Importance of Grammar/Spelling

[Jdvn1]

I think both are important and expect myself to get it right all the time, but I hold very, very few people to that standard. I have a threshold for bad grammar/spelling.

 

[Bront]

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.

I'll admit that not only is my spelling generaly bad, but I'll be one of the guys pointing it out.

In my defense, I usually point it out when it's generaly something funny, and that's about it.

Now, I've seen generaly fairly good grammar and spelling on this board. Other boards.... well... at least even the worst offenders here are generaly understandable.

 

[Dingleberry]

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.

To me, it's all about this part of Henry's post - whether native speaker or not. I think effort = respect. If someone isn't making an effort to use correct grammar and spelling, I feel that the person isn't treating the intended audience with respect. It certainly doesn't have to be perfect, but if you spell the same word right once and wrong four different ways in the same post, it means you aren't trying - especially since you're already on the Internet, which has a wealth of ridiculously easy ways to check grammar and spelling. If you don't know how to spell or say something correctly, take the seven seconds to look it up. If you don't, you're effectively telling your audience (you know, the people you want to read and respond to your post) that they're not worth the effort, so you're shifting the burden of making your communication understandable to them.

 

[johnsemlak]

Being a teacher of English to foreigners I'm conditioned to accept a certain amount of mistakes from people who write or speak to me, so that makes me rather tolerant of mistakes. In my profession we're real big on teaching people to express themselves effectively, and not worry about getting every grammar detail correct.

Plus, what is and isn't 'correct' English is often less clear than it seems, particularly issues like who/whom, If it was.../If it were..., data is/are etc. Add to that all the different variations of English found on these boards. Finally, with all the non-native speakers (a few who probably write better than most natives), I think people really should be tolerant of grammar and spelling mistakes by default.

 

[CronoDekar]

Certain errors make me cringe a little, particularly loose for lose, but for the most part it really doesn't bug me. Partially it's because sometimes I will misspell something like there/their/they're, even though I know the difference. (Sometimes I've even typed .orgy when I meant to type .org -- and no I haven't found any new interesting sites that way.) As long as I don't have to make an effort to understand what is being said, it doesn't bother me (when it's a native speaker talking, anyway).

Though as to another point brought up in the thread, when typing in chat I'll rarely use capitalization or periods -- it's just too informal of a medium for me to worry about it all too much. But I won't type in urlol speak.

 

[Wormwood]

Certain errors make me cringe a little, particularly loose for lose, but for the most part it really doesn't bug me.

The following spelling errors make baby wormwood cry:

loose/lose
rouge/rogue
cannon/canon

Buy a dictionary already*.

*Of course, if English is not your primary language you are excempt from my scorn and mockery.

 

[Abisashi]

IM speak baffles me, as it just takes too much effort for me to not capitalize my words, or spell out "to," or end a sentence with a punctuation mark. It's just so basic that it pisses me off when I see other people doing it, because it smacks of ignorance.

I agree completely.

 

[diaglo]

Being a teacher of English to foreigners I'm conditioned to accepted a...

there is always room to improve and learn.

Woe is I by Patricia T. O'Conner
and Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

both prove that alot of people feel this way. Eats Shoots & Leaves was a number 1 bestseller for almost an entire year in the UK.

 

[ForceUser]

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.

Do you have a shift key? Because your eschewment of capital letters drives me absolutely bonkers.

 

[nerfherder]

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

Same here.

If it's basically legible with a few mistakes, then I have no problem.

If I have to put in the work to figure out what is meant, then I'll just skip on to the next post. Again, no problem for me.

Cheers,
Liam