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?

When someone uses the word 'fora', I sooooo want to reach through the screen and give them a wedgie.

Mind your undies HangshenRoad.

OP- You weren't BU until you started putting people who know more than one language and happen to know Latin in the same boat as the people who might correct your spelling and grammar.

I see that your own SPaG was perfect until you decided to maybe prove your point by stopping punctuating......

I've been on MN for about 5 years and have seen bitchy highlighting of poor SPaG maybe half a dozen times. Chips on shoulders and inferiority complexes, along with imagining offence where none is meant, I see everyday.

I've also never seen (and I go there a lot) any criticisms of SPaG in Pedants' Corner. What I've seen there are interesting little quirky things about language, or genuine questions about language, like you might find questions about, er, food, in the recipes section.

Adults correcting other adults is usually a way of nobodies trying to be somebodies. IMO

When I was at school a teacher corrected the way I said Father I say it
Fath ther which is our dialect and she told me I was wrong to. No Miss says I you are in Yorkshire not Cambridge and that is how WE say it. I never had a days peace of the old bitch thereafter but thats another story.

There is no thing such as correct and incorrect speech people say words differently to others not BETTER than others.

I don't enjoy it, I think it's useful. I was a really bad speller and then something clicked. I try really hard to learn and don't mind if people correct me; I wish they would. How else can I learn.

Grammar mistakes really annoy me too because they are so easy to learn.

?

Dialects and regional accents are, by definition, of course different. There is a famous linguistic adage "if it is said, it is correct" as regards dialect and accent.

There is correct and incorrect SPaG.

(I don't often say this but...) It's only in Britain I notice an almost badge of honour thing about being a bit rubbish at using your own language. Revelling in one's mediocrity seems a particularly British thing.

" Revelling in one's mediocrity".... and inverse intellectual snobbery of the 'people with degrees know nothing' variety. If being able to spell and punctuate correctly or read Latin means being derided as a 'nobody trying to be a somebody' no wonder so many young people decide to switch off at school.

Agree with you OP. Can't abide all the pickiness. dd is dyslexic and I long ago accepted that it really doesn't matter how things are spelt, punctuation etc. To the poster who said that surely people don't have problems with a full stop - erm yes, some do, and shouldn't be pounced on for it.

also agree about the word 'fora' (I'll hold her down for you).

[inverted snob icon ]

It happens on any internet forum, you usually find the ones that do it have nothing constructive to give to a thread, so decide to pick holes in the OP instead.

It's a form of bullying and is pathetic.

I think it's one of the best things about Mumsnet. The parents on here represent the next few generations and it's their/our job to make sure some standards are met.

IME, all the while a poster is being pleasant, or asking for advice people are pretty tolerant of grammatical errors, or poor punctuation and spelling. (Less so of Text speak and rightly so - it's unforgivable.)

Where people will get pulled up is when they are being arsey, snobby and superior about something, and less than tolerant of the supposed flaws in others. It just puts them in their place and shows that we all have weaknesses.

Besides, if you have always struggled with grammar and apostrophe then rather than be defensive about it, why not view it as an opportunity for you to learn?
It's really NOT that hard to grasp the most important basics if you take the trouble to find out. I'm fed up with hearing people dismissively saying 'it doesn't matter anyway' and that only stuffy small-minded snobs worry about grammar and punctuation. It matters a great deal - one misplaced apostrophe can change the entire meaning of a sentence.

Of course when we are typing quickly and absent-mindedly we often make common typos, which doesn't mean we can't spell. My most frequent errors are getting the i and e the wrong way around - for example in freinds, and I often write there when I mean their, and to when I mean too.

Mostly it's because I'm drunk.

Bullshit is it a form of bullying - that opinion could only come from someone with a massive chip on their shoulder. For me it is offensive to the eye to see basic errors like the wrong use of 'they're' 'their' and 'there' - it's just plain idleness not to get those right. How many variations of the word 'counsellor' do we see daily on MN? For fuck's sake - there's only one way to spell it - bloody well learn it! And no - I don't go round correcting errors or pointing them out but I do instantly dismiss anyone who makes a post littered with poor/non-existent grammar.

at Fellatio - being drunk or having fingers faster than one's brain is perfectly excusable!

