Spelling & Grammar

[+ Lucky]

The LA Times today has a story that is dear to my heart. It says that those who read more are more attuned to errors and grammar. So, if you come here often, you might expect more out of your fellow posters than if you only visit occasionally.

Now I may get wacked over the head for being concerned about spelling and grammar, but if your reading this, then you might care too. Perhaps you're friends have even commented on your grammar and spelling mistakes.

 

Take a look at the Times article, then remember, spell check can be done automatically!

 

From the Times:

 

When readers write in about errors, it shows they care, and that's a good thing. Research done for the American Copy Editors Society this spring confirmed what the Readers' Rep inbox tells us.

 

Fred Vultee, a journalism professor at Wayne State University, studied a group of readers over a three-month period. His findings:

 

• Readers who read more news tend to be more critical than people who read less.

 

• Dedicated readers expect a higher level of quality than casual readers, particularly in terms of grammar and professionalism.

 

• Readers notice grammar errors and find them troubling and distracting.

 

• Readers notice writing that is garbled and confusing, and when words are misspelled or misused.

 

Most readers are less concerned about errors of style and story structure than they are about professionalism and grammar. "They really don't care if you abbreviate 'road,' Vultee said. "They don't care if you start a paragraph with a number."

 

The whole story:

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-postscript-typos-20111105,0,5440830.story

[bigvalboy]

Guilty as charged!

[+ purplekow]

Call me wacky but i would not whack you over the head, Lucky, you old wack. And while your friends care about grammar, you're certainly not immune to the epidemic of incorrect usage.

[+ Charlie]

"....if your reading this..." Good grief! How egregious!

[MsGuy]

Now I may get wacked over the head for being concerned about spelling and grammar, but if your reading this, then you might care too.

 

http://dailybail.com/storage/whack%20a%20mole.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1286300290726

 

Not all of us proof every post, Lucky, even when we're bitching about grammar.

 

Still I agree, poor grammar somehow hurts the credibility of an argument. Maybe it shouldn't but it does.

[MsGuy]

LOL, Charlie beat me to it.

[Steven_Draker]

YOUR right

 

Mocking has always been your forte, but a good joke/humor is successful when everyone in the room is laughing (chinese proverb).

[Epigonos]

Those of us who are old will remember the days when there was a definite distinction between vernacular and academic English. Those days are virtually gone. Nowadays even academics write their papers and dissertations in vernacular English. Schools, all over the country, are no longer teaching students to write cursive English. Students are taught only to print. Worse yet is that texting is destroying Standard English. For example, many people no longer write “for you” but instead “4u”.

Much of what I have always treasured and valued in Western Culture is dying. Every year the audiences attending symphony concerts, operas, and ballets are shrinking and getting older. Many young people no longer understand quotes from great English Language authors like William Shakespeare, Jane Austin, John Milton, or Herman Melville. I realize that everything evolves but in some ways I glad I’m old and will not live to see the death of much of what I value.

[+ Lucky]

Wow! Did I make mistakes like mispelling "whacked" and getting those contractions wrong? Guess if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone!

Oh well, you are all to be thanked for pointing them out. I will accept your corrections with grace and in good humor.

[KMEM]

I thought this was going to be a post about grammar and grammpar.

 

Best regads,

KMEM

[+ glutes]

Hang'm High at Noon!

 

Counselor Lucky, nolo contendere.

I am probably the biggest offender here. I go back and look at previous posts I've made, and cringed...

[bigvalboy]

I have to agree with Epigonos, texting has really made me lazy. When I first started to text, I would send messages almost as if I was hand writing them, but quickly realized that no one else was doing the same. It was like there was a whole new set of rules and standards that people went by. I began to feel not "hip" enough, so I began to relax my standards and just get the message out. I now cringe sometimes also when I have posted something and see errors, but then so many here do the same, it almost gives me permission to be incorrect.

[Kevin Slater]

Still I agree, poor grammar somehow hurts the credibility of an argument.

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

Kevin Slater

[instudiocity]

... no longer teaching students to write cursive English.

Damn, now I've got to figure out whether the fuck if I learned Cursive Writing before or after I fucking learned Cursive English! I mean, shit! I coulda fucking blamed my damn teachers when Momma warshed out my mouth with that shitty soap!

 

LOL!

 

But Epigonos, I do agree with your points whole heartedly and hope you see the humor I saw in your post!

[+ deej]

Those of us who are old will remember the days when there was a definite distinction ....

