JoeP Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 There's a few issues here that I'd like to comment on. (This posting will probably take me twice as long as might be expected to type because I'm going to try and get spelling, grammar and capitalisation correct...:-) ) In linguistic terms, English is a language with a high level of redundancy. You can write sentences and omit letters and words and even phrases and still make out the meaning of the sentence. This is why we can use abbreviations and text-english, for example more easily in english than in some other languages. When I was at school, I suffered quite badly (some issues to do with being made to use my right hand for writing rather than my left hand) in terms of my writing and some spelling, and for many years maintained the belief that if the content of what I wrote was OK, then the appearance and spelling was less important. However, a few teachers let me in on the secret - people will often treat bad spelling, grammar and handwriting as a sign of sloppiness, laziness and wooly thinking. Whether that's true or not, and I believe that it's twaddle, it's a big enough issue to make me try and consider carefully what I write. And, when the arguments on here get very fierce, there are always a few people who'll take up the name-calling approach of criticising spelling, so by taking care of spelling, etc. you take away a weapon from your debating opponent! Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy78 Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 That is true joe. One thing that poor spelling does is give amunition to someone who has nothing better to argue with. To be honest, I generally do check my spelling, but my grammar is far from perfect. I dont's see it as a major issue though as it rarely causes me problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 I have a really silly typing 'habit' where I transpose vowles and consonants, so that 'the' gets typed as 'teh' when I'm in a hurry. The stupidest thing I did was to accidentally add 'teh' to the spell checker in Word. Took me ages to work out why everyone was making cracks about 'teh'.... My other favourite spelling error triggered by this typing anomaly is to type 'sue' instead of 'use'. So, I sue Microsoft softwrae rather than I use Microsoft software....:-) Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 Originally posted by Snook But isn't it rude to correct people if you don't know the reason? You could really be effecting someone's self esteem and confidence. ...or downright ungracious/ungrateful... "Dear Gran, Thank you for the cheque you sent me for my birthday. It was nice to hear from you again, but I do wish you would pay more attention to your spelling and grammar...." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snook Posted July 21, 2004 Share Posted July 21, 2004 I was also forced to write with my right hand instead of my left. Because of this i have always been somewhat ashamed of my handwriting. Probably not made better by my poor spelling because of my dyslexia. I am also dyspracsic... (awwwww, its a hard life)... but i have managed to do a degree, and hold down jobs with no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiris Posted July 22, 2004 Share Posted July 22, 2004 Given that the language in this country has enough different dialects to confuse someone from only a short distance away, perhaps we should look to use a formalised english when communicating with anyone we don't know to be familiar with our own, personal use of english. Otherwise, in response to a simple question like, for example: would anyone care to go biking in sheffield this weekend? one may end up with reponses like: personw:ay (lincolnshire for pardon?) personx:r (norfolk for yes) persony:aye (sheffield for yes) personz:i (shef tx for yes) yet to anyone not familiar with colloquialisms the conversation would read ay r aye i and the question, in their mind, remains unanswered! So in conclusion, whilst obvious errors, due to speed typing ineffeiciently or similar, are in general ok & understandable, the complete bastardisation of our language is unacceptable. Please, for the sanity of those who could be bothered to at least try to understand to one's best, the medium through which we communicate, make an effort to improve yourselves instead of giving weak excuses for laziness. Otherwise you remain mindless cogs in the machine, whose ignorance is exceeded only by your inability to grasp that learning of all and any forms is better than any freedom you think you are excersizing. Anyone who believes I am posh, or a snob, or even trying to degrade would probably benefit from knowing there is a support group out there just for you: http://www.chavscum.co.uk Thankyou for reading my rant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeknom Posted July 22, 2004 Share Posted July 22, 2004 did you know i can't spel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedhead Posted July 22, 2004 Share Posted July 22, 2004 Doesn't bother me so long as i can make sense of a sentence but, rightly or wrongly it does create an impression of the person Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimicraze Posted July 22, 2004 Share Posted July 22, 2004 imo, i dont get an impression of the person by the way they spell, most of the time i don't need to check if i have spelt something correctly, as i am always looking at the screen when i am typing so I can see what i'm writing but sometimes i just can't be bothered, and therefore shorten my words, people get tired and to them how they spell on the sheffield forum doesn't have any relevance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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