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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

385 replies

TakeMeDrunkImHome · 31/05/2011 01:29

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?

OP posts:
skyebluepink · 31/05/2011 20:25

Thanks fellatio - I'm very pleased with that clarification!

greencolorpack · 31/05/2011 21:09

Mumbling I do loathe intellectual snobbery. So what's your point?

Bucharest, yes that's right, it wasn't on the syllabus. I liked studying orthography as a subject like the way that English had no status until people decided Latin was no longer the language of status, I think when the King James Version of the Bible came out. And so dictionaries came along and it's only after that that people decided there was a right or wrong way of spelling things. Shakespeare had eleven ways of spelling his name. Does anyone look down on him for that? No because it would be historically anachronistic.

ILoveYouToo · 31/05/2011 22:37

maypole I feel that, due to what you've posted on here, I'm going to seem like an absolute cow for challenging you on this. So be it, because I think it needs saying. Sad

You seem to almost revel in your lack of education as an excuse for writing virtually incomprehensible posts. Leaving school early or with poor qualifications (I did) is no particular reason to be in the same situation years later (I'm assuming you left school years ago; I might be wrong). If you were interested in acquiring (can I just add that I wasn't sure of the spelling of that, so I typed it in into google...) literacy skills, then it is really easy to do - there are loads of online resources, and loads of RL courses.

I would assume, then, that you don't attach enough importance to literacy to pursue it further. That's absolutely fine; it's your perogative and if you don't want to do so, then fuck everyone else. But if you then have a go at everyone who prefers to read punctuated and understandable posts, I think it's a bit off to then say that you can't help it because of your poor education. Then wouldn't it be better to say "I don't write legible posts because I don't care, and I don't care whether they're easy to read or not"?

Again, I'm not condoning people who pick up posters' punctuation/spelling/grammar; I've said lots of times that I think it's rude. But that's the subject we are discussing here, so I think it's a valid point. And tbh, on any thread, if you posted in the style that you've posted on here, I would probably think 'wtf? Confused I don't know what she's saying'. It means that people probably don't get your point, when presumably they want you to.

Altinkum... do you really read, read and reread every post until you feel confident you have grasped their meaning? Hmm Or do you just skim over it to the next one?

ILoveYouToo · 31/05/2011 23:19

Sorry....It means that people probably don't get your point, when presumably you want them to.

Fecklessdizzy · 31/05/2011 23:31

I've got a total double standard here ( adjusts hypocritical hat ... )

I can't spell myself but I get a dirty little thrill of smugness when I see other people getting things wrong ... there's a handy german word for this feeling, shauden-something, but I haven't a hope in Hell of getting it right without going and looking it up and I can't be arsed.

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes but if your posts are so bizarre that no-one can tell what you're saying it rather defeates the object, doesn't it? ( Pretty sure defeates is wrong, so flame away, guys ... )

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/05/2011 23:32

ILoveYouToo... Why do you think it 'needs saying'? I too could read Maypole's posts without a problem, just as Altinkum stated. They weren't that difficult but then again, I'm not bent out of shape about spelling/grammar, etc. so I'm not focusing on that. With people using iPads quite a lot, there are often strange words and phrases popping into the text. All grist to the mill of a chatboard.

You don't sound like a cow but I don't see how you can assume that Maypole is 'revelling in a lack of education' and I think that's really very rude. The subject of the thread was why people seem to enjoy picking on spelling and grammar and there' seems to be no decent answer to that, but enjoy it they certainly do.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/05/2011 23:33

Schadefreude, Fecklessdizzy, a marvellous word. Grin

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/05/2011 23:35

Schadenfreude, rather.

Fecklessdizzy · 31/05/2011 23:39

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe Grin That's the one!

doley · 31/05/2011 23:47

I have a question for those that don't mind crazy punctuation please ...

Is it just this type of domain that you don't mind seeing bad spelling and grammar ?

Would you be happy to receive an official letter peppered with the same type of errors ?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/05/2011 23:56

Did you read the thread, doley? I think the point has been fairly well laboured that it relates to chatboard posting.