 

I remember conversations in the early days of e-mail when a lot of us lamented how difficult it was to write (and type, on a typewriter) a standard business letter without using emoticons that are standard in email. They became common very easily. Shit just sneaks in.

 

These days the emoticons (and TLAs and other platform colloquialisms) are accepted and the typed business letter would be considered the anachronism.

 

We're getting old.

 

In formal communications, though, I will still give no truck to those who cannot spell. I openly deride public signage like "YOUR ID WILL BE REQUIRED TO VOTE". (Shouldn't it have a choice?) That's a real sign observed in a polling place in Alabama.

 

Using language well is still a valuable skill and still a requirement for clear communication.

[justaguy]

A language changes as its users change, and so "standard" will always be a relative term. I accept that fact. I come from a reading family in which parents read to their older children who read to younger siblings. To this day all of us still enjoy a good book. What I think I have noticed over the past couple of decades is a special type of illiteracy, even among my eduacated younger friends. English is a language of subordination and modification, a feature that writers over the centuries have exploited for their aesthetic ends. Because I was raised in a reading family, I learned to recognize, understand, and eventually appreciate a wide variety of syntax. The illiteracy I think I'm noticing is the inability to comprehend complex sentence structures. One of the reasons, I think, that Melville isn't read today is that his vocabulary and syntax are too difficult for the majority of today's users who are used to and demand simplicity. That inability to read a wide variety of writing styles to me is the real loss.

 

For those of you who enjoy language, read "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves." It takes a humorous dig at the misuse of language using examples from real life.

[Kevin Slater]

"YOUR ID WILL BE REQUIRED TO VOTE".

 

Wouldn't the world be a better place if we forced our super-egos to vote instead?

 

Kevin Slater

[Samai139]

I am also "old" not only in years but in my attitutde to many aspects of 21st century usage of spoken and written English. One of the pitfalls of getting old/older is that I become more critical about things which I had to struggle with as a youngster---writing according to the standards of those who gave me assignments, speaking without a strong regional accent and being knowledgeable about current and historical and cultural events. Watching things change is often threatening and yet inevitable. If I can accept those changes with equanimity perhaps I will be less a curmudgeon and more of a pleasant avuncular individual. I try and often fail in daily life to overlook little things which irritate me and I'll do that today with Epigonos' spelling of one of the authors he cites. You see? We can all do better )

[Epigonos]

Samai139 I deserve that correction. The really absurd thing about my error is that of the four authors I named Jane Austen is my favorite. Surely, by now, I should know the difference in the spelling of the name of the author and the name of the capitol of Texas.

[JT Brooklyn]

I've always believed as long as "ya get your point across" that's all that really matters!

[leigh.bess.toad]

Wouldn't the world be a better place if we forced our super-egos to vote instead?

 

Kevin Slater

 

Thanks for the laugh, Kevin.

[Samai139]

Epigonos--I had to go back to your posting three times to make sure I had the correct spelling of your screen name. You certainly are a gentleman in accepting correction with grace and dignity---I put your spelling down to a typographical error rather than ignorance.

BrooklynGuy---agree that Epigonos got the point across, but the theme of this thread was Spelling and Grammar and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to point out that we all err at times Nice to see that you know how use apostrophes correctly. (Sometimes on this Forum I don't always get the humour or irony, so I want to make sure that you understand that I am giving you a compliment, not a correction.)

[Phil_musc]

I generally re-read my postings for errors, but sometimes our eyes (well at least mine) play tricks on us. I agree with the posters who find that misspellings and poor grammar tend to weaken a poster's position and make them seem less intelligent. Maybe a prejudice of mine, but that's how I feel. The trick then becomes overlooking the cosmetics of spelling and syntax to see the truth that may lie beneath the inelegant wordings. But still a part of me will be thinking, "couldn't he take the time and make the effort to get it right?" When Ken Burns' Civil War series was on TV and you heard how those soldiers wrote letters with nothing more than an eighth grade education, well I feel I should at least try to spell it right even if I can't express it in such beautiful prose.

[Poolboy21409]

I am dating myself, but there is one perfect little grammar book called "The Little Book" by Strunk and White. It is still relevant today. And what absolutely drives me crazy to this day is the total misuse of "fewer" and "less". And the proper use of those terms is such an easy concept to understand. Blame my New England all boys boarding school background for this one.

[Kevin Slater]

I am dating myself, but there is one perfect little grammar book called "The Little Book" by Strunk and White.

 

I think you mean The Elements of Style. Anyone who writes in the English language should be required to read it.

 

Kevin Slater