[RANT]Is grammar something that only happens to other people?[/RANT]

climaxer

Pataman wrote:

Is there room for me on the soapbox also?
Nobody has mentioned the famous(infamous) Irishism of "I seen it" or "I done it". This sends me into orbit. i notice it all the time in conversation with people and now I notice it creeping into typing aswell.
While I am here, I also want to mention abbreviations/acromynms. I notice on boards there are LMFAO and ROFLMAO to mention but two. What the heck do these mean? Am I the only one who hates this practice?

Steps down from soapbox...

LMFAO - Laughing My F*cking Ass Off

ROFLMAO - Rolling On the Floor Laughing My Ass Off

IYKWIM - If You Know What I Mean

TBH - To Be Honest

IMO - In My Opinion

LOL - Laugh Out Loud

IRL - In Real Life

Dr. Loon

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

I can't understand the people who get annoyed by someone pointing out a grammatical error. What's wrong with that?

Nothing at all, but if while correcting you make a stupid mistake yourself then you just look like an idiot. So I reckon it's best off left alone unless the person you're correcting is making numerous ridiculous mistakes. Or just being irritating with text or l337 speak.

You can be sure that every single reply on this thread has been analysed by someone hoping to point out a mistake. If you were to point out every grammatical error on boards you'd be here a long time. Don't let it bother you too much.

DapperGent

Bad spelling/grammer doesn't bother me in the least.

I have never used the rep system to highlight errors of that nature.

Pataman

pickarooney wrote:

acrowhatnow?

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=795&dict=CALD

DEATHGIVER2003

HAY GUYZ! WATZ GOIN ONN N DIS TREAD??!?1one

DapperGent

cajun_tiger

i don't mind how people put the post's just as long as you can get the meaning.

Dr. Loon

Pataman, I think Pickarooney was pointing out the fact that you spelt acronym incorrectly up above!?

Kopf

Hobbes wrote:

You can't tell what age or nationality the person is. So to assume that your somehow better because someone forgets where to stick an apostrophe is petty.

It's nothing to do with being better than someone else - such punctuation as apostrophes is there to help with the flow of the sentence as one reads it... I find it really really headwrecking to read badly-written English.

"txtspeak" is the worst of the worst, those miserable little sh!ts should just learn to type once and for all.. or not write on the internet at all. But unfortunately neither is going to happen..

Pataman

Oops fingers don't always do what they are told

jor el

Oooh, my turn. Apart from all the txt spk and theyre they're etc, I'm usually pretty tolerant of spelling mistakes, since I'm not a great speller myself. However, one thing really gets to me, moreso at work than on the net, and that's typing the way you talk (usually combined with poor spelling and grammar).
Example: Quite often someone will send an email around to the group alias looking for a particular piece of equipment and more often than not it will start something like 'Can any of ye borrow me the ......' or 'Do any a yis know where ....'. I'd forgive the grammar on it's own but using non existent words in a group email that all the managers will see really doesn't paint you in a very good light. Just like using txt spk when you have a full keyboard at your disposal and no character limit, it makes you out to be a moron and often it's not worth trying to figure out what the person is trying to say. It seems that a lot of the people I work with now substitute ye or yis for the plural of you in emails, and is commonly combined with no capitalisation and no punctuation.
Ah, I feel better now, and before anyone nit picks this post I haven't spell checked it so there's bound to be mistakes.

Dr. Loon

I hate it when people don't use paragraphs.

fjon

I'm not going to join in condemning people for their choice of spelling on boards. I accept that there are a lot of people here who are 12-18 and are used to writing everything in txtspk. While it does influence what I think about the poster, it does not bother me a great deal.

What *does* annoy the hell out of me is when people make spelling/ grammar/ syntax errors in business emails or documents. I think an email with any spelling or (major) grammar looks incredibly unprofessional. Most email applications have spell checkers - USE THEM!

Alun

cajun_tiger wrote:

i don't mind how people put the post's just as long as you can get the meaning.

Writing is all about communicating ideas from your brain onto (virtual) paper and from there via the eyes of the reader to his brain. In order for a system such as this to function properly there need to be rules. These rules are what we call grammar, punctuation and spelling. Now luckily this is a fairly fault tolerant system, otherwise nobody would ever manage to communicate anything to anyone, but do not ignore the fact that the reader has to expend a finite amount of energy in order to correct any mistakes in the text and therefore understand it.

