Spelling & Grammar

General Pub
1

This is something that is forever cropping up in threads all over the forum. I’m currently studying a Linguistics unit at Uni of Melbourne and have been paying more attention to word forms as a result.

Curious to see how many people are frustrated by poor grammar and incorrect spelling. Might also be worth noting your age. I have a feeling the older generation might be more irritated by it…probably because they were taught how to write, not text/type.

FWIW I’m 26 and it bothers me, but probably not enough to correct someone for it. Just enough to make a poll about it :smiley: :evil:

2

It drives me crazy but not enough to correct someone on a forum, unless I can really take the piss. I will however always take the piss out of someone for their shitty spelling and grammar on facebook. I’m 23 FWIW.

3

I say bring it on. It’s linguistic evolution.

4

i don’t really care on the internet/sms etc but seeing poor spelling in print, or on official kinda things shits me up the wall. maybe that’s cos i think its just so fucking easy. i had to edit* a group assignment at uni last year and fuck what a mess, and there weren’t even ESL students in my group. they were younger than me(19-21yo), seemed reasonably intelligent and actually could not construct a sentence.

*completely rewrite

5

yeah i’m much the same really. on the net it’s often forgivable, provided it’s not ridiculous or obviously a typo. my work sends out a monthly newsletter and they’ve just got me to proof read it each month coz i get so fucked off when i see all the errors in it!! haha

6

It’s not excusable, anywhere.

7

>30 and it doesn’t really worry me on internet forums…I find it kind of funny :lol:

I heard about a guy that got those plastic model cars in the 80’s and would edit the instructions and send them back to the company!

8

Its not just the younger generation that cannot spell or use correct punctuation.
I work in an office full of ‘older’ people and the amount of spelling mistakes I see coming through on very official emails and presentations is ridiculous!!
In personal emails, sms and forums I can relax my spelling and punctuation requirements, but as soon as it comes to official emails and documents there is no place for it!
A few months ago a certain brown noser had a very obvious spelling mistake in a presentation he did to show how ‘brilliant’ his area is (isn’t). I thought it was great that he made this presentation to many high powered guys in our industry who all saw the obvious mistake.

9

Stop abbreviating.

Stop using emoticons.

Read and correct your opening post.

It requires more discipline to articulate yourself correctly.

I’m 32. Little has changed in the past decade in the way I communicate.

I lie. I use ‘cvnt’ far less frequently, thus giving it more clout when I do.

*TC

10

Bwahahahahahaha if I had a buck for every time I’d heard THAT one :lol:

(you know we only set group assignments to torment people like you, don;t you…)

Dr. Captain Commuter

11

yep, i do not even feel comfortable using shortened words in texts and twitter.
and i have an urge to correct people on the internet frequently, but avoid doing it on this forum. I don’t mind people who can’t spell/write from a poor education sense, but if someone wants to use BIG WORDS, and spells them wrong or uses them inappropriately then i will point it out.

i did leave a comment on a friends blog telling him that ‘segue is not spelt segway’ fairly recently.

also, what about s/z, there/their/they’re,

I’m waiting for someone to point out a mistake now…

12

  1. Start with capitalising the opening words in your sentences;

  2. Do not start a sentence with a conjunction;

  3. Commas before conjunctions are redundant.

There are others. :wink:

13

…and “friends blog” needs an apostrophe.

14

I hate it. If you finished high school you should be able to spell and punctuate a sentence correctly.

15

in a formal setting incorrect grammar, spelling and punctuation bothers me a lot

on forums not so much, i dont capitalise anything and my punctuation is all over the place - and i dont really care

16

I knew about that one at least.

Capitals need to be rationed, I had to save them all to write BIG WORDS

17

haha i knew someone would find fault in my post. i admit to not being perfect either but think using emoticons is fine. as are abbreviations when they are widely understood and it’s not an official setting, like this forum.

18

emoticons are important - it’s often hard to pick up sarcasm over the internet without them.

agree on the ‘formal emails for work’ thing - I try to get them as ‘correct’ as possible.

but in terms of forums, I say let internet slang fly - why get so precious about language? - it’s been developing since it started, and it’s going to keep developing - trying to conserve its current form is fairly pointless.

19

It doesn’t really worry me in informal settings, although I do get a bit annoyed when the author’s meaning is obscured by poor (or lack of) punctuation, spelling and grammar. A lot of abbreviations are also pretty unnecessary, but as long as the meaning is clear I don’t particularly care.

I’m a stickler for accuracy in official documents. Nothing shits me like finding typos is textbooks or official presentations that have surely been in front of several pairs of eyes. Even worse when it’s an obvious mis-spelling or incorrect use of a word. That just highlights the ignorance of the author or a belligerence in not getting a proof reader to look over it.

For the record, I’m well over 30.

20

i agree with the majority of what you’re saying.

i’m all for internet slang and the creation of new words etc. language can, and regularly does, evolve and that’s fine. but some parts of language need to remain constant in order for the meaning to be clear. there/their/they’re being a prime example. incorrect spelling has nothing to do with internet slang or the creation of new words. surely the new words should be a blending of already known words.

‘chaztastic’ for example :smiley:
chaz we know, but if they spelt the ‘tastic’ part as ‘tastac’ or ‘tastick’ that would shit me because it would mean they were unaware of the correct spelling in the first place…