Sorry, I meant always struggled with grammar and punctuation, not apostrophe. The Law Of Sod says you will always make a glaring error when you are calmly and patronisingly explaining the merits of pedantry to an inferior being.

Because it makes me itch when I see it. :o

Fellatio hit the nail on the head earlier, if people are being nice or even just reasonable then spelling and grammar is left alone. If they are being arses then they get it with both barrells!

When this argument came up on another forum for the nth time, a severely dyslexic poster pointed out (in answer to the inevitable "what about dyslexics?") that, as a dyslexic herself, she needed things to be spelled and punctuated correctly or they were unintelligible to her. She herself made the typical errors a dyslexic makes, but when reading other people's words, they had to have correct form or she was lost.

Non-dyslexics can use a margin of error way of looking at the written word (in the sense that "oh, he's written A, but logically, that can't be right, so he must mean B, therefore B is the meaning I'll give to this statement" ) that a dyslexic's hardwiring of language cannot.

So, it's much fairer to dyslexics to use correct English.

(my fastest finger on the buzzer mistake is teh instead of the, but no, I'm not Cod )

"Not everyone has a masters in English"

Are you serious? Basic punctuation is taught at primary school. Talk about inverse snobbery. FFS.

As fabby said, it's really not unique to mums net. MN isn't a very intelligent forum in any case.

It's a bit worrying that anyone might suggest that correct spelling and grammar are only to be expected from those with a degree in English. You shouldn't be able to even start a degree in anything without having mastered the basics.

Dyslexia is surely a whole other question: sufferers are given extra time in exams, etc., and rightly so, because it is considered an obstacle for them. That shows how important the issue is. I don't quite see why the grave difficulties faced by dyslexics should mean that others, who are able to spell and write correctly if they learn the rules and apply them, should just give up trying.

Correct spelling matters because it aids communication; when you see a sentence with "your" instead of "you're", your brain expects one meaning and finds another, and it is unsettling, hindering swift understanding of the message.

It often means that they can't pick a hole in your argument so they say that you can' be taken seriously with poor grammar!

I wouldn't worry-I type quickly-generally drop all punctuation and stick in dashes.

Add message | Report | Message poster Serenitysutton Tue 31-May-11 08:13:19
As fabby said, it's really not unique to mums net. MN isn't a very intelligent forum in any case.

Speak for yourself SerenitySutton.

I think some OP's attract criticism wrt to spelling/grammar if they are adopting a lecturing/critical tone themselves.

BorninAfrica, not everybodys first language is English, some people come here for help and have never posted on an internet forum before. Not everybody uses basic English via the written form on a daily basis.

It is naive of you to believe everybody has a good standard of english.

It is a form of bullying and only a pedant would say it isn't.

I had a very poor education. I am not indifferent to the fact that I often spell incorrectly but the 'well it is easier if mistakes are pointed out so posters can learn' is nonsense.
I don't feel grateful . I feel self conscious.
And it is almost inevitably the result of a poster having no response tommy point so, rather than get their arse kicked on the matter in hand, they call on the weasel option. Orthey reach for "mumsnet royalty" or some other non point.
If posters genuinely wished to be of help they would pm a poster and correct them. To pretend that pointing out mistakes on an open forum does not have a huge potential to humiliate is nonsense.
Some posters may wish to be corrected but I can't imagine that most do.
I wonder if those correcting could examine their conscience and be truthful, at least with themselves whether there is a frisson of enjoyable superiority in correcting on an open board rather than in private by pm. If posters really welcome the help then they will welcome a pm won't they?

I can't stand text speak because I can't read it. And posts that have no punctuation are impossible for me too. But I wouldn't correct people unless their point included some superior comment about their intellect or education.

Tbh I think less of people who gleefully pick someone up on a spelling mistake. It sometimes means they have nothing useful to say.

Fabby in my experience people can easily tell if Englishh is not a posters first language...at least the people who are picky about grammar etc can.

It's nothing to do with bullying. I'm not pedant....and furthermore I make regular mistakes.