I often have the urge to correct someone’s mistake. The mistake could be one of pronunciation, usage, idiom, or generally accepted fact. Or, it could touch on deeper issues of widely-held beliefs. In any case, why the urge to correct the mistake?
My immediate justification is: Because it’s a mistake – it’s wrong. But, just because someone says something that I think (I know?) is wrong, does it mean that I must correct the mistake?
Do I think that I have a duty, some type of moral obligation to inform the person about the mistake?
Do I think that the person will appreciate knowing the “correct” answer?
Do I think that I have a responsibility to increase the overall knowledge of the world so that everyone else meets my standards? :dubious:
Or, do I think that the correction is relevant and important within the context of the discussion, and, that it is necessary for the discussion to be fruitful?
Or, this:
It bugs me to hear something that I know is wrong.
I want to stop something that is bugging me, so I want to stop hearing something that I know is wrong.
I want to continue my interaction with the person who is making the “mistake”.
I think that the best way of accomplishing #2 and #3 is to point out the mistake and present the correct alternative.
I often have the urge because I like to think I am smart and like to hear myself. It’s pathetic, maybe, but there it is.
I also have an obligation to correct other people’s mistakes at work, and there it is somewhat more automatic and professional, thankfully.
Sometimes I can feel that the motivation to feel good about myself in a short-term and childish way, and the professional obligation, are both active. I reason that I should correct the mistake because of the obligation, and the cheesy feel good motive is just a distraction. I realize the slippery slope is there, and do try not to fool myself, but the possibility that we are fooling ourselves still doesn’t relieve us of the obligation.
This is a weird one, a situation that (rightly) leads to much self-questioning. Here’s hoping some of the other postings will lead to a chance to improve something!
Honestly, when I encounter your average mistake-pointer-outer, my first thought is that they care more about showing off their own intelligence more than anything else.
I appreciate being corrected if I’m being loud and wrong, if I’m repeatedly speaking a mistruth, or if my behavior somehow reflects on them (I’m their employee, for instance, or if I’m writing something that represents our organization). If the corrector has the courtesy of pulling me aside rather than announcing my wrongess to the world, I also appreciate that. Otherwise, I’d rather someone keep their mouth shut. If I’m telling you something and you interupt me to correct my grammar or word choice or to start some kind of argument, I’m going to feel like you don’t care about what I’m about to say. You only care about being “right”.
Of course, there are exceptions. Friends have tons more leeway than strangers or acquaintances. Also, some mistakes are less sensitive than others. If I have spinach between my teeth, I want you to point it out to me. But if I decide to swap “was” for “were”, or I stammer and mispronounce a word (which happens a little when I get nervous), I don’t need a grammar marm. Sorry.
I typically follow your first two criteria. Since I’m a native English speaker in a non-English-speaking country, most correction opportunities I encounter are language-related.
Most of the time, it’s work-related, in which case I definitely have a duty to correct mistakes since that’s a large part of what I’m getting paid for (so we don’t send out ads that look like this. There’s still a time and a place, though: if a client gives us briefing materials for our own use and I see something misspelled, bringing it up isn’t going achieve anything except embarrass the client in front of his/her co-workers, and make me look clueless for picking out typos instead of paying attention to the briefing.
In casual situations, I generally don’t, unless it’s something that could really cause problems for the person making the mistake (like students who pick up English expressions from movies - their host families may not appreciate having an exchange student who thinks “fuckin’ A” is an acceptable substitute for “yes, please.”)
In the workplace, I see correcting the written word as mentoring employees. I don’t want them to appear unprofessional with correspondence, since poor writing reflects poorly upon our company. I correct pronunciation of things like country and city names (a pet peeve of mine is Kabul) because it’s a way of fighting ignorance. I also correct stereotypes and slap down racism whenever possible.
Generally, people are afraid to say anything around me.
There is a time and place for correcting mistakes. Not every time and not every place needs correcting. This was something I learned growing up, that you shouldn’t constantly correct people.
There are quite a few choice names for people who delight in pointing out other people’s mistakes. Not many of them are complimentary.
Ya know, I was thinking about that, and decided I didn’t know enough to be certain what was correct. It would clearly have been correct to end it with “… for their benefit or for your benefit?”. There ought to be a way to shorten it to leave out the 2nd “benefit”, but just “your” didn’t seem right either.
So I will leave a correction to a more stringent grammar Nazi than myself (or is it me?). And BTW, I’m also not sure how the punctuation at the end of the previous sentence should have been handled, so have at me.
Correcting someone else’s spelling, grammar, or punctuation is a big time asshole move. Unless you are a professional proofreader there is no reason for this other than to belittle and show the person who the smarter bear is.
One time I did it just to be a bitch deliberately. Once my dog escaped out the front door and then subsequently went under a fence that was locked up and I couldn’t follow him in the same path. I tried to find other ways around the building to find him, but at that point he could have been anywhere in Wrigleyville. Anyways, I spend hours hunting around for my asshole dog and when I head back towards my apartment for whatever reason, I see a note on my front door that says “I found your dog, he is at my apartment, here is where I live.” The note goes on to cite chicago leash laws. The dog didn’t have his tags because he doesn’t wear his collar when we’re just sitting around the house. He bolted without the damn collar and rabies tags. So the note brings that up. It concludes by calling me an irresponsible pet owner and that there is a class at petsmart about dog owning I should take.
I went and picked up the dog, but the next day I got out a red sharpie and corrected all the spelling and grammar in the note. At the top I gave her a D+ and a note that said to try to do better next time. I taped the note back on to her door. It felt great.
Total hogwash. There is no excuse for a business to send out correspondence that looks like a fifth-grader wrote it. In the world of contracts, incorrect punctuation can land you on the wrong side of a claim or lawsuit. A boss who doesn’t correct spelling, grammar or punctuation is lazy and cowardly.
If the spelling or grammar isn’t appropriate to the situation, I agree with going ahead and correcting it. It’s helpful to consider some situations, like parties or dates, as tolerant of a wide variety of grammar.
It’s hard not to correct factual inaccuracies, though. Because if those don’t get corrected, then the whole conversation from there on seems to take place in an alternate universe where the facts are different.
There are a lot of pet-peevers on the Dope, who will break into a thread just to mention that the OP means “you’re” not “your”, or that it’s incorrect to finish a sentence with a proposition, or some other such minor error. Why do they do this? Do they think they’ll get a golden star if they find all the mistakes on the internet? I know I have my idiosyncracies, but I can’t help but think self-appointed language mavens are suffering from OCD. No one cares that you it’s your pet peeve. Shut the fuck up.
In general, I think I’m doing someone a service if I tactfully point out an error. If I noticed it, others will, too, to the detriment of the writer’s reputation. This is especially true in business situations. Of course, the key word is “tactfully.” I wouldn’t correct a co-worker in a demeaning manner. Pointing out “I think you added an extra apostrophe there,” or “Didn’t you mean to write ‘their,’ not ‘there’?” should not offend anyone.
I don’t usually correct errors in spoken language. Poor grammar generally only offends me if it’s in written form, and then it’s as annoying as a mosquito hovering at my earhole. I’ll grit my teeth as long as possible, but if it doesn’t go away, I have to swat it. I usually won’t correct someone’s grammar, either, unless he or she is trying to use it in an argument.
In my experience, language skills and intelligence aren’t all that closely related. I’ve known a lot of well-spoken idiots and almost as many nearly illiterate geniuses.
