Unashamedly a TAAT!

[JudgeRinderSays]

AIBU to think MN should ban grammar and spelling pedantry on all forums except the one explicitly for this purpose.
It is so F*cking tedious!

Well that's not quite what I meant ConfusedInBath.
My point is that if these people are passionate education driven pedants then they would correct all posts.

But they don't. They pick on a poster starting a new thread and pile in with the safety of numbers.

But nice use of status there.

Could you post this in Site stuff.

Oh Beehoven I rememeber that thread, was it fairly recent? I opened it and closed it again.
So many mood hoovers on here, sucking up all the fun.

To be honest, the type of poster who comes onto a thread to simply point out a spelling or grammatical error, usually comes across as dull, unimaginative and not particularly engaging. And they certainly don't come across as any more intelligent than posters who don't notice, or aren't bothered by, such errors because they're more interested in the actual content of the post.

Lulu I don't know if you've noticed but that is the point of a discussion forum. People disagree and debate. The vast majority of people come here knowing, wanting and accepting that people will disagree with them. Coming on a site like this is tacit agreement that you accept that. There's no such similar feeling about grammar because this is not a spelling and grammar site and no such expectation of correction is assumed.

If you put £50,000 for a costing of £80,000 in you would be an incompetent who hadn't made basic checks on their work, could potentially have caused huge problems for your work and probably deserved to be sacked.

If you are being examined for English you need, of course, to check and recheck what you are writing and ensure it is correct.

But for some random person on an internet site to insist that what they read is treated with the same kind of attention to detail as a work based report or an examination environment is the worst kind of pomposity resulting from an over inflated ego and sense of self importance.

Which I think is what the grammar pedants need to realise. Their irritation means zilch in the great scheme of things. Nobody cares, it adds nothing to the discussion. Anybody who can't see the difference between a web forum and examination English is obviously also somewhat lacking in the ability to tailor their writing to an appropriate situation anyway, so they probably shouldn't be dishing out writing advice in the first place.

Because I don't start many threads and I tend to post 'oh fuck off you sanctimonious wanker' so I doubt I am quite the fun they seek.

They want a poster who seems new and preferably hesitant and does not respond robustly in the first few minutes. To be honest you have to be either not to know by now that this have/of is a thing just now.

I would like to try it actually . They do arrive as a pack. They clearly look through titles and pounce as soon as they see one.

I haven't (should that be of'vent?) read the threads this thread is about because I can't bear to open a thread with 'should of' in the title, but I agree with a pp that they tend to be more lighthearted threads.

I of'vent seen (see what I did there?) a thread where a poster says 'should I of killed myself' or 'should my DH of hit me?' and then the responses are just 'have, have, have!'. People are helpful when help is really needed. Don't be afraid to send your friends or dc here just because you're afraid of the grammar police.

Also, why don't people just say 'thank you' when they are corrected, if they were unlucky to have teachers who didn't teach grammar and therefore didn't learn it at school?

pag, I've been reading and silently applauding.

And I agree with your points about why and how people attack.

FWIW I'm a fairly confident poster and usually quite happy to hold my own in a bunfight, but last year someone sneered at me about SPAG, told me I wasn't competent to do my job (which I'd just got so was feeling nervous), and I ended up in tears over it.

If someone can do that to me, someone who's confident and fairly well educated, and not suffering trauma like dixie mentioned up thread, then it must feel absolutely shit to someone who's less confident and having a bad time.

Yanbu
It's like having a conversation with a group of people then someone else in the room running across and barging in just to correct someones use of language. You are a twat if you do that, and shouldn't be offended if someone else calls you out on your twattish behaviour.

This is a Internet forum, not a job application or exam. I will always ask for help with those sort of things.

"Also, why don't people just say 'thank you' when they are corrected, if they were unlucky to have teachers who didn't teach grammar and therefore didn't learn it at school?"