Talking of crazy punctuation, as you're so keen on it, why is it that you leave a space between your full stops and commas? As a typist, I learnt one space after a comma and two after a full stop.

I have sesame seeds is my keyboard, I'm never going to clean them out... I'm going to blame them for every typo and grammatical gremlin forevermore... Grin

doley · 01/06/2011 00:04

lying I had no idea my gap was affecting your ability to read my posts.

I am not a typist ,I was a fashion model ...that is why (I guess) if I can get it anyone can Wink

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 01/06/2011 00:11

doley... I can just about manage to read your posts, I was wondering at the gap, that is all.

doley · 01/06/2011 00:14

I see.

nijinsky · 01/06/2011 00:27

ILoveYouToo nijinsky "LyingWitch indeed. Mea culpa. But there is a difference between a typo and a spelling mistake."
That isn't a typo; it's a confusion of meaning and a spelling error

Actually, its a confusion of thinking of the same word in another language and writing it down like that. Which is why I can understand Beesimo's dialect. Or Beeswing as I have parochially yclept her.

CJCregg · 01/06/2011 11:06

I have been lurking on this thread and stopped myself from joining in because it was winding me up and I didn't want to post out of frustration and say something offensive. However ...

I have to say that posts that are badly punctuated and misspelled do irritate me because I have to put them through a kind of 'translation filter' in order to understand them. Typos are completely understandable and easy for the brain to autocorrect, but a long post full of 'there/theirs', 'its/it'ses' and words spelled just plain wrong does my head in. I wouldn't correct someone (unless it's a howler like the infamous 'grammer police' post), but I won't read any more of what that person has to say.

What annoys me is when people almost 'wear' their lack of literacy like a badge, and effectively say 'fuck you' to those who spell and punctuate correctly. Surely - as another poster has said elsewhere on the thread - you want to be understood? What is actually wrong with being clear and using the correct language? There are rules for how English should be written and spoken, for the precise purpose of enabling communication. If I realise that I've been spelling something incorrectly, I learn from it and change my habits. We can all learn, no matter what our education. What is so clever about ignoring the rules to prove a rather ignorant point? All you gain, surely, is a failure to communicate?

FellatioNelson · 01/06/2011 11:09

Well said CJ.

harpfairy · 01/06/2011 11:11

Well put CJ - that is exactly how I feel.

CJCregg · 01/06/2011 11:15
Grin
TobyLerone · 01/06/2011 11:16

CJ. You win the thread.

greencolorpack · 01/06/2011 11:17

CjGregg, sorry if I'm being argumentative, and all, but ... if you read "your not doing that", don't you just autocorrect to "You're not", so the sense of the writing gets through? How bad exactly are these communications from the folks who wear illiteracy like a badge? Even if someone writes something full of spelling errors, grammar errors and textspeak, I can understand them 100 per cent of the time. I know there are people who are dyslexic who say otherwise, and fair enough. But is it really true that you read a badly-spelt post and literally don't understand it?

usualsuspect · 01/06/2011 11:20

Really CJ

I find your post kind of patronising ,but different strokes and all that

I would never ignores someones post because it didn't meet the correct MN standard

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 01/06/2011 11:21

Reading and comprehension teaching is obviously not what it was... Grin

CJCregg · 01/06/2011 11:24

I'm not saying those posts can't be understood. I'm saying that they're hard work. Yes, the brain does 'autocorrect' but it still stops momentarily to do so, because it's been trained to understand 'you're' in that context rather than 'your'. Some of the posts on this thread contain whole paragraphs full of errors, as well as some total misspellings, and whilst I'm perfectly capable of picking my way through them, it takes at least twice as long. I find that frustrating, so more often than not, I don't bother.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 01/06/2011 11:25

Agrees with usualsuspect and wonders at the posters who obviously feel so strongly on this subject that they never address their concerns directly to the posters providing such 'challenging' posts, merely alluding to them in a cowardly an abstract sort of fashion...