Isn't about time MNHQ started deleting posts that attack people's spelling and grammar?

I don't like bad grammar, especially the use of 'of' instead of 'have', but if someone has posted with a problem, then it is really off to pick them up on it. Surely Mumsnet is a support forum, not an 'improve your grammar ' forum. There is a pedants topic, so you can get all your spelling and grammar angst out there, and leave the other areas for giving the support any OP needs.

You can't assume that just because someone uses text speak or hunz, they are any less needing or deserving of help.

Mumsnet has become a different type of beast unfortunately.

Long gone are the days where posters were genuinely witty and threads were easy to read due to their impeccable use of English.

Apart from cod.

To go back to the original question, I think that posts should flow well and the onus is on the writer to make sure the post is easily understood. If you are finding it hard to decipher a post due to the poster's spelling and grammatical errors then the poster can hardly complain if they are ignored or misinterpreted.

I don't think posts should be deleted for highlighting errors as long as they are written in a sympathetic or amusing way. Actually I don't agree with deleting posts at all, let other readers make up their own minds, we're all adults, I think.

thumbwitches that was a helpful post. Thank you.

wannaBe
ok, so people want to correct other people's spelling and grammar. Fine. Except stop being so bloody disingenuous about it. Let's be honest here, you're not correcting spelling and grammar because you think that they might appreciate the correction/should aspire to do better/perhaps didn't know that they had got it wrong/. You correct their spelling and grammar because it annoys you personally.

Exactly this. Don't dress it up as genuine concern.

My suggestion of "if you think it would really benefit a poster then PM them" has been met by and it would be patronising apparently. I think the reality is doing it by PM doesn't allow everyone else to see how clever you are. The plus side of doing it publicly is that everyone can also make a judgement on whether you're an arsehole.

Th only time I have thought it appropriate was when a poster was wondering about whether their job application would result in an interview as they hadn't heard back yet and somebody fairly politely pointed out they'd made a few errors in their post (their/there type)and wondered if this might have been a factor and suggested sling someone to look over future applications.

samcro - on the assumption that you were asking a genuine question then the way to tell when you use "lose" and "loose" is to think about the past tense of lose = lost = 1 o. If you lose this, it will be lost forever.
Lose --> lost.
Loose does not go to lost. Also, loose rhymes with goose - and you don't say it like that if you mean lose, because lose is pronounced luze.

ghostspirit has given a good way to remember brought and bought in similar fashion, but using the present tense of the verb to differentiate -
bRing and bRought,
buy and bought.

your and you're - extend the you're to you are and if it works, then that's what you should use. If it doesn't work, then use your.
So - you're joking aren't you - you are joking, aren't you = correct use of you're.
Your = same as my only belonging to you, not me. Your hat, for e.g. Not you're hat because that would be "you are hat". Which, in general, you won't be.

While I'm on a roll, if anyone has trouble remembering when they should use a c or an s in words like practise/practice - think of the words advice/advise instead (because they're pronounced differently so easy to tell the difference).
Good practice/advice = nouns.
I'd advise you to practise more = verbs.

I'll bugger off now.

OP, I think it's U to call all corrections personal attacks unless they're in the context of being mean and belittling - but when they are, then yes, they should be deleted.

Is it really the 'lowest common denominator' to be unable to spell and to make grammatical typos?

Yes, I agree, it's good to keep learning. But it's not good if you set yourself up as the person in charge of deciding what the 'lowest common denominator' is and constantly putting people in that category while you're secure in the knowledge you're not in there.

This. This precisely. Because so many people offer thoughtful, thought-provoking, wise and experienced advice on Mumsnet, and as long as their English is good enough to convey that wisdom then the odd grammar problem or spelling error is so irrelevant. All flawless literacy proves is a mind that functions in a particular way, or an excellent education, and usually both. It doesn't guarantee or even indicate that the person is able to offer more worthwhile advice - not unless a letter is being written, and help in drafting/proof-reading it sought.

Anyone who thinks the grammar and spelling correction on MN is being kindly provided to improve the literacy of the targeted poster is naive, delusional, or sporting pants dangerously aflame.

And for the record, it's been rather delicious spotting the truly hideous grammatical howlers self-declared pedants are making, all over this thread.

I think that people who correct other posters' language usage (unless they ask for help) usually come across as petty and small-minded. I am actually a professional pedant. I write and edit for a living. But the experiences of having raised a child with dyslexia and other learning difficulties and of having worked with an adult literacy organization have really opened my eyes to the challenges many people face with English.

I think it is also important to understand that it is relative. There are always going to be people who are better at some aspects of written and spoken English than others. They may have a higher baseline of acceptable literacy that puts many of us, even skilled writers, in the "needs improvement" category.

And this:
paintingthegreyarea.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/literacy-privilege/

ghostspririt- it's not narrow minded when all my advertisements state that an excellent command of English, including the ability to communicate in the written form, is essential!

I would throw an application in the bin for bad spelling/grammar. But on mn we're not applying for a job, so there is a vast difference. If a thread is full of text speak I simply don't read it. I guess that's the equivalent of throwing it in the bin...

If I received a job application where the applicant used 'your' instead of 'you're', 'of' instead of 'have', 'brought' instead of 'bought etc, I would put it straight into the bin pile. If people can get help on MN for anything under the sun, why shouldn't they get help with SPAG?

Well if they ask for help that would be fine, although I would never be brave enough to ask on here. However I have rarely seen a correction given because a poster asked for it.

