Grammar and spelling (both irrelevant derailing and pedantic threads)

[TheEntertainerr]

Just read a couple of threads and need to rant.

1. There is no need to pull other posters up on spelling and grammar. It's irrelevant and derails the thread. If you disagree with a poster, it's okay to disagree with them. Disagree and state your point of view. If you understand what they're getting at, there is no need to pick them up on spelling/grammar. The motives are clear, you've taken a dislike/disagree and trying to score a petty point, in order to validate your belief that you're better/superior. Don't! You don't appear more intelligent/educated/knowledgeable. Just someone who is either incapable of disagreeing or effectively countering an argument.

2. Threads about poor grammar and spelling. Okay, some particular mistakes may really irritate people. I get it. Vent it, but quit while you're ahead. Don't cast aspersions - people being under-educated - based on one particular mistake. By all means, do so if you're that confident with your own ability and that your posts will hold up against the same level of scrutiny. Ironically, they often don't.

Rant over.

agree with you OP but the huge posts with no paragraphs are awful to read. I don’t think it’s bad manners to ask for a poster to use them personally.

Some people don't know how to use them. Are you going to take the time to teach them?

I honestly don’t believe that people don’t know how to use paragraphs!

@bee222 an interesting read. I remember when my DS sold her tea set to a secondhand/antique shop and she received a bad deal for it. But she assumed that it was fair as the proprietor was 'well spoken'.

@chocatoo digressing, but in speech I contract 'should/could have' to 'should/could've' and it sounds like 'of'. In my mind I'm clearly contracting. My ex liked to 'correct me' and felt smug in doing so as being his second language was getting one up on correcting a native. I don't know how to get round this, apart from not contracting. I blame my estuary accent.

I am not even native English speaker and could of always makes me shrug a bit. Once I saw poster use of instead of have in a normal sentence. Not could have, something like "I have to xxx". That was bit too much and I abandoned the thread...
I kniw I make lots of mistakes too, but "of" instead of have is just a basic grammar slaughter. Imho it is like saying "I are" .

Speech is one thing. Writing “of” when it’s “have” is entirely different, surely?

Some people don't know how to use them. Are you going to take the time to teach them?

Do you think it would go down well?

Honestly, I must make mistakes a lot. I'm dyslexic, I type fast and I tend to not proof read 🙈

I can write to a decent enough standard, it's just takes me a lot longer than other people as I have to read over what I write a few times and if I am doing an essay (I'm doing my second degree) then I need to have the computer read things back to me as I often read words that look similar wrong. So when I'm writing informally I know I do make mistakes.

However, I have never been corrected on MN and for the most part I wouldn't mind as long as it wasn't done in a way that said "you're stupid so what you say is irrelevant". Equally I notice mistakes in other people's writing, on the whole it's not something that bothers me, but if there is no paragraphs or punctuation then I just skip the thread.

@IvanaPee Yes. But I would only point it out if I was proof reading reports/communications at work, with my DD, or sometimes non-native English speakers who have asked me to correct them. I wouldn't do it publicly.

*Some people don't know how to use them. Are you going to take the time to teach them?

Do you think it would go down well?*

Nope, so really no point correcting them.

Honestly, threads that rant about how this forum should be used by someone who doesn’t own the forum piss me off much more.
Your post is essentially trying to tell posters what they should be posting... can you see the irony?

I defiantly agree!

I would never correct somebody unless they fired the opening salvo, although 'could of' etc is beyond irritating. A few typos or wrong spellings don't particularly irk me, but when it's so poorly written or nothing but text speak, my eyes just skip over it as I genuinely can't understand it. The same is true with actual texts that employ extensive text speak. I don't understand why people actually do it - it made sense when every letter might require you to jab a button 4 times, but now just about everybody has a full (on-screen) keyboard and suggestions as to what the next word might be, it just seems so anachronistic and pointless.

I'm really not exaggerating, but I'd much rather have a punt (using my moderate A-level skills from long ago) at reading a post in French rather than in full-on text speak. It's the same when people are speaking and every other word is 'like' - I don't mean anything unkind by it, but my brain just fails to identify it as language that I should expect to comprehend and automatically switches off.

I defiantly agree!

The one that especially annoys me is a spoken one - when people are discussing the correct 'pronounciation' of a word at length and yet apparently don't even know how to pronounce the word 'pronunciation'. I still wouldn't correct them although I would most probably deliberately use the word correctly in my next sentence spoken amongst the perpetrators.

If they lack education, shouldn't they be pleased to be getting some? Free of charge too. I like learning new stuff, to fill in the gaps in my knowledge.

*Eh, no. People on here don't do it out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to embarrass and belittle. If they lack education, shouldn't they be pleased to be getting some? Free of charge too. I like learning new stuff, to fill in the gaps in my knowledge.

Eh, no. People on here don't do it out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to embarrass and belittle. No one is going to be thankful for that. It's pathetic..*

Well I would be. I don't care why they've done it. If I learn something new, it's to my benefit.

What I don't like are phrases like "No one is going to be thankful for that. It's pathetic."

Who are you to say that? You can give your own opinion, but don't presume to talk for everyone. You might not be grateful, but don't say no one is. Because I am, so you're wrong.

For some people, correct SPaG is all that actually matters

Eh, no. People on here don't do it out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to embarrass and belittle.

Not necessarily. There was a thread on here a while ago with a very long OP asking about being a 'marta', repeating the word a number of times. Some people did point it out as an aside, whilst answering the actual question, but not unkindly at all.

It made it quite difficult to understand at first - some posters thought from the title that it was a baby name thread about Polish girls' names as in 'Being a Marta or being a Magda: which do you think my Gdansk-born daughter would prefer?' !

Drogosnextwife if someone explained that my huge paragraph less posts were hard to read and would I mind using them in future I wouldn’t be annoyed or offended. I’d be glad that they’d pointed it out tbh.

Lifecraft

I think it's more likely that you are one of the SPAG police.
You seem to have your knickers in a bit of a twist over my opinion. It's unesassary.

NoSauce

See, I managed to read your post, and didn't have much difficulty understanding what you meant.

Eh? My post wasn’t a huge one though. I’m talking the war and peace ones with no break.

I'm not talking about paragraphs.

Okaaay then. Give me a clue then because paragraphs is all I’ve mentioned here.

No no, I can't be a hypocrite.

You’ve been sat out in the sun too long haven’t you?