Why the obessession with spelling/grammar?

[beefche]

So, I've noticed on the forums that I've belonged to that there seems to be at least 1 person who is hyper-sensitive to people using correct spelling/grammar. Why? I was an English major, yet I realize that not everyone has the same education or even concern about such things. I get a little huffy (usually to myself, rarely in postings) when someone starts picking on someone else because they spell things incorrectly or because the grammar isn't up to red ink status.

I'm just wondering what the big deal is? If I can understand what the person is trying to say, I rarely correct them.

[prisonchaplain]

I had a professor once who would begin his classes with statements like, "Typos are a sin!" And my all time favorite, "I can understand one or two mistakes. But, if I see three or more on a page, I will consider it a personal insult."

A lot of students were scared him--I thought he was hilarious. Then again, we history guys are a peculiar people.

P.S. Based on my professor's standard I've personally insulted this board numerous times. Thank you for your past, present, and future forgiveness and indulgence.

[LDSVALLEY]

Don't know, I'm a smart person but God gave my ability to spell and follow grammar to someone else. At least he gave me spell check!

[Dravin]

How bad are we talking? I for one am not perfect in my use of the written language (far from it, I'm sure you can find at least one thing in this post). However you do reach a point where comprehension is possible but tedious (lack of punctuation and caps would be a prime example). Such incidents tend towards the rare side though and is most likely crossing the line into your understanding exception to correction. I assume we can discard playful teasing and requesting clarification where ambiguity may be resulting as well?

I think pride is one reason, "Look how much smarter/educated I am than you" often found as part of trying to avoid the point of a post by switching topics to grammar. I'm sure that isn't the only reason, some I can see doing it out of a sort of OCD like behavior, the misplaced comma or dangling particple drives them nuts. The rest of us just reserve that kind of obsession for our favorite TV show or book series. Also, I think there is a subset of those trying to be helpful, but they generally respond to those known to be open to correction, such as English as a second language 'speakers."

[LDSVALLEY]

I don't even know what a particple is, dangling or otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[beefche]

I don't even know what a particple is, dangling or otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that against some law or something? Word of Wisdom, law of chastity, law of harvest?

[beefche]

PC, anyone done in school or in a professional setting better have correct grammar and spelling.

But I'm talking on forums such as this. On one forum a thread was started to just tell people the difference between they're, their, there and your, you're.

Who really cares? If you're spelling/grammar is so bad that your unable to figger out whats bein said, then maybe youd better learn to relax more.

[Dravin]

I don't even know what a particple is, dangling or otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dangling modifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I like their example of it being used for humorous effect though:

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know." –Groucho Marx

[john doe]

I'll admit, I'm one who has a pet peeve when someone constantly misspells simple words. To me, it's a sign of laziness to either not know or not care enough about their readers to learn how to spell or use the correct word usage. One of the reasons I care so much on forums is that the written word is the main form of communication here. If you can't be understood, then your words are meaningless. I can't hear you or see how you move your hands, or the expression on your face, all I can see is the words you write. If you can't communicate effectively with the adults here, then maybe you should stick to the kid rooms.

Now, I will make exceptions for people whom American English is not their native language (for instance I expect Maya or Hanne-Linne to have difficulty expressing themselves in English), but I expect English-speaking adults to be able to communicate effectively through the written word.

I'm not saying I'm perfect in my spelling or in expressing my thoughts succinctly, I'm obviously not, but I think that we should try as hard as we can to be understood as much as possible the first time so that we don't have to continually ask what the writer means when they say something. As an example, someone said something to me the other day about a 'wish crack'. I had no idea what they meant as I had not made a 'wish crack', let alone a 'wise crack', which someone else pointed out that they thought was meant. It bothered me because the 'h' and the 'e' are not close to each other on the keyboard, and I'm not really sure what they meant as the person never bothered to respond when asked about it.

[beefche]

I'm curious, jd. Do you correct people when speaking to them? I'm thinking especially of the Hoosier accent--probably is pronounced prolly; Washington is pronounced Worshington.

My brother didn't graduate from high school so his spelling is horrible. But, I don't correct him. I just ask him what he means if I am unable to decipher the word/sentence.

[pam]

We correct my mom all the time in the way she says things.

[MorningStar]

I don't mind that much as long as people don't start speaking in text. But I have to be able to understand what they're saying. What bugs me more are long paragraphs. They're hard on the eyes.

[Wingnut]

Grammar is annoying, but I'm not picky about it. Not terribly. I don't usually bring it up. I think there's really no excuse for incorrect spelling, however, what with the spell check function and all.

On dangling modifiers...watch this. You may want to skip ahead to 2:36. Fair warning...there are a few "jack***"es at the beginning of the video.

[LostSheep]

Deer LSD.net

I is really sory the me grammer and speling is not the bested that it can have been. From now on, I is gonna try much more harder to to makes it more better. Pleese axcept my deerest apolajees. I did'nt meen to peronelly ofend nobody.

sin sear lee

LostSheap

Edited December 2, 2009 by LostSheep
I made a typo, but I dun fixed it ^_^

[pam]

Huh? What did you say?

[pam]

I think the only thing that REALLY annoys me is the long paragraphs. If I see an entirely long paragraph instead of it being broken up; I rarely read it. It's too difficult for me and I lose interest.

[beefche]

Ditto, pam.

[SMG]

My pet peeves:

-"Wall o' text" paragraphs. If they're more than 2 inches long on my screen, I skip them 9 times out of 10.

-Using "their," "there," and "they're" incorrectly. My teachers beat the correct usages of them into my head from the age 6 onward. This one REALLY gets to me.

-More than 3 incorrectly spelled words in a paragraph. Did I mention I had rather draconian Language Arts/English teachers? Spell check and Dictionary.com are my friends.

[Prodigal_Son]

I just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhow

[beefche]

Ack! My head is exploding!

[Wingnut]

I think the only thing that REALLY annoys me is the long paragraphs. If I see an entirely long paragraph instead of it being broken up; I rarely read it. It's too difficult for me and I lose interest.

I was scanning through a bunch of old threads today, and I came across one where the OP was one long paragraph (like the one below), and Snow was the first person to reply to it. He offered to introduce the OP -- if she were ever in town -- to his friend, the Paragraph.

I just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhowi just dont see the problm with typeing as fast as i can so i can get to the next post and improve my posting score after all i want to be nomber won on teh list so that i can be the best ever on this forum so if anyone wants to yell at me and hate my bad english thats fune what do i care they're probably jus sitting at home alone with nothing better to do anyhow

I didn't read this at all, but I laughed anyway. :)

[pam]

I just love Prodigal_Son. He's silly and that's what I like about him. Can you believe he actually had the nerve to tell me I couldn't join him on one of his Israel tours because only righteous people could go?

ps..I know he's reading this.

[beefche]

On another forum, one poster blasted another for some spelling and grammar errors. The offending poster then revealed she had some severe learning disabilities and it was very difficult for her to write anything at all.

So, unless I simply just don't understand what someone is saying, I ignore the mistakes. I know I've had many errors and I don't have learning disabilities.

I guess I just don't understand why people's panties get in a twist from something so innocuous. I'll save having a coronary for something more worthy.

[Dravin]

I'll save having a coronary for something more worthy.

/me contemplates starting to use the word irregardless.

[pam]

There are also those that have physical disabilities that don't allow them the freedom to type as easily as some of the rest of us. I think we just need to chill out and as Palerider would say; Have some ice-cream..which sounds really good right now.