Grammar on the forum

[amey01]

There has recently been an increase in the amount of incorrect grammar and spelling on the forums. I know I've been guilty at times too.

Problem is, some posts are exceedingly difficult to read, especially with the indiscriminate use of words such as "their", "there" and "they're".

I know a lot of us are from non-English speaking countries, but for the rest of us, could we please make the effort to read our posts before clicking "Submit"?

[Bernard]

Now you done gone and stirred the pot!

I don't think I'm guilty of that particular transgression.

I agree that there is a lot of bad grammar used on this forum, but I can usually get the idea. I think that some people don't know any better (their mistakes are consistent).

What annoys me (in addition to wide-load pictures that make you scroll horizontally) is humongous posts all in one paragraph, as well as one recent poster whose lines are all about 40 characters wide.

It also annoys me when people unnecessarily quote large posts - makes for a lot of unnecessary scrolling. Why not quote only the relevant section?

End of rant.

[Rich]

I agree wholeheartedly with both of you. But don't expect any changes anytime soon. Seems like some of the folks guilty of these transgressions are stubbornly proud of their inability to communicate in their native language and have no desire to go to any effort to make their posts more readable.

Look on the bright side, though. It gives you a really quick and easy way to determine the credibility of what they are saying. In my experience, a lot of the folks who can't bother to spellcheck and edit for grammar before they post are the same folks who spend very little time cognitively considering the substance of what they are saying. I don't waste too much time trying to read these posts anymore.

[Speedskater]

Over the years the old audio newsgroups and now the forums have had skilled audio professionals that would (and still do) write very informative posts. But these skilled professionals would often have a large number of typos and errors. Should we censor or discourage these posts based on typos?

[User211]

Wots all dis stuff bout bad gwammar? U can understond wot I is seying con't u?

Bad grammar doesn't bother me too much. On occasions it even makes me smile. And just because a poster may not have had the benefit of a good education, or does not have the desire to improve his/her English skills, doesn't mean they can't make a good point.

This is not an elitist group of intellectuals. It is a public forum, and anyone with a genuine interest in the subject matter should be able to post on it. And that includes people from other countries who may not have the best English skills.

[MiTT]

It's a pet peeve of mine (and yes I know I can occasionally be guilty).

Punctuation and capitalization should be in there too.

There's a big difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse" and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse".

[Jimna]

There's a big difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse" and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse".

That made me spit my coffee out my nose.

[Rich]

Over the years the old audio newsgroups and now the forums have had skilled audio professionals that would (and still do) write very informative posts. But these skilled professionals would often have a large number of typos and errors. Should we censor or discourage these posts based on typos?

Censor? No. Discourage posting? No. Encourage the posters to show others the common courtesy of at least trying to edit their posts for grammar and spelling before posting? Absolutely.

Elitist? No. This is just a simple expectation of common courtesy. If you are going to communicate with others in a public forum, then you need to learn how to communicate your thoughts in a way that they can be understood. If others can't understand what you write half the time because you are too lazy to do some basic grammar and spell checking, then in my opinion that is just being rude. No different than pushing down the caps lock button before writing your post.

When I go to a social gathering, I take a shower, brush my teeth, and put on some decent clothes beforehand. This is out of simple courtesy and respect for the people at that gathering, as well as my own self-respect. If I came to such a gathering slovenly and smelly, I would expect a bit of ridicule and loss of respect. If I don't show respect for myself by how I present to others, why should I expect them to show me any respect at all? The online public forum isn't that much different.

An occasional spelling or grammar error is one thing. But when just about every post made by someone is ripe with spelling errors, lack of capitalization or punctuation, run-on sentences, and so on, that just shows a complete lack of respect for themselves as well as for the community they are trying to communicate with.

And no, Justin, we are not referring to those for whom English is a secondary language. Truthfully though, in my experience, most of them tend to do a better job with English spelling, punctuation, and grammar than many who were born and raised in America. For one reason: because they TRY!

[User211]

And no, Justin, we are not referring to those for whom English is a secondary language. Truthfully though, in my experience, most of them tend to do a better job with English spelling, punctuation, and grammar than many who were born and raised in America. For one reason: because they TRY!

