Why do people enjoy picking others up on their spelling or grammar

[TakeMeDrunkImHome]

i have noticed this a LOT here, and i am fairly new. Is there some kind of badge that is awarded if you spell every word correctly and use every term in the correct way. Some people seem to respond to a particular thread just to correct the OP with their spelling or punctuation or grammar. WHY? Not everyone has a masters in english. Not everyone is awesome with spelling or grammar. Is it some way of making yourself look better than the next person?

I don't mind being corrected myself. I think that there are other posters who would mind and they have the right not to be corrected unless they say otherwise.

Perhaps somebody could start an 'English Language' thread and see how much interest it generates. If nothing else, it's a place for the pedants to lie in wait live.

There is a pedants' corner

Did they pick the lock, or what?

A few fellow enthusiasts and I have asked for a linguistics topic. We are not pedants.

They escape around the board occasionally

I don't enjoy picking others up on their grammar or spelling. I just find basic grammatical mistakes really annoying.

With the 'sware' thing, if two letters have been transposed in a word I almost always assume it's an innocent typo - I do it all the time.

nijinsky I must correct you on the spelling of "apparently" - note, just the two 'a's and one 'e'

I wouldn't normally mention it but your ignorant attitude is bringing out the pedant in me.

HTH

Lol

It is not about being above correction. It is about basic manners and empathy.

Eloquently put, Pagwatch

I am sure nijinsky post was aimed at me but to be honest if you makes you fee impotent that you can place a comma in its correct place well done you

Going trough peoples threads for spelling is not my idea of a goodtime but hay

You insit on correcting my post claming you cannot understand them but clearly you do as how could you attempt to correct them

I still see it as a sighn when having a debate you have lost and start becoming petty

Where exactly are all these threads where people are smugly correcting others? I have not noticed any.

Theres only the occasional post correcting spelling /grammar

usually when they are losing the argument ,or need to feel all superior

Didn't Hyacinth Bucket go round correcting people all the time

Psammead, I asked for links earlier, I may be a pedant and proud of it, but I would never actually correct anyone's English, and nor do I believe most people on here would. In fact, the only people seen to be correcting posters mistakes are the people who are saying you shouldn't do it.

It's a bit QED really.

I think I have seen threads twice in my time on MN where posters asked the OP for clarification. The OPs in question were near unintelligible so it was quite a reasonable request.

I honestly can't say I remember an occasion where someone has ignored an otherwise brilliant argument by pointint out a missing apostrophe or similar. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it can't be that common, surely?

It's a bit like Chicken Licken......if enough people run around shrieking that the sky is falling in, then sooner or later, even the people that know it isn't will start to believe it.

I think you are right Bucharest in that it happens much less than it used too.

I don't consign such incidents to my spreadsheet but it does still happen - the thread about the mother who wanted her child to do extra homework etc in aibu had lots of "well if you want them to read and not watch tv, you would do well to learn to spell yourself" type retorts because there was a typo in her title.

I guess many would argue she asked for it so not a perfect example but it does evidence that it does happen.

I have had snarky comments in my earlier days. So I know from experience that it does go on. But I think much less than it used to. And I don't think it is the pedants. I think it is just people looking for a cheap shot.

Fair enough, Pag. I didn't get past the OP in that thread

I must say, I have never noticed your spelling to be bad.

Bucharest... I understand your point, good analogy and how I loved 'Chicken Licken' when I was young...

It's more overt here, if you look at some of the earlier posts you'll see statements like, "There's no excuse for no punctuation" and similar. People aren't stupid, if their grasp of grammar, spelling and punctuation isn't strong, they're probably well aware of it.

I can pick examples of where a poster has said something and, without naming that poster, another one has picked out bits of the post and 'corrected' them. It all seems a bit cowardly to my way of thinking, especially when 'back up' arrives. I have a problem with it, certainly.

I think many of us mentally correct glaring errors but to voice them, even worse under the guiise of a new post, is ill-mannered. It is in my book anyway.

psammed .
And looking at an aibu to support an argument is the way of madness.

WAY off tangent, but ...

"Lupus in fabula" means, "the wolf in the fairy tale" - when the wolf is mentioned, he appears.

so this (Latin) phrase is, as I understand it, what Italians use as their equivalent of "speak of the devil and he's sure to appear."

Bad grammar etc pisses me off, btw - but I try not pick people up on it unless it's relevant to the thread (i.e. someone bemoaning how standards are slipping educationally and his/her own post riddled with errors.)

I said earlier that there is no excuse for the lack of basic punctuation .

To my mind ,why post something that is not going to be understood ?

Spelling is one thing ,full stops etc...another :)