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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

am I the only one who is irationally irritated by people who don't use punctuation?

40 replies

wannaBe · 25/11/2008 13:13

As a rule I am not a pedant, and my spelling can be questionable .

But when I come across sentences where people use no punctuation it irritates me irationally. partly I think because when the screen reader reads it, it reads it in one long string, so I almost expect it to take a deep breath when it's finished.

And surely it must be really hard to read?

OP posts:
nickytwotimes · 25/11/2008 13:14

You are not alone.

it makes it hard to read.

TheButterflyEffect · 25/11/2008 13:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

misshardbroom · 25/11/2008 13:19

YANBU.

At all.

Not even a tiny bit.

And please don't set me off about the misuse of apostrophes to form a plural.

notnowbernard · 25/11/2008 13:20

Lack of paragraphs is annoying - it stops me from reading the post

As is text-speak

wannaBe · 25/11/2008 13:21

sometimes though even though people put a full stop at the end, they write huge long sentences with no commas in the middle.

I do hate text speak too - and screenreader speaks it differently so it's blatantly obvious!

OP posts:
Lilymaid · 25/11/2008 13:21

YANBirrational!

cheesesarnie · 25/11/2008 13:22

im rubbish at punctuation but i do try.

i do agree i find text speak harder to read though.

TheButterflyEffect · 25/11/2008 13:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

nickytwotimes · 25/11/2008 13:22

Oh, dear lord, don't get me started on bloody text speak.
I don't even like that in a text message.

needmorecoffee · 25/11/2008 13:22

irritates me too but not as much as text-speak.

stealthsquiggle · 25/11/2008 13:22

YANBU.

I just give up, personally. Which is a shame, in a way, if there is something valid being said amongst the lack of punctuation. It is hard to read, and it must be equally hard to keep track of a paragraph-long sentence when it is read by the screen reader.

tjacksonpfc · 25/11/2008 13:24

I'm so sorry, wannaBe about failing to use punctuation on my response to a thread.

Next time i will spend more time punctuating it.

Is this better? Do i get a gold star now! Pretty please.

auntyspan · 25/11/2008 13:24

Blimey you can tell Cod hasn't been here for a while - not she ever knew where the punctuation keys were on her keyboard

I hate text speak and my pet hate is bad punctuation. When my nephew texts me I visibly wince...so YANBU!

stealthsquiggle · 25/11/2008 13:24

I used to think (and I know DH still thinks) that my DM and I were the only people in the world who used punctuation in text messages - I am now reasonably confident that I am not alone

auntyspan · 25/11/2008 13:24

not sure she ever knew

ShowOfHands · 25/11/2008 13:28

wannabe, how did your screen reader cope with cod's illiterate scrawl?

Did you find out what was making you poorly?

belgo · 25/11/2008 13:30

YANBU. Sometimes lack of punctuation changes the meaning of a word - 'I'll' becomes 'ill' for example. It does make it harder to read.

wannaBe · 25/11/2008 13:31

I anally write out my text messages word for word, with punctuation too.

I have friends who write their text messages to me word for word because they thought that text speak upsets the screenreader. I haven't felt the need to set them straight.

OP posts:
wannaBe · 25/11/2008 13:33

SOH it was like a whole new language.

It turned out to be a virus. Blood all came back clear, and the next week the head at ds' school told me she'd been to a meeting that day and one of the other heads had had exactly the same thing.

It's gone down now thankfully.

OP posts:
VinegarTits · 25/11/2008 13:34
blueshoes · 25/11/2008 13:35

Lack of punctuation is lazy and inconsiderate to the reader. My mental image of the writer is one of a rather untidily dressed and disorganised one.

I also punctuate my text messages.

belgo · 25/11/2008 13:37

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's lazy and inconsiderate - when I see lack of punctuation I imagine a mother typing one handed whilst breastfeeding or multi-tasking in some other way. It just makes it very hard to understand.

blueshoes · 25/11/2008 13:38

but belgo, it is as easy to reach for a '.' and return key on the keyboard as it is an 'a'. I have typed one-handed and bf-ing before.

belgo · 25/11/2008 13:40
Grin
claw3 · 25/11/2008 13:43

Surely what someone is saying is far more important.

Nit picking is my pet hate.