AIBU To Be Exasperated by Spelling Mistakes?

[DivingWithoutANet]

I can understand that once in a while spellcheck might confuse "you're" and "your", "his" and "he's", "there" and "they're" and retypes what someone wrote.

But some posts are just littered with these and other spelling mistakes with a generous sprinkling of "ur" for good measure.

Is it unreasonable to stop reading someone's post just because the spelling is awful? After all this is not a literary club so anyone can write how they wish.

What is it you love about spelling threads, Poppy?

It's an AIBU thread, I think the OP isn't, you think they are. You are entitled to you opinion just like i am to mine, no "frothing" necessary thank you.

myyoyo as i said, i am always willing to learn and would find it helpful if you would point out my mistake.

...pedants' corner...
(Unless s/he is all alone.)

Thank you. I struggle with those.

You are entitled to you

and as if to prove a point

We often used to have this debate on TES. Some used to argue that because they were "relaxing" and "not at work, they didn't need to be accurate when posting because they had switched off. That was a ludicrous argument because if accurate spelling and grammar come naturally to you, you are going to write properly.

PoppyBirdOnAWire

We often used to have this debate on TES. Some used to argue that because they were "relaxing" and "not at work", they didn't need to be accurate when posting because they had switched off. That was a ludicrous argument because if accurate spelling and grammar come naturally to you, you are going to write properly.

Dropped your qoutation mark there, sloppy Poppy.

Hahaha.

That was a ludicrous argument because if accurate spelling and grammar come naturally to you, you are going to write properly.

came naturally or comes naturally?

or is it come.....doubting myself now

I have never struggled to read a post on Mumsnet

You're lucky. I have great difficulties with the long rambling posts (especially the troll-like ones), that describe complex situations in intimate detail, complete with lots of personal names that are generally irrelevant to the story, and that go on and on and on without a single mark of punctuation or capitalisation to indicate the start of a new sentence.

I find it a really interesting discussion (although I remain true to my original opinion - that criticizing a poster for poor grammar/spelling is unkind and unnecessary; would the grammar pedants do this in real life?).

In the OP, the poster states: However, this is not a literary club so anyone can write how they wish (I have issues with that sentence construction, anyway ). Some of the greatest works of literature do not follow traditional grammatical 'rules' (Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road'; J D Salinger's 'The Catcher In the Rye' and pretty much all of Irvine Welsh's writing).

I should probably also mention that rather famous playwright, William Shakespeare, who, I believe, actually created his own words. In other words, language is constantly evolving - if it didn't, then Shakespeare would have been derided on Mumsnet.

I see you're saying but at what point is it evolution rather than laziness?

Good point, lost. I really don't know. I do find it a bit depressing that the evolution of language, while natural to some degree, may result in 'text speak' becoming the norm. I hope not! I'm all for new words, and exploring how grammatical 'norms' can be played about with, but I'm not so keen on abbreviating everything down to the bare minimum. We might as well go back to grunting at each other.

I also think that there is a difference between laziness and not being able to access decent education. The latter should be a right for every child, and yet there are still many school-leavers who have been badly let down by the system. I don't think it's fair that they are judged for what is a societal failing, rather than a personal one.

Completely agree.

I have been corrected and it's helped my appreciation of the beauty that can be found in language. I don't take offence at being picked up on my grammar (i'm the first to admit it's not great), and the ones above to me were made in jest but correct nonetheless.

We might as well go back to grunting at each other.

made me laugh

Thinking about it, i also find it weird that where spelling and grammar are concerned it's not acceptable to comment, but judging from recent threads using "cuppa" or "hubby" it's perfectly acceptable to comment.

Historically, we are currently at our most literate. It might be also be interesting to note that Medieval Latin and English documents are full of abbreviations.

Why don't you hang around on PC Poppy, if "spelling" threads float your boat to such an extent that you feel the need to bump a dying one?

It wouldn't be because it's not actually the spelling itself you like so much, but the goadyfuckery now, would it?

On a serious note though, I do agree that the education system is largely to blame for the current level of what we might perceive to be "good" use of English.

That's what you get for handing the power to parents who fill chat boards day in day out with their bletherings about Junior being scarred for life because he had to learn 5 words for next Friday I guess. Or wanting to "smack teachers' faces in" for correcting a piece of written work. Ad nauseum.

I do wonder why people get so aggressive on this subject. Sure, it's absolutely not acceptable to pick up an individual poster on SpaG errors (with, perhaps, the exception of goady posters making out they're perfect, or other people who are moaning about SpaG whilst making mistakes themselves); but why is it so terrible to say you prefer writing that is clear and comprehensible as a general principle? It's not making yourself out to be superior, it's just an expression of opinion and essentially no different to, for instance, saying that you hate a particular fashion, author, film or whatever. The vitriol expressed on here about it is way out of proportion.

Pah. I was going to ignore this thread until the comment about militant anti-grammar

Language is a constantly changing and evolving beast. Every native speaker of a language is an expert in the grammar of that language.

Spelling used to be much more phonetic and variable than it is now. (Shakespeare spells the same words in multiple ways.)

Then some bright sparks - (mostly rich white men) decided that we needed were some written 'rules'. These rules were based on a socially selective understanding of correct usage - intended to be sources of social and moral guidance.

Current government guidance on SpAG - flies in the face of what linguistic academics and researchers are trying to to - namely to move away from the notion of fixed rules.

The research of social media and message boards etc is a particularly interesting area - as it is written speech that has much more in common with spoken speech.

So - teaching kids to use the correct grammar/spelling/registers/style of writing etc etc - is important - but really in the context of a forum post - or chatting with mates etc - the odd spelling mistake, use of the 'wrong' word etc etc - meh. Got better things to worry about.

Lady, I deplore text speak, abbreviations, (so much so that I don't even conform to D-anything that is prevalent here) and misspelling. I don't like massive bodies of text without paragraphs nor do I enjoy reading colloquialisms, I wanted to make that really clear.

What I detest more than the above though is the self-righteous and often incorrect postings that follow from spelling and grammar zealots who think that they have the God-given right to chide other posters. The spouting is unsolicited and, as can be seen from this thread, just serves to derail whilst the giggly twittering goes on between the vapid who pick up their own and each other's mistakes.

If somebody asks you - or gives you carte blanche - to correct their posts then knock yourselves out. If not, have the grace and good manners to shut up.

Just stop it. It's not amusing or illuminating and without exception, posters that do it come across as arseholes. There is a board where this sort of this is welcomed. It's ill-mannered to stop yourself from blurting out corrections elsewhere. Other posters have told you why. Unless you are supremely thick-witted, it's not a difficult concept to grasp.