If I start to read a piece of text that is full of lazy spelling errors, bad grammar, has little or no punctuation and has seemingly been written by someone without a shift key on his or her keyboard, then I, and everyone else reading this pile of crap has to sit there puzzling about what the hell it's all about.

So please explain why I, and countless others should have to expend all this effort merely because the original poster can't be arsed to do it properly in the first place?

LegacyUser

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Okay, pedantic moment:

It really, really wrecks my head when I’m reading boards.ie and I come across some of the atrocious grammar, spelling and syntax that some boardsters use when they post.

It used to be the little things, like people mixing up ‘they’re’, ‘there’ and ‘their’, or ‘I wondered over to such and such’ instead of ‘wandered’.

I’m an editor, so perhaps this is why it bothers me – my eye automatically catches on mistakes in posts. I had come to the point where I could cope with occasional mistakes, but now it’s worse. Now people use text speak, e.g.

“dnt luk if ur not going 2 b nice”

That makes my head hurt. It literally makes it hurt. It makes me want to grab the illiterate sonofabitch and smack them. There should be 'crayon' font for people who can't write a simple sentence properly.

Is it just me?

Well if we could all spell words n' stuff and gramarise the right way you would be out of a job, cause judging by your post its not content you edit

Ciaran500

Capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse.." and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.."

Best example I've ever seen.

Waltons

I must admit that the amount of younger people using txtspeak now is annoying me a fair bit. It makes a message or post harder to read and, on a forum anyway, there is no need to limit the amount of keys you use. Maybe if someone was trying to save money on a text message it's understandable, but I still don't like it.
I have never really used text speak. I just don't find it appealing to use and I think it makes communication with anyone who is closed to it almost impossible - eg people who just won't take you seriously because you say "u"
That said though, I was on forums and IRC before I got a phone or was exposed to txtspeak, and any attempts to shorten words were usually rebuffed with a sarcastic "OMG ASL" remark

Canis Lupus

heh heh the thing about posting to this particular thread is that im concious of what im typing but before ppl criticise what I type here I generally dont bother with apostrophes or capitals with the odd exception of I, its always felt wrong to type just i even if I am time saving.

But on the other hand I would like to think I am capable of constructing a sentence when the urge takes me. My pet, PET hate is reading official internal company emails sent by people like managers or supervisors and seeing them mix up words like their and there or quiet and quite. In my mind, when sending a company email it's important to get it right, otherwise you look a complete fool. On the boards or elsewhere I don't mind people shortening words etc as it's not a formal situation but an entire post in pure "text speak" is taking a little too far

Finally, I don't mind people abbreviating words like people to ppl and so on as its quicker to type and I also like using words like tis and so forth because it brings an element of personality into the words of the poster.

now im gonna quit with the correct grammar cos its bugging me.

Giblet

DEATHGIVER2003 wrote:

HAY GUYZ! WATZ GOIN ONN N DIS TREAD??!?1one

ITT we correct ones grammar.

Alun

Waltons wrote:

I must admit that the amount of younger people using txtspeak now is annoying me a fair bit.

It's NUMBER of people, ferchrissake, not AMOUNT. What do you measure the size of a crowd in? Kilograms? Tonnes? Bushels? No, you count them.

LegacyUser

jackd wrote:

I watched the DVD of Shattered Glass over the weekend, that's the film about the young journalist who used to write for the New Republic and fabricated over half the articles he submitted. There's a scene in the film where Marty Peretz, the Editor-In-Chief, has all of the journalists cooped up in a boardroom, circling every comma in the previous issue. He maintains that commas should always come in pairs and is trying to point out all of the comma splices in the edition.

The New Republic Editor walks in on the exercise and phones Marty, basically roaring at him that it's a pointless waste of time and he wont let Marty bully his staff and so on. I suppose editing's a combination of knowing what should be corrected, and recognising what can be left alone.

As for the whole idea that you can't criticise someone else's writing unless yours is perfect - that's a crock. No matter who you are you'll make a mistake at some point when you're writing something. That's why there are editors. And depending on the situation, the edited document will often go back to the writer, or around the houses one more time to make sure the editor hasn't made mistakes.

I can't understand the people who get annoyed by someone pointing out a grammatical error. What's wrong with that?

I watched the DVD of Shattered Glass over the weekend .(full stop here, not a comma) That's the film about the young journalist who used to write for the New Republic and fabricated over half the articles he submitted. There's a scene in the film in which (not where :rolleyes: ) Marty Peretz, the Editor-In-Chief, has all of the journalists cooped up in a boardroom (no comma required here) circling every comma in the previous issue. He maintains that commas should always come in pairs and is trying to point out all of the comma splices in the edition.