Do you apply that in real life situations as well Kawliga. Rudely correct people when they're speaking, potentially embarrassing them in front of other people, and then expect them to say 'thank you' because someone with a 'superior education' has been gracious enough to 'help' them?

"I don't mind someone saying ' it's have OP not of ' that's not offensive."

Yes, it is.

YY, I do hate the idea we should all be grateful for corrections.

If you're someone who persistently makes mistakes, whether that's ignorance or poor education or some kind of learning disability, it is really shit to have a zillion people expecting you to be ever so grateful when they've just made you feel rotten.

I find the anti grammar police as annoying as the grammar police.

Some people get irritated by bad grammar. (I do. Or rather by careless grammar and spelling.) If you want to use bad grammar on an internet forum you need to accept that some people will get annoyed by it. They may or may not voice their annoyance.

I agree that it is unnecessary to point out mistakes more than once (I really don't understand why people pile in on a thread correcting the same mistake). I also agree that if a poster is clearly in distress and need of help then such corrections are bad manners.

Accuracy in writing does matter.

Nobody's 'anti-grammar' on here. That doesn't even make sense Awake

Ah, of course, awake. People do it because they want to, just out of a desire to annoy you.

It's like those irritating people who will insist on using wheelchairs. The fuckers.

^
This is sarcasm. Not a direct analogy.

YABU. It's bad manners not to make a reasonable effort to write clearly, and with things like "could of" the dyslexia excuse just won't watch - that is not an error that is characteristic of dyslexia. Equally "I had a poor education" won't wash: if, after 11 years' compulsory schooling you haven't learnt that "could of" is totally unacceptable, then you need to learn now.

It is also noticeable that those who object are frequently incredibly aggressive and offensive about it. There is clearly some sort of reverse snobbery in operation and that sort of post should clearly be banned - not least because it tends to descend into personal abuse and break MN guidelines anyway.

However, I would be in favour of a general principle that (a) you don't do it if the OP is clearly reaching out for help and is emotionally vulnerable for any reason: and (b) you read the thread first and don't repeat it if someone else has already pointed it out.

For the poster who asked about books, I wouldn't read Eats Shoots and Leaves and such books to learn grammar. Such books are usually discussing common errors (probably 'should of' is in there) and are mostly for the delectation and delight of those who learned grammar at school - by making fun of errors (hence the title, which is intended to be amusing). I enjoy these books (Strictly English is another good one) but wouldn't read them to learn grammar. They just reinforce what is already known.

I would get a book that's actually intended to teach basic grammar, either for school children or for those learning English as a second language. I know it feels weird to do this if you are a native speaker but it's the best way.

It is an error characteristic of dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a broad condition, but many dyslexic people struggle to automate the connections between the sound of a word, the shape and sequence of the letters on the page, and the muscle memories that allow you to type and write fluently.

If you are someone who is prone to confuse homophones, as many dyslexics do, you could intend to type ''ve' and type 'of'. It is not unusual, and doesn't necessarily indicate that you don't understand the grammar.

Some dyslexics also find grammatical structure very hard to grasp, too.

if you want to use bad grammar on an Internet forum

Yes awake all people using bad grammar and spelling do so because they want to . Hmmmm maybe not, maybe they do so because they cannot help it for reasons that have been pointed out already or maybe because frankly they don't care about spelling and grammar when they are doing something for fun.

I'm quite happy to be corrected, if it's well-meaning, but too many of those doing the correcting seem to want to demonstrate their self-declared superiority, and in the process, to belittle the recipient.

I don't think it's reverse snobbery to find it distasteful when someone is being picked on by their self-appointed intellectual superior.

I'm certainly not anti-grammar or spelling and will sometimes lurk in pendants corner, to re-educate myself. But I will probably forget it most of it by next week.

I would just like to post without spending hours checking my few lines of writing for mistakes. Just to keep a twat at bay.

I like pedant's corner. I like pedantry in general. Just, it should be something to chat about in a geeky way, not something used to make people feel bad.

*Forget most of it a week later