# For all you people who bitch about being "corrected". This is for you. (Mild) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 30, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482 "2010-11-30T23:45:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/41 "2010-12-01T22:37:53Z")
There is a lab on my campus which contains only non-native English speakers, except for the head of the lab. I have been to many of their talks, and they ALL seem to be under the impression that the verb form of “degradation” is “degradate”. I end up hearing “this protein was degradated” and “this other protein degradates my protein” sixteen times during a talk, until it’s like nails on a chalkboard. I assume they’ve inherited the mistake from each other, and the (native English speaking) head of the lab never bothered to correct it. However, I think he’s doing them a disservice. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/42 "2010-12-02T00:22:46Z")
**Spectre** , is your friend paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly\*? If he’s paid semi-monthly, yeah, you have a point. Though you corrected him in the most annoying way possible. Saying something like, “oh yeah, and we gotta remember that there are two months a year that actually have _five_ weeks. With how your company does payroll, that can really fuck up budgeting that month, because there’s an extra week before your next paycheck.” Now, if he gets paid bi-weekly… then I’m laughing at _you_, not him. - 1st and 15th of each month. Or 15th and last day of each month. ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/43 "2010-12-02T00:23:03Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Not true. A fact is something that can be objectively shown to be true or false. Thus, there can be false facts. > > (I couldn’t resist either.) Are we hijacking the thread if we talk about being correct in it? If not, then I beg to differ with you, **acsenray.** A fact is something that is true. If it’s not true, it’s a fallacy. A fallacy could be presented as a fact but if it is, it is a false factual claim. To back up my claim, I offer the following from [Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fact): > [@](#): > > 3\*\*:\*\* the quality of being actual **:** actuality \ > > 4_a_ **:** something that has actual existence \ _b_ **:** an actual occurrence. And this from [an article on the Aubrun University website that I found interesting](http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/Fact-opinion.html): > [@](#): > > Facts are statements supported by converging evidence, whether empirical, analytical, evaluative, or metaphysical. Opinions are self-reports. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion because only that person has the inside information to verify a self-report. False claims and untested claims are neither fact nor opinion. Both false claims and untested claims, but not opinions, claim to provide information about the real world. Accordingly, to accept a false claim or untested claim risks error, and error can be dangerous. On the other hand, to reject factual claims is also risky because we fail to benefit from valid information. Mistakenly relegating facts about evaluative or metaphysical matters to the realm of opinion is a common failure of critical thinking. My bottom line is that I think facts are absolute. But that may turn out to be nothing more than my opinion. 🙂 (See how I tried not to be too big a douche by putting in the smiley?) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/44 "2010-12-02T01:18:05Z")
Two plus two is five… for very large values of two. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/45 "2010-12-02T04:44:31Z")
A moderator typed my name wrong a day ago. I’ll get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/46 "2010-12-02T05:17:40Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I currently proofread documents on _nuclear weapons safety_. > > In that professional context, I try to be _right_, and diplomacy comes in second. But when you’re not at work, diplomacy and being right should generally be equal partners, IMHO. I’m a qualified Range Safety Officer (guy in charge of making sure everyone is following the rules and observing range safety stuff at a shooting range) and when someone is doing the wrong thing there obviously you can’t go in to deal with a dangerous problem with “I say old chap, sorry to bother you, but if I remember my Firearm Safety Course and the guidelines published by all the major shooting organisations, one’s gun barrel really should remain pointed downrange at all times and not be carelessly waved about, especially not when one’s gun is loaded and one’s contemporaries have reason to believe the safety is currently off”, but when I wasn’t at the range I certainly didn’t go around treating every incorrect thing I heard as being in the same category as some idiot not keeping their barrel pointed downrange. > [@](#): > > “Yes, only my picayune interest in the under-appreciated field of ‘counting to five’ enables me to point out what I believe would be a _slightly_ better approach…counting correctly.” There are still ways to correct someone who’s made a simple error without being a dick about it- “I think that looks like a 4, not a 9… it would make more sense if it was a 9, though” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/47 "2010-12-02T05:36:09Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > But when you’re not at work, diplomacy and being right should generally be equal partners, IMHO. I’d further narrow that to anything outside your job duties. I proofread transcripts all day and have exhausting email exchanges with my typists about where to put commas, but I have to bite my tongue every time I see the other department’s manager send out professional emails that wouldn’t pass muster as text messages. Her spelling, punctuation, and grammar are all absolutely atrocious. But correcting her emails isn’t my job and it sure as hell wouldn’t be appreciated if I tried. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/48 "2010-12-02T14:00:08Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > **Spectre** , is your friend paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly\*? If he’s paid semi-monthly, yeah, you have a point. > Now, if he gets paid bi-weekly… then I’m laughing at _you_, not him. It doesn’t matter. He’s putting together a budget to figure out how much he can spend every week. Most bills are monthly. If you get paid semi monthly, your monthly bills line up, but your weekly spending has to adjust. If you’re paid bi weekly you have to adjust for the 4.3 to work out the weekly cost of your monthly bills. Either way you have to incorporate the 4.3, or all your calculations are off. The way I figure it, if I’m helping you do something (like Spectre was), you’ve got a lot of nerve to get in a snit about something I’m correcting for you. I’m correcting your mistake, you should be THANKING me, not giving me crap. It’s like asking someone to proofread a paper then get all shitty when they point out your bad spelling. