Pedantry and the state of written English.

[Manonabike]

English is not my first language but I seriously try my best not to make mistakes, however, I've noticed that I have picked up bad habits writing in forums perhaps one can relax too much.

I see some massive mistakes made by people here and other forums but since English is not my first language I feel I have no right to say anything I probably make worst mistakes I just don't know it.

I see lots of mistakes and some of which one can consider simply as poor English, ie "do" instead of "does" "there" instead of "their", etc. However, the style of mistakes that really annoys me is what I call lazy English and that is mobile phone writing style being used elsewhere.

I don't mind being corrected, in fact, I appreciate that very much.

 

[Aperitif]

It would be interesting to know whether the culprits are youngsters. I suspect they are, I see it as a sad indictment of our failing education system.

I have the automatic spell check on so that most mistakes and typo's are picked up.

When I see posts where capitols are not used or are written in text-speak, I tend to not bother to read them, it's too much hard work.

 

[Over The Hill]

The one thing that has be reaching for the Big Stick is : "I could of done that" - or similar non sentences. Refreshingly rare in these parts but depressingly common on a footie message board I frequent.

Is the problem there that the written word has not kept up with the spoken word?

The example is where a common shortening "Could have" is shortened to Could've" which really is not too bad and far better that the American version Coulda (or cuda even) has not been adopted into the written word and so the none too bright writer has grabbed a soundalike word to substitute.

If this upsets you then why do you accept fo'c'sle as a word which was shortened a long time ago. Or Pram Bus Car and endless other shortenings.



I am fairly bad at spelling and I work hard to ensure I am 100% correct at work so tend to ease off a bit on here. Hopefully not to a point where people switch off (well for the spelling at least).

 

[Angelfishsolo]

+1

Well, it depends.

Typos and mis-spellings, especially from a regular, can be ignored.
It's someone who's first post is all :-

hi i've got a new bike but it dontwurk cn any1 of u onhere helpme the weels all wrong and the breaks stuk LOL

then I feel an irrational urge to visit them with a big stick.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

+1

Mistakes do grate for me, but I can ignore them most of the time. I do find I judge a new poster by their style - the "hi i've got a new bike but it dontwurk cn any1 of u onhere helpme the weels all wrong and the breaks stuk LOL"* would probably put me off answering, mostly out of laziness because I'd need to find out a lot more information before I could provide any help. Posts with no use of the shift key or punctuation or paragraph breaks really irritate me, and if they are long, I do find them harder to read.

With words like 'pedals' and 'brakes', I like to think that exposure to the correct spelling would give people a hint, but if it doesn't, after lots of posts, I'd be tempted to say 'oh, by the way...'. It's something to do with the feeling that someone isn't actually reading the replies and picking up their mistake.

I know there are words I struggle to get right first time - I never know if it's 'separate' or 'seperate' until I type it and see what looks right, but I hope that mistakes which make it online are down to sloppy proof reading (proofreading?)

My boss at St Nicks is quite dyslexic, so I'm used to skimming over errors - but he will ask how to spell a word, and make sure anything important is read by others, so I know he cares about it.

And of course, I'm far more likely to pick up errors from someone disagree with, or don't especially see as a friend, and let others go. And there are always places where text speak or innit or "I can haz biskit?" is entirely warrented within a conversation - just as I speak differently at work, or in front of my Mum...

* TheDoc has got this wrong of course. No one typing a sentance like that would use an apostrophe.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I can't fault your English usage at all

English is not my first language but I seriously try my best not to make mistakes, however, I've noticed that I have picked up bad habits writing in forums perhaps one can relax too much.

I see some massive mistakes made by people here and other forums but since English is not my first language I feel I have no right to say anything I probably make worst mistakes I just don't know it.

I see lots of mistakes and some of which one can consider simply as poor English, ie "do" instead of "does" "there" instead of "their", etc. However, the style of mistakes that really annoys me is what I call lazy English and that is mobile phone writing style being used elsewhere.

I don't mind being corrected, in fact, I appreciate that very much.

 

[Fnaar]

Where it's bike-related (e.g. correcting 'peddles' or 'breaks') I think that's fine.
If someone writes 'tires', then they cycle on the wrong side of the road anyway, and all hope is lost.

Seriously though, as with other answers above, the postings that suggest that the desire for a quick answer possibly outweighs attention to convention and/or politeness might get short shrift form many forummers, but I don't think it's worth getting worked up over.

 

[the snail]

... I'm being an arse-hole.

I think that should be 'peanut', or as the spellchecker would have it, 'ass-hole'.

 

[Zoof]

If I throw myself on the mercy of CC; plead guilty, and cough the lot ,what sentence will I get?


Zoof

 

[benb]

I'm a terrible pedant (or should that be a very good one?), as my family will attest.

I do try and restrain myself here, and if I do say something I try and inject it with humour, with varying degrees of success.

I don't usually bother with spelling mistakes though, unless it's funny, as people are often typing quickly and don't bother to proof read their contributions.

I do like to point out widely held misconceptions, such as contemporary (does not mean modern), begs the question (does not mean raises the question) &c.
But that's more to do with sharing knowledge that I think people would benefit from knowing rather than being belittling.

And of course, if you dish it out, you have to take it as well.

 

[psmiffy]

Definitely not – forums are to my mind a very low form of communication – accuracy in spelling and English should be tolerated at a level just below the note to the milkman and above that to be found in a chat room. As long as a post is comprehensible enough to reply to if you should want to then it is all right. If a post is beyond the comprehension of the reader – then move on and get a life.

Personally I abhor the use of txt speak and forum abbreviations – but it is part and parcel of the forum environment and except (and often particularly) where it is used as a reply in itself is easy to ignore .

To my mind the pendants should look to themselves and improve the quality of their own posts – shorter sentences and a few paragraph breaks together with an understanding of the fog index would improve the repetitive verbiage that seems to be commonplace among those who seem most prone to be victims of pedantry.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

To my mind the pendants...

That's what my F-I-L always called them, usually reels at least one in although I've gone and ruined it on this occasion. Sorry!

 

[psmiffy]

 

[3narf]

I spend a lot of time on forums (fora?) and this one is by no means the worst in terms of spelling and grammar.

The use of 'etc' etc in a forum post is perfectly acceptable, imho...

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

With words like 'pedals' and 'brakes', I like to think that exposure to the correct spelling would give people a hint, but if it doesn't, after lots of posts, I'd be tempted to say 'oh, by the way...'. It's something to do with the feeling that someone isn't actually reading the replies and picking up their mistake.

I'm always wary of correcting people's spelling. If you make a mistake once you've made a stand for good English, you're very likely to find yourself being corrected in turn - because the odds are that you will then go on to make a mistake before the end of your own post. This then diverts attention away from the topic towards grammar.

Because of this I run a spell checker in my browser - it won't underline homonyms but it will point out howlers - and reducing the number of mistakes will in turn reduce the chances of being diverted from the topic in hand.

However, if someone wrote:

If I use my peddles as breaks on the fixed will it wear out my tires?

I'd tend to gently use the standard spellings of these words in my answer to reinforce the accepted usage. For example:

I'd guess that you'll tend to lose the same amount of rubber when slowing down if you pedal or not - it's up to you to decide whether to wear out your tyres or your brake blocks. (Of course, this answer might be completely wrong)

I've never done it before but if the OP doesn't pick up on the standard spellings, would it be too heavy-handed to put the corrected word in bold, like this?

I'd guess that you'll tend to lose the same amount of rubber when slowing down if you pedal or not - it's up to you to decide whether to wear out your tyres or your brake blocks.