Hm... if we want to get pedantic, then really it is only the English that speak English. Americans seems to use some strange variation of it, as far as we see it this side of the pond. No offense/offence intended of course! You guys can't even get "analogue" right

American and British English differences

[RichTeer]

Hm... if we want to get pedantic, then really it is only the English that speak English. Americans seems to use some strange variation of it, as far as we see it this side of the pond. No offense/offence intended of course! You guys can't even get "analogue" right

American and British English differences

With tongue half in cheek, I agree! The language is called "English" for a reason, but I doubt we'll ever be able to convince our American friends that colour (and similar words) really are spelt with a "u". Or that "could care less" and "couldn't care less" have completely opposite meanings, and that "insure" and "ensure" also have completely different meanings.

[User211]

When I go to a social gathering, I take a shower, brush my teeth, and put on some decent clothes beforehand. This is out of simple courtesy and respect for the people at that gathering, as well as my own self-respect. If I came to such a gathering slovenly and smelly, I would expect a bit of ridicule and loss of respect. If I don't show respect for myself by how I present to others, why should I expect them to show me any respect at all? The online public forum isn't that much different.

Oh and Rich - if this analogy is a good one, then I expect you to be well groomed before you make any forum posts!

Please make certain this is the case. You know I do - as a matter of fact I had a bath only a few hours ago. I'm clean as a whistle.

[Rich]

Hm... if we want to get pedantic, then really it is only the English that speak English. Americans seems to use some strange variation of it, as far as we see it this side of the pond. No offense/offence intended of course! You guys can't even get "analogue" right

Justin, different dialects are not different languages. We speak English here as our native language, even though we have our own regional variations of certain words and phrases. I know you are being tongue-in-cheek here, but regional differences in dialect are not what we are talking about in this thread. We are talking about constant and consistent grammar, punctuation and spelling errors by certain posters communicating in what is their native language. We may drive on the wrong side of the road here, too, as far as you are concerned, but a stop sign is still a stop sign and speed limits are still speed limits (and still meant to be ignored ).

The reason I singled out Americans in my post is because, of all the native-English speakers on the forums, I see this kind of poor grammar and punctuation from Americans way more than from English, Canadian, Aussie and other English-speaking people.

Oh and Rich - if this analogy is a good one, then I expect you to be well groomed before you make any forum posts!

Please make certain this is the case. You know I do - as a matter of fact I had a bath only a few hours ago. I'm clean as a whistle.

Glad to hear that you are clean and good-smelling right now, but you seem to have missed the point of the example. When I go to a party, people can see me and smell me. Thus the need to consider how I present my appearance. Online, people only have the text to go by. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand the concept that slovenly grammar and punctuation will be looked down upon on an internet forum just as a slovenly appearance would at a party.

If someone doesn't care enough about their own opinion to at least make a small effort at presenting it in an acceptable manner, then why should anyone else care to try to decipher it? When a poster consistently posts comments loaded with spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, then it is clear that they are not even trying. That is lazy and, in my opinion, rude.

[User211]

Rich - I think it really just depends on where your sensitivities lie.

If I'm honest about it, I can't help but not be impressed by poor grammar/presentation/spelling or just a plain lack of ability to express oneself clearly. But I don't get annoyed by it (at least, the grammar/presentation/spelling bit) , or nor does it upset me. In fact, I don't even find it rude.

In my opinion, a more problematical aspect of posting on forums is ambiguity - where statements are taken as meaning one thing, but were in fact intended to mean something else (I probably didn't need to define that did I? Hey ho - at least no ambiguity there). The other problem is that the people posting, for the most part, simply don't know each other. This can exacerbate the ambiguity problem and cause conflicts where otherwise none would exist.

Where forum members have been in conflict with each other in the past, the ambiguity problem only gets inflamed, since it is likely that only the negative possible interpretations of any given statement suffering from this ailment will be taken as the intent.

"It's all good", as they say...

[User211]

Glad to hear that you are clean and good-smelling right now, but you seem to have missed the point of the example. When I go to a party, people can see me and smell me. Thus the need to consider how I present my appearance. Online, people only have the text to go by. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand the concept that slovenly grammar and punctuation will be looked down upon on an internet forum just as a slovenly appearance would at a party.

BTW: for the record I did get the point of your post. My reply was simply a joke.

[Rich]

BTW: for the record I did get the point of your post. My reply was simply a joke.

Yeah, I know. But you know me . . . I can't let sleeping dogs lie (or is it lay?) when there are dead horses to kick. (How's that for mixing your metaphors?)

By the way, I do wholeheartedly agree with you on the ambiguity issue.