Pedantry and the state of written English.

[Aperitif]

^ ...be happy to succumb to gentle correction anyday...

 

[benb]

[QUOTE 1356315"]
I would not use "etc" as I suggest it's clumsy and ugly. I propose the phrase "and so on" instead of "etc". That is far more elegant.

And should "point-out" be hyphenated?
[/quote]

I have always liked &c.

 

[tyred]

So long as the poster has made at least a reasonable effort to make the post coherent and easy to read and understand, then it's fine by me. My written English is probably better than average and I can be very pedantic if I spot a mistake in a newspaper or something but I know I make mistakes whilst typing that I would simply never make while writing with pen and paper.

Perhaps it's because I don't like mobile phones and have a particular hatred of text messages, but anyone typing things in "txt spk" really annoys me. I can understand why you might do this on a mobile phone but when sitting in front of a computer you, you have a full set of keys with all 26 letters of the alphabet and various punctuation symbols, each one requiring only a push on a button, it is pure and utter laziness to type in text speak.

 

[Bollo]

^ ...be happy to succumb to gentle correction anyday...

You deserve some form of pun-ishment, you naughty, naughty boy.

 

[Jezston]

I'm happy to have any spelling or grammar mistakes pointed out and corrected, if done politely

But txtspk/internet 'shorthand' really grinds my gears. I remember observing a conversation between two oiks using such styles on a mobile phone forum, and was staggered that they were able to understand each other at all. It wasn't until I spent some time decoding what it was they were saying that I realised neither of them actually had a clue what the other was saying and the conversation was going nowhere!

 

[3narf]

Yeah, it bugs me, too. Even in a text message.

 

[mr_hippo]

Most posters here have English as their native tongue so why do they here have problems writing in plain, everyday English? I am not, never have been nor ever will be ‘politically correct’.

Many people are putting labels on children that are not deserved. Years ago, there were people who were dyslexic but there’s a lot more these days, why? If Brenda is a lazy little sod, what help are people giving her by labelling her ‘dyslexic? She can continue to be lazy because she has been given a label! Tommy who is as thick as pig5h1t won’t improve if we give him a label, will he?

People are generally split into two groups – ‘academics’ and ‘practicals’; Give me a maths problem to solve and I can do it but give me some wood and some tools and I can make a pile of sawdust. Give a ‘practical’ person a maths problem and they may be stumped but with the wood and the tools, they will make you a nice garden bench.

One excuse here that I read is ‘I’m short of time’ or ‘I’m in a rush’. Your post is not a matter of ‘life and death’, is it? Leave it until you have more time. You may be ‘short of time’ but do you think others have the time to decode your post?

You claim to be dyslexic in your post but your previous posts were in good English – are you a part-time dyslexic?

Would any of you go out in dirty, unironed clothing? Would any of you go out on your bike if it was in an unroadworthy condition? No? So why are you posting in ‘unironed’ and’ unroadworty’ English? You are known by what you are and what you do. You bike is always in tip-top condition, you always look smart but , although you have interesting things to say, people don’t read your posts because they can’t be bothered translating them.

You are proud of your smart appearance and your well maintained bike but shouldn’t you also be proud of all the work you do?

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm shabby as hell, and as for my bike...

 

[Baggy]

I can spot at least two typos and one grammatical error in mr_hippo's post. Oh, and is leetspeak allowed?

 

[mr_hippo]

I can spot at least two typos and one grammatical error in mr_hippo's post. Oh, and is leetspeak allowed?

I demand a recount - there's more!

 

[rich p]

Most posters here have English as their native tongue so why do they here have problems writing in plain, everyday English? I am not, never have been nor ever will be ‘politically correct’.

Many people are putting labels on children that are not deserved. Years ago, there were people who were dyslexic but there’s a lot more these days, why? If Brenda is a lazy little sod, what help are people giving her by labelling her ‘dyslexic? She can continue to be lazy because she has been given a label! Tommy who is as thick as pig5h1t won’t improve if we give him a label, will he?

People are generally split into two groups – ‘academics’ and ‘practicals’; Give me a maths problem to solve and I can do it but give me some wood and some tools and I can make a pile of sawdust. Give a ‘practical’ person a maths problem and they may be stumped but with the wood and the tools, they will make you a nice garden bench.

One excuse here that I read is ‘I’m short of time’ or ‘I’m in a rush’. Your post is not a matter of ‘life and death’, is it? Leave it until you have more time. You may be ‘short of time’ but do you think others have the time to decode your post?

You claim to be dyslexic in your post but your previous posts were in good English – are you a part-time dyslexic?

Would any of you go out in dirty, unironed clothing? Would any of you go out on your bike if it was in an unroadworthy condition? No? So why are you posting in ‘unironed’ and’ unroadworty’ English? You are known by what you are and what you do. You bike is always in tip-top condition, you always look smart but , although you have interesting things to say, people don’t read your posts because they can’t be bothered translating them.

You are proud of your smart appearance and your well maintained bike but shouldn’t you also be proud of all the work you do?

I don't know what to say to be honest! So I'll swiftly move on.

 

[benb]

Many people are putting labels on children that are not deserved. Years ago, there were people who were dyslexic but there’s a lot more these days, why? If Brenda is a lazy little sod, what help are people giving her by labelling her ‘dyslexic? She can continue to be lazy because she has been given a label! Tommy who is as thick as pig5h1t won’t improve if we give him a label, will he?

That's quite offensive. Dyslexia is a clinical diagnosis, not a label.

 

[ColinJ]

I do get irritated by some of the bizarre posts that appear from time to time. Strange or missing punctuation, random misspellings and alien grammar ... but I wouldn't usually mention any of that unless I was struggling to understand the post in question.

If somebody wrote "Me best m8 wos nokked of hiz byke yesturday" I think it would be pretty insensitive to start an English lesson with the poster.

(It's still annoying though! )

I got into an offline argument yesterday when emphasising the importance of words like 'all', 'some', 'most', 'often', 'rarely', 'sometimes', and 'usually' and how 'all', 'none', 'never' and 'always' have very specific meanings which should limit when they are used.

"Men/women never ..." (Not true unless the following statement is something like "... run 100 metres in 3.6 seconds."

"Women/men always ..." (Not true unless the following statement is something like "... live less than 1,000 years."

"All of your xxx are ..." (Probably not true!)

"None of your yyy are ... (Probably not true!)

I was accused of being a pedant when my response to "You never ... " was "Oh yes I do - I did that 10 minutes ago and you know that I did!"

"Well you didn't do that last week!"

"I agree! Sometimes I don't ..."

"You are being pedantic - it's the same thing!"

15 minutes of further pedantry followed ...

 

[byegad]

I woznt reely bothed bi stanj spelin untill wone persen postd ay reelie baad pozt. Yt tuk ayges too werk owt wot thay hadd sed inne there mesdg. Knoow Iy excpect too cee att leest a atempt too gett itt rite.

I've added a few of the really bad spellers to my ignore list. Some grammar torturers are on there too!

Ud fink thay hafent gota spel cheqr.

 

[Jezston]

That's quite offensive. Dyslexia is a clinical diagnosis, not a label.

You know when someone says something about 'political correctness' that they are about to say something desperately ignorant.

It's like when someone says "I'm not racist, but ..."