If I filled in a job application form it would be correct because I am applying for a job. However on here I am just chatting informally, often about random bollocks. Do people also correct people's use of the spoken word during the flow of conversation? How is that received? Of course in spoken face to face conversation you have facial cues and hand gestures which could lessen the chance of you coming across as a condescending twat.

I am also amused that some posters think that they have a moral duty to educate the plebs. This may come as a surprise but I don't need help getting a job.

i friend showed me the diffrenece between bought and brought. b(r)ought you b(r)ing something. think about the R. bought you buy something. no R. thats how i remember it.

i cant do the your..you're i dont know the diffrence and i forget it within seconds. i had to scan back up so i could write your're...

i do kind of understand why an employer would throw an application in the bin. although narrow minded. i kind of get it as well.

if i was filling in an application for i would ask for help doing it.

ok, so people want to correct other people's spelling and grammar. Fine. Except stop being so bloody disingenuous about it. Let's be honest here, you're not correcting spelling and grammar because you think that they might appreciate the correction/should aspire to do better/perhaps didn't know that they had got it wrong/. You correct their spelling and grammar because it annoys you personally.

I hate text speak. And I mean really hate it, and yes, I think it shows a lack of inteligence and that actually, there is no reason in the world to use it. But that is about my personal view, not about wanting someone else to better themselves, because reality is they probably don't care.

On the whole I am anal about writing. In fact I am currently writing this on my phone, but with a bluetooth keyboard so I can write more. However, I am VI, and as such I learned to read braille at an early age. And braille is contracted in order to make it less bulky. As such, from the age of seven I never saw a word written out in its whole form. With the invention of computers so also came the invention of the screenreader. And when you are reading with a screenreader you read down a line at a time, so e.g. I will scroll to a line in a post and it will read it for me as a sentence, not letter for letter. As such I also don't see words written out unless I actively look for them. And the other thing about screenreaders is that they don't necessarily pronounce misspelled words in such a way that you would know that they were misspelled, iyswim. Sometimes they do, if your post contains typo's I will most likely notice them. Sometimes if a word contains a double letter and you have a single one, it will mispronounce the word, and if you leave out punctuation then it reads as one continuous string of text with no spaces which is highly irritating. But words like there and their, or know and no are pronounced exactly the same. Now I am also a bit of a grammar pedant and as such I know full well the difference between know and no, but someone else might not know, because they have never seen the words written out in full, for instance.

And most importantly, this is an internet forum, it is not a professional platform where spelling and grammar really makes a difference. I am currently in the process of looking for jobs, and I am constantly horrified at the number of job adverts that are full of spelling mistakes and typo's. And believe me, if I can see them with a screenreader then they must be bad. and the worst of it is that these job adverts call for good written communication skills... now there is an area which needs some serious pedantry throwing in its direction. But to expect people to put in serious effort to reply on what is basically a means for people to kill time? get real.

People occasionally pull me up on my spelling. Now I don't mind if it's a genuine error which is obvious, but otherwise it says far more about them than it does me. I remember years ago writing a very long and thought out response to a post in relationships where an op was considering terminating a pregnancy, something which was highly emotive. And the next response was from theDevilWearsPrimark correcting one word in my post (of several paragraphs) which I had misspelled. And yes, I can name her because it turned out she was a long-standing troll.

It's simple really. if a post is so full of mistakes that it either triggers your pedant alarm or is unreadable then don't read it. There are millions of other threads here to read, and if the poster needs genuine help, then your pedantry is not going to make them feel better is it?

Philoslothy, so sorry that happened to you...

I always post with some trepidation. I take a seizure medication which affects the way I see sentences. In written and spoken word, it is not uncommon for me to drop a word, even though my brain believes I have made a complete sentence. I often do not realise I have made this error until long after I have posted. I would be ashamed and embarrassed if someone pulled me up on MN. I come to this forum for the support and comraderie of other women.

I speak with a strong regional accent, when I started university people often made a great deal out of the fact that they could not understand me. They were trying to make me feel small, they succeeded.

As an adult I have had to make a huge effort with my spelling and grammar, I don't have the cultural or linguistic capital that most Mners seem to have. I don't make s huge effort on here because I am chatting, it is informal. I have had my spelling and grammar corrected a few times by people attempting to make me feel small. My favourite time being during a post about a miscarriage.

Why is it, vivienne?
If it's not a personal attack, but pointing out the error?

If I received a job application where the applicant used 'your' instead of 'you're', 'of' instead of 'have', 'brought' instead of 'bought etc, I would put it straight into the bin pile. If people can get help on MN for anything under the sun, why shouldn't they get help with SPAG?

Not in a cunty way (and I don't think I've ever pulled someone up nastily, and I would never point out errors where the OP was distressed, time and place etc), just helpfully.

And not by PM! That made me

I would full support this. It is totally unacceptable to point out grammatical and spelling errors.

When I see a poster correct another posters spelling/grammar I always think "what a cunt"

or sees what I see, even. It is too late to still be awake.

ghost - yes, yes, that is what happens when I see some long posts.
Astonishing that anyone else sees what I do.

dyslexic people also see written words differently on paper. such as the words/letters move. it does this for me. not all the time though. for me its more likely to happen if im working from say laptop and a book. a bit like this

I notice because it annoys me so much.
I wonder if it is younger people who tend to litterkiss.
Like on text messages.
And facebook, but I don't go on there. I would explode.