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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To correct their spelling

52 replies

FoxtrotFoxtrotSierra · 10/01/2013 15:40

I'm a mature student and am a member of a Facebook group set up by one of the chaps on my course. Practically every post on it is making me want to gouge my own eyes out due to the text-speak or misspelling of very simple words.

In the last two days I've seen:

"Does anyone no" instead of "Does anyone know"
"Few" instead of "Phew"
My name all in lower case twice
Full stops instead of spaces

It's driving me potty!

WIBU to rewrite their comments underneath correctly? We actually have lessons on how to write (full stops at the end of sentences, appropriate use of lower and upper case letters) and I'm beginning to understand why!

Do younger people just not write how we oldies do anymore?

OP posts:

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 10/01/2013 15:43

The one I hate is when people don't know the difference between to and too!!!!

BadLad · 10/01/2013 15:44

Facebook being Facebook, I think that would be unreasonable.

I don't do the spelling mistakes, typing errors aside, but when I post on Facebook or write an e-mail to a friend, using the shift key for capital letters is usually more than I can be bothered to do.

If you think they could genuinely benefit from the posts being corrected, and would appreciate your rewriting them, then do so in a private message.

BadLad · 10/01/2013 15:46

Oh, and my pet hate is "loose".

As in, you will loose your wallet if you don't keep hold of it

I never correct it if I see it, however.

hellsbellsmelons · 10/01/2013 15:48

Ooohh I hate it!
It's pure laziness in my eyes.
But... in the day and age we can really only correct 'our own'
I'm always putting comments on my DD status's correcting what she has written.
The world is changing and unfortunately, not for the better IMO!

usualsuspect · 10/01/2013 15:51

I wouldn't correct anyone on FB.

I quite often mix up to and too. I wouldn't always use capitals on FB either.

usualsuspect · 10/01/2013 15:52

If he updates using a blackberry it's really easy to hit the full stop button instead of the space bar.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 10/01/2013 15:59

YABU. You're not his teacher, you're his course mate. It might be he genuinely finds it hard to spell or it might not, but chances are you'll offend him by commenting on it.

VonHerrBurton · 10/01/2013 15:59

In short - if this bothers you, FB is most definatley an arena to be avoided. You will never beat them, nobody will listen to you and you will be laughed at. Like or lump - don't correct.

Original poster

FoxtrotFoxtrotSierra · 10/01/2013 16:04

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my OP. The comments are from pretty much everyone who posts on there, not from the guy who set it up.

I know I'd be unreasonable to do anything, it just astounds me that they write like this. I'm not that much older than them, surely!

The worst example I saw was when we had been in one of the writing classes. Someone posted "Well that was a waste of time, I no this stuff!" I was at that one as we'd just been going through the importance of using correct spellings and punctuation.

Maybe I shall just grumble at the computer like the grumpy old woman I am.

OP posts:

KellyElly · 10/01/2013 16:07

I wouldn't do it but I do notice it a lot of FB. I think schools have given up teaching the difference between 'your' and 'you're' and 'their', 'there' and 'they're'.

CaptChaos · 10/01/2013 16:08

Things like that make my teeth itch. I have an overwhelming urge to red pen all of it, but I forbear. Partly because I don't want to come across as the grammar police, and partly because no one seems to care.

Just rest easy in the knowledge that, while your tutor will dread reading any written work they produce, yours, with it's lovely grammar and correct spelling, will probably be left until last as a special treat, because it will be so much easier to read

usualsuspect · 10/01/2013 16:11

Do your teeth really itch?

LRDtheFeministDragon · 10/01/2013 16:11

I would be sniggering wickedly at 'I no this stuff'.

But I think all you can do is sit back and watch when they all cotton on ...

MaxPepsi · 10/01/2013 16:15

I hate obvious incorrect spellings but it's so easy to have a typo when you have autocorrect etc that I try not to let them bother me to much. it is bloody difficult though

However I get the feeling you are a mature student on some sort of English course????

If so, I would have no hesitation at all in correcting them.

usualsuspect · 10/01/2013 16:19

My member of the grammar police DS is always correcting other people on his FB newsfeed. [GRIN]

So I don't think schools have given up teaching the difference between your and your're etc. TBH.

auto correct is a pita as well.

JamNan · 10/01/2013 16:19

I've just received an email from the editor of a well-known magazine that contained the words 'could of' instead of 'could have'.

Please can I hold the gavel for a minute?

OK I'll trot orf over to Pendants' corner now .

Original poster

FoxtrotFoxtrotSierra · 10/01/2013 16:19

No, I'm on a science based course.

I think the tutors have learned over recent years that they have to teach us such gems as starting your name with a capital letter, a full stop being required at the end of every sentence, matching was/were to I/you etc.

I wonder if over the three years of the course I'll see any I improvement in their spelling. Or maybe they'll rub off on me and I'll be writing in text speak...

OP posts:

LRDtheFeministDragon · 10/01/2013 16:37

What's 'I improvement', foxtrot?

That's not a capital letter malfunction, is it?

Original poster

FoxtrotFoxtrotSierra · 10/01/2013 16:42

Balls, I knew I'd get something wrong on this thread somewhere!

It's an errant I that shouldn't be there. I expect because I wasn't paying attention. It's certainly not the same as saying "I no"

OP posts:

LRDtheFeministDragon · 10/01/2013 16:44

I know.

I think it may actually be part of OliviaMN's job to edit posts when someone starts a thread about spelling and slip the odd typo into the OP's posts.

It isn't the same, but I wonder how much what you're seeing has to do with age/teaching in schools and how much has to do with the fact that, as a mature student, you are coming to this with quite a different set of skills from the ones most school-leavers have anyway?

Mature students are notoriously hard-working and careful. First timers, not so much!

Original poster

FoxtrotFoxtrotSierra · 10/01/2013 16:46

But first-timers don't have MN to play on instead of revising!

ignores books for another few minutes

OP posts:

LRDtheFeministDragon · 10/01/2013 16:57

True.

Best of luck with the revision.

(The one that really gets me is 'research has proved ...' without any footnoted backup. Not a spelling issue, but still really annoying!)

speedyboots · 10/01/2013 17:02

I was in a fb group for my Primary PGCE a few years ago and I was always horrified by the their/there/they're and your/you're mistakes, considering these people were then supposed to go off and teach this stuff. I'm not (that) old, so I don't think it's an age thing. A really annoying one which I first saw there was 'here, here' instead of 'hear, hear.' I would never have corrected them though; if they don't know it, a comment on a facebook post isn't going to help.

Whatdoiknowanyway · 10/01/2013 17:06

It's to do with attitude as well though. I sat near a group of young students on a tube journey recently. One boy was an overseas students, another was very much a local girl. Her grammar was all over the place, her speech loud and hopelessly naive. So far, so none of my business. However I did exchange a smile with a fellow passenger of similar age to myself after the boy had made a comment about a particular (not in the least obscure) book relevant to their course which it became apparent the girl had never heard of, much less read. Her reaction - 'just because you've read books I haven't and understand what's in them don't mean you're superior to me or nothing'. Er, it's a pretty good indicator, particularly since it was in a language that wasnt his first language, but I wasn't going to say that.

IneedAgoldenNickname · 10/01/2013 17:12

I don't always use a capital letter when its needed on Facebook, because tbh when I'm in a hurry it's pita to do on my phone.

A friend of mine, who has always used 'trendy' spellings on Facebook, ie gawjus, recently planned to start college to become a primary teacher, and suddenly started correcting spelling/grammar mistakes from others. No one was impressed and she got totally flamed for it!

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