The New Republic Editor walks in on the exercise and phones Marty, roaring at him basically, (yea commas in pairs is better) that it's a pointless waste of time and he wont let Marty bully his staff and so on. I suppose editing's a combination of knowing what should be corrected (no need for comma here) and recognising what can be left alone.

As for the whole idea that you can't criticise someone else's writing unless yours is perfect - that's a crock. No matter who you are you'll make a mistake at some point when you're writing something. That's why there are editors.

but who edits the editors hmmm, if everyone pointed out grammar/spelling mistakes thats all that would ever be said.

Waltons

Alun wrote:

It's NUMBER of people, ferchrissake, not AMOUNT. What do you measure the size of a crowd in? Kilograms? Tonnes? Bushels? No, you count them.

I never thought there was anything wrong with saying amount of people! Hmmmm, I shall retain this information for use at a later date. Cheers Alun.

pickarooney

The New Republic Editor walks in on the exercise and phones Marty, roaring at him basically, (yea commas in pairs is better)

There should be three commas, one after "him". It currently reads as though the style of roaring is basic.

And so on and so forth (look at me starting a sentence with a conjunction, I feel giddy)...

I can't say I mind people writing conversational English, as long as it's consistent. If it's using letters to represent sounds, it's all good.

The_Conductor

This is certainly the biggest bitching session I have come across here on Boards in a while.

Yes, poor grammar, people using "txt speech", US spellings and their ilk- are all exceptionally jarring. I also think that the very fact that people pointing this out turned into a mass nit-picking session has more to do with our collective psychological state of mind than anything else.

I'm not claiming to be perfect, nor indeed is anyone here on this thread. The fact of the matter is- most of the people on this thread actively try to use correct spellings and grammar, and are sufficiently conscious and careful enough to make what is but a small effort. Those who we are complaining about, for the most part, simply do not care.

Before someone starts to go on about how its a generational thing- and most of us here are over 20 and moaning about the behaviour of kiddies, that is not the point. Its a matter of good manners and minimum effort on the part of the offendors, a minimum endeavour that they simply do not care to make.

The use of a reasonable standard of English is not rocket science- but of late I've been thinking maybe the French were onto a good thing when they founded the 'Acadamie Francais'. Perhaps the day has come when an academy dedicated to the preservation of the English language is a necessity?

S.

LegacyUser

pickarooney wrote:

There should be three commas, one after "him". It currently reads as though the style of roaring is basic.

And so on and so forth (look at me starting a sentence with a conjunction, I feel giddy)...

I can't say I mind people writing conversational English, as long as it's consistent. If it's using letters to represent sounds, it's all good.

no, not three commas, just switcharoo basically and roaring

The New Republic Editor walks in on the exercise and phones Marty, basically roaring at him,


edit actually i think the first is ok too, at least in spoken english, if you stress roaring rather than basically anyway

roaring at him basically = ok
roaring at him basically = bad

embee

One thing that I just cannot understand - people spelling certain words wrong for no apparent reason.

"Independant"
"Definate"

Neither of these words contain the letter A. Yet I consistently see this.
I don't get it, because neither word even has a distinctive "a" sound.

passive

Who's interested in organising a boards.ie grammar rodeo?
I'm not quite sure what that involves really... But i'd presume lassoos and grammar feature heavily in the entertainment. I'm curious as to what kind of mistakes Ive made in writing this small and pointless suggestion so please feel free to correct me!

I share your hatred for text speak. It's excusable in very small amounts and i admit to using it occasionally if i'm 5 or 6 characters over a message (rip out a few "yo" out of "you"s and stuff like that but in general it's pointless and unnecessary... not to mention infuriating :mad:

LegacyUser

on second thoughts ill just delete it .........

elexes

pfft the net is used to hide many things one is spelling mistakes myself am dyslexic and couldnt care less about my spelling in a place such as boards . if it did become such a issue that the boards admins didnt allow posts to come without first bing spell chk'd id move elsewhere .

if u cant accept a person for the way they are u can just leave them alone

ive gotton a bit of neg carma in the past for the way my posts have been wrote but i dont care about it i think its pritty stupid for ppl to judge others on there posts . get over urself

Flukey

Everyone here should buy a copy of the book written by Lynn Truss entitled:

Eats, shoots and leaves.