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/49 "2010-12-02T16:19:42Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Hold it, a pint _isn’t_ a pound the world around? > > Well, there goes my world view. A pint of water’s a pound and a quarter. God knows why I know _both_ versions of that. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/50 "2010-12-02T16:23:25Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Either way you have to incorporate the 4.3, or all your calculations are off. But 4.3 isn’t exactly right, either; it’s just closer. In most situations your calculations will always be “off” - it’s just a matter of how close is good enough. That depends (strongly) on context. Now, in this case we’re talking about an expense budgeting error of nearly ten percent, so it’s probably enough to affect the results in a meaningful way. But there are more effective ways to point that out than others. Flatly declaring 4.0 to be “wrong” and 4.3 to be “right” is neither diplomatic nor correct, so that technique satisfies neither criterion that others have mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/51 "2010-12-02T17:04:57Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It’s surprising what does. More than once my friend has had occasion to say the word cache and insists on pronouncing it cachet. This is a great example of why we should correct people more often, particularly those in power. One general decides that cache is pronounced cachet and now the whole damn military pronounces it wrong. It is infectious. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/52 "2010-12-02T17:20:49Z")
> [@Lare](#): > > Are we hijacking the thread if we talk about being correct in it? > > If not, then I beg to differ with you, **acsenray.** A fact is something that is true. If it’s not true, it’s a fallacy. A fallacy could be presented as a fact but if it is, it is a false factual claim. > > To back up my claim, I offer the following from [Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fact): > And this from [an article on the Aubrun University website that I found interesting](http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/Fact-opinion.html): > My bottom line is that I think facts are absolute. But that may turn out to be nothing more than my opinion. 🙂 > > (See how I tried not to be too big a douche by putting in the smiley?) Allow me to (re)rebut: > [@World English Dictionary](#): > > 1. _philosophy_ a proposition that may be either true or false, as contrasted with an evaluative statement From [here](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fact) (second entry). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/53 "2010-12-02T17:28:51Z")
> [@Lare](#): > > (See how I tried not to be too big a douche by putting in the smiley?) Sorry, but this little addendum cancels out your anti-douchment, and doubles down on douchosity. Plus the implication that smileys are mandatory. You’re running backwards. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/54 "2010-12-02T18:05:13Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Wow, you must have a totally different kind of Master’s degree than I do. Yeah, all mine gets me was a slightly higher pay grade to start. (Rodney Dangerfield) I\* get no respect. \* There are also a lot of things, like word pronuciations, which have two perfectly acceptable “right” ways. Only douchebags correct others with “their one true way” in that case. **Martini Enfield** bring up a minor peeve of mine- I have been shooting for nearly 50 years. I was taught (and it was the “right way” for decades) to keep your muzzle pointed UP and downrange. After all, a accidental discharge down is much more likely to ricochet than a bullet coming down at random a mile or so away. But at the local range, the Range-master is a “Muzzle down” proponent, and is is a douchebag about it. I stopped going there because of him. ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/55 "2010-12-02T18:17:19Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Allow me to (re)rebut: > > From [here](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fact) (second entry). Aghh. Touché. Thank you. > [@acsenray](#): > > Sorry, but this little addendum cancels out your anti-douchment, and doubles down on douchosity. Plus the implication that smileys are mandatory. You’re running backwards. So by throwing more time and money at it, I made it worse? How could that be? I have so many fine, governmental examples to go by! ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/56 "2010-12-03T04:15:50Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > One of the great things about actually having a Master’s degree is that people don’t generally correct you (at least not on the internet, anyway), since they figure you’re probably right in the first place. 😉 Where did you source such a degree? I would need to hit people over the head with the framed parchment to have this effect. Luckily I am of the “don’t cast your pearls before swine” school. Two castings of my pearls before swine, and you’re out. You don’t want to listen after that? Your loss. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/57 "2010-12-03T04:53:35Z")
> [@bathsheba](#): > > Where did you source such a degree? I would need to hit people over the head with the framed parchment to have this effect. Most of my friends either have the same degree I do (and therefore know I’m not wrong about the subject we’re likely talking about) or don’t have any degree at all, and figure that I must know what I’m talking about. 😛 I’m being slightly hyperbolic to be fair, though. ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/58 "2010-12-03T05:40:54Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I’d further narrow that to anything outside your job duties. I proofread transcripts all day and have exhausting email exchanges with my typists about where to put commas, but I have to bite my tongue every time I see the other department’s manager send out professional emails that wouldn’t pass muster as text messages. Her spelling, punctuation, and grammar are all absolutely atrocious. But correcting her emails isn’t my job and it sure as hell wouldn’t be appreciated if I tried. Been there - I’m an IT dork with a literature degree, and whilst still in my earlier 20s got fed up and asked the senior executive to send me all emails that he was distributing to the everyone in the organization. “Boss, spelling and grammar aren’t your thing; let me help you out here.” Of course, this only added to my already extensive list of job requirements. I kind of wish I’d never corrected him… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/59 "2010-12-03T07:06:18Z")
My girlfriend said we’d have less arguments if I’d just stop correcting her. _Fewer_ arguments, I told her. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482/60 "2010-12-03T14:30:57Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > My girlfriend said we’d have less arguments if I’d just stop correcting her. _Fewer_ arguments, I told her. \ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-all-you-people-who-bitch-about-being-corrected-this-is-for-you-mild/562482.md?page=4)