as grammer and keep having to go back and edit that word], but I also write a lot and feel that both is important and I kind of habitually work on correcting my mistakes as I write. I cringe when I see people with HORRIBLE grammar, but even then I don't always say anything, although sometimes because other people beat me to it or because I just don't care enough.

How important is grammar/spelling to you, either when posting yourself or when reading other peoples' posts? Good spelling and grammar can certainly make reading a post easier, but ignoring that, does it bother you to see other people write poorly?

 

[Henry]

A certain minimum amount is necessary to me; if I cannot understand what someone is trying to write, then I ignore the post completely. Common mistakes include:

--All one HUGE unbroken paragraph;
--run-on sentences;
--sentence fragments;
--misspelled words where orv ffit precnt of teh wrdo si mispslleled;
--making the words and background almost the same color.

All of these will cause me to gloss over a post without comment.

The only time I am a grammar Nazi is when someone is critizing small spelling errors of another poster. I am also far less critical if the poster is obviously not a native English speaker, but is making a good effort, and get peeved when I see people who are raking them over the coals.

 

[mojo1701]

I wince whenever someone substitutes "your" for "you're." It's just not right.

 

[kenobi65]

I'll second Henry's post. I'm not a zealot about spelling or grammar (though I hate rampant misuse), but the bigger issue is when the spelling, grammar, or other posting peculiarities make it difficult to read the post.

 

[loki44]

my grammar and spelling isn't too bad

Aren't they?

I also write a lot and feel that both is important

Yes, they are.

 

[Marius Delphus]

If you don't type a post in which you can make yourself understood, it doesn't matter how creative, innovative, intelligent, or whatever you are; your ideas won't flow into other people's minds, and your incisive, insightful, mind-expanding points will be ignored (or worse, misunderstood). [EDIT: It's that way with questions too. Nobody can helpfully answer a query they don't comprehend.] To me, that's just the way it is in a medium where typed words are your only way of communicating.

So I'm with Henry. I try never to post merely to point out someone else's typing, spelling, grammar, usage, punctuation, or other mistakes of written English (though I seem to recall mentioning once or twice in the distant past that a particular post was hard to understand). Here on a message board, it's less about using correct English (American, British, International, whatever), per se, than it is about being legible. Turns out part of my *job* is correcting, editing, and retooling people's writing, so I'm not about to spend much effort on it during "me time" (unless that's what I feel like doing, as with the personal-use-only rules manual I'm compiling for the Pirates "constructible" game... I mean, I realize it's hard to get a complete strategy game on two sides of a 6x9 piece of paper, I understand that, but REALLY!).

Ahem, I mean, sure I groan when I see "per say" or "wa la" for "per se" or "voila" (or the latest head-exploder: "vice" for "versus"... don't get me started)... et cetera... but that doesn't mean I take the opportunity to rub my hands gleefully and prepare an inflammatory response; that's going too far, I think. Quite the contrary: I ignore it and move on. If the rest of the post is incomprehensible, I ignore the entire thing. It may be a failing of mine, but I think it's a common one: if it doesn't look worth the effort, I tend not to spend any....

 

[Psionicist]

I usually don't notice grammatical errors if the spelling and punctuation is correct. This is especially a bad habit because it's my grammar I need to improve. So... I appreciate reading grammatically correct posts. Makes it harder to learn incorrect usage if anything.

Speaking of grammar I've noticed far more native English speakers mix up their/there, its/it's and you're/your than non native speakers. There ARE more awkward parts of the language IMHO, such as who/which/that. (On the other hand, native Swedes often mix up they/them in Swedish but never in English, weird).

I guess I'm happy as long as the post is comprehensible and not written like an IM-message.

 

[Dog Moon]

Originally posted by loki44

Originally Posted by Dog_Moon2003
my grammar and spelling isn't too bad

Aren't they?

Heh. I figured I'd made a mistake somewhere and somehow I KNEW that it would be pointed out though only because of the topic. But you still understood what I said, so I could be doing MUCH worse.

 

[Spell]

to me, being a non native speaker, good grammar and spelling are dead importnat. i made a lot of effort to learn your language, and i don't want to get bad habits out of people's ignorance or laziness.

besides, i think that having good writing skills (in any language) is still the key that opens many doors. not as many as it did a hundred years ago, maybe, but if you can actually spell and write correctly, people take your points much more seriously, both in a internet forum and in real life.
sad, maybe, but true.

 

[diaglo]

i cringe all day long while i'm on the computer reading message boards.

rouge/rogue
grammar/grammer
your/you're
its/it's

to whom it may concern,

i guess i was brought up to correct the mistakes i make in my writing. besides, we do have an edit button.