hell, I asked for that in post #2.
Please capitalize the first word of a sentence.
Damn.
I can’t possibly go wrong with that, can I?
In the immortal words of MS Word: “Sentence fragment (consider revising)”.
Sorry, but I’m not buying it: if you take the relative clause “who is without sin” out, you’re left with “Let he…cast the first stone.”, which just doesn’t work. My King James is giving me “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” {John 8.7}: the paraphrase conflates the two but omits the subject “He” and its attendant clause.
If we remove the clause and substitute the subject pronoun for clarity, we get “Case, let him {italics for emphasis since “Case” is “him”} do it”: in other words, “Let him {Case} do it”. So if we return to the paraphrase and expand it a little, we get “Let Case, who is is of course without sin, cast the first stone. Let him do it”. “Let he do it” doesn’t work.
{I am previewing like a motherfucker}
My rules:
- Don’t correct other folks’ grammar and spelling, asshole!
- Okay, if their post is truly incomprehensible, you get a waiver to rule #1.
- If their post is correcting someone else’s grammar or spelling, you get a waiver to rule #1.
- If you take advantage of a waiver to rule #1, you’d better be GODDAMN sure that whatever you’re correcting indeed needs correcting. If it’s a stylistic difference, or if it’s an idiom, or if it’s something that’s accepted as standard by a distinct minority of language mavens, you need to shut your piehole.
Daniel
LHOD my rule is (generally)
- Don’t correct other people’s spelling/grammar
- Unless they’ve created an unintentional funny in the process.
- When asked, do admit that you (often) will skip over posts by posters who refuse to use capital letters at all, or paragraph breaks.
Most grammar errors don’t bother except when it’s persistent or inane, such as in a name or title.
I don’t have grammer errors, cause both of mine died quite some time ago. 
I like these rules better than mine, actually. Can mine be a corollary to yours?
Daniel
Sure. Be sure to give me credit, of course. 
Couldn’t that be said even simpler by just stating that in the phrase “Let somebody do something”, that somebody, were it “he” or “I” or “Case”, is actually an object, and thus must be in accusative case. Since the accusative of “he” is “him”, the only correct way of phrasing must therefore be “Let him cast…”. Let’s not forget that Jesse “Jessie” Christos probably wasn’t dumb and certainly spoke perfect grammatically spot-on English, like every Texas governor knows.
Gauderian? Gauderese? Is “Gauderean” really the generally accepted form? Are there possible alternative spellings? Do I use too many quote marks?
I was waffling between Gauderian and Gauderean. I liked the looks of the latter. It looked so wrong that it felt so right.
That could explain a lot of my relationship issues, I suppose.
As to correcting others’ grammar, I generally don’t see the point of nitpicking if the intent is clear or if it’s an obvious typo. And I really dislike it when someone uses a grammar nitpick as fuel in an unrelated argument. But there are cases of consistent grammar and spelling abuse that are really hard to ignore.
“I ain’t never made but one grammatical mistake, but I seen it when I done it and I taken it back.” – Zoe’s dad
Name and shame! Name and shame! We need a McCarthyite “Enemies” list: it wouldn’t be fair to him and I won’t do it, but there is one recent offender I am so tempted to “out”. Are you now or have you at any time ever been a quasi-literate baboon?
I know that they are now in the U.S.
When I was in college in the '60’s, our professors in the American South were sticklers for judgment. I think that it was that way across the U.S. in general until about a decade ago.
I am also aware that the British have used judgement. Did they also sometimes leave off the e? That would surprise me.
say. whats this thread all about? i hate when ppl cant speel or puncuate senteneses its just so rude my god are they all stoopid or somthing they dont know when they make a speeling mistace and dont bothur to fix it at all?
fuk um all
Nit-picking someone’s spelling and grammar is a pompous and annoying way to start a fight over nothing. There’s bigger things in this world to fight about than the correct use of “then” and “than”; however annoying they may be.
There are bigger things. And I’m not even going to attempt to correct the last clause of that sentence. It should just die a slow and painful death. 
Sorry, Habanero, I couldn’t resist. I do, however, agree with you.
Hmmm … I’m thinking Government Grammar Police Grant. And an ABC Special Report: The Misspelling of Amerika. It would be the perfect comeback vehicle for Geraldo.
Welcome to the Straight Dope, Habanero. No one thinks this is life or death stuff, but many of us recognize that poor grammar and spelling interfere with the effect one is trying to make in a written argument or explanation. People judge others on many comparatively meaningless bases; in writing, this is the biggie.
So suck it up; it’s one of the things we do here. If you don’t like it, don’t join.