Waverly, read the original post at the top of this “tread”. I merely cut and pasted from the original post by Zebra. Complain to Zebra, not me.
And FWIW, I can sort of relate with the anonymous spell freak, although it’d never occur to me to do what he/she did.
[soapbox] You think it’s not a big deal, but I disagree. To me, spelling, grammar usage, and the ability to verbally express one’s self are the hallmarks of a civilized society. I can’t help but be a bit judgmental toward someone who doesn’t know the difference between women and woman. We’re talking basic spelling and grammar. And I’ve noticed poor spellers often have trouble with their/they’re/there, you’re/your, and other homonyms. If I’m reading an OP and the first few sentences are riddled with mistakes like this (which is rare here), I’ll check the poster’s location and if it’s U.S., I’ll close the thread and ignore him/her in the future. Granted, yours weren’t what I’d call basic mistakes, but four of 'em pretty much back-to-back like that makes me cringe. [/soapbox]
Anyway, at the risk of seeming like the culprit (I’m not), my guess is the person didn’t want to bring the issue up in public, so to speak, for fear of embarrassing you, so he/she sent an email instead. Definitely inappropriate, but I doubt it was aimed at pissing you off. And I think you’re overreacting a little.
I took it to mean you were agreeing with him; but I understand now what your intent was. Consider me whooshed.
I think the secret poster sent an anonymous e-mail not to save Zebra embarrassment, but because the poster knew what a dick s/he was being and didn’t want to get called on it.
People make mistakes. I personally put “your” when I mean “you’re”. I do this a lot. Not on purpose, not because I’m stupid and not because I “don’t care enough” but because I make mistakes. If pedantic grammarians want to be offended by this, well – have fun.
P.S. flyboy, you can’t express yourself “verbally” on a messageboard. Normally I would not point this out because I know what you meant and you conveyed perfectly what you meant. However, you made yourself an irresistible target up there on that soapbox.
I agree, Biggirl–it’s a sore temptation to be a dick online when anonymity is so easy to come by. Hell, that’s why MBs get so many trolls.
I do, however, see a difference between an occasional misspelling or misusage and a systemic mangling of the language. I’d liek to thik I don’t fall into the “pedantic grammarian” category, but the latter often indicates to me a lack of respect, to be honest, or at least a lack of caring. If someone doesn’t care enough about what’s he’s saying to at least proofread a post, why should I care about it? (I’m not saying I feel that way all the time, or that I would spinelessly send an anonymous email about it, but it does happen.)
All I want is for The Spelling Avenger to take a little break from his adventures with Grammer Boy and come in here to my thread and dance around say “HA HA Zebra! I’m smarter then you! You are an idiot and if I were a mod I would ban your ass because you are not worthy to post here!” Instead of coming into my house via my personal mail and doing it there.
In short what happens here on the board (like me making some spelling mistakes) should stay here on the board.
Oh and flyboy even if a person is in the US does not mean that english is their first language.
and Archive Guy I’ll cop to the Crimes and Misdemeanors but I thought that Anguista was a different film. (Do you think I was a little rushed?)
Dinna worry, Zebra– you can always move to Toledo.
Grammar.
I’d liek to thik you don’t, but I fear you do. Why not just leave it alone or skip over posters who have bad spelling and grammar if it is so bothersome? I find the spelling pickers to be MUCH more irritating then the actual misspellings.
The issue isn’t should he pick on my spelling as I don’t care if he does or not, but rather where he should pick on my spelling. If he would let the entire board know that he is anal about spelling then I really wouldn’t care. I might get a little embarrassed but that would be my choice.
[Tom Cruise]
DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED? I WANT THE TRUTH!
[/Tom Cruise]
and Andros since bad speling is the bane of The Spelling Avenger and I’m am him mortal enemy I have a job to do now don’t I.
[sub]Thats my story and I’m sticking to it.[/sub]
Boscibo thanks for that link. That’s a great tool that I didn’t know about.
And speaking of great tools, I agree, sending an anonymous email to correct someone’s spelling is cowardly and lame. If you’re going to do that, at least have the guts to identify yourself.
(Boscibo, IESpell thinks your name should be Busboy.)
Zette, do I truly have a reputation for picking on someone’s spelling? I mean, if I do, I certainly need to work on it, 'cos I’m completely unaware of it.
Apart from one joke at Zebra’s expense (grammar), have I done so in this thread? I’m sorry you got the impression that because something irritates me, I don’t “leave it alone.” But I’m goddamned if I can figure out why you think I’m a spelling picker. So it bugs me. So fucking what? I never said a thing about not getting over it.
Trust me–I’m over it.
Just a pick a quick nit: rape =/ gang bang. The former indicates complete lack of consent, the latter does not specify.
And Walloon, I should also apologize. My tone with you was out of line.
Aww, Zebra darling, I was having the greatest time reading your thread title with a Jamaican accent.
As for spelling errors, jiminy biscuits. Can’t people find better things to email someone about? Look at the bright side. At least it wasn’t some cutesy glurge about spelling. I can see it now:
Your spelling is atrocious,
I wrote this email to say.
It bothers me in a ferocious,
“I’ve pooped my pants” sort of way.
So break out your spell-checker,
paste it in Word if you may.
I am the Spelling Avenger,
please go and have a nice day!
Skerri: This looks like a job for The Scansion Avenger!
(BTW, Zeb– although I may take friendly jabs at your spelling in this context, I’d like to make it perfectly clear that I agree: faceless nitpicking e-mails are asinine.)
(Great, now I just forced the image of someone picking nits out of someone else’s ass on myself. That I don’t need.)
You know, that someone would do this is so outrageously slimy to me that until I know for sure, I can’t seriously consider it. But if it turns out to be true, I’ll happily retract what I said about overreacting.
Uh-uh.
“Verbally” means “relating to or involving words” (from the Latin “verbum”, meaning word). “Verbally” is commonly used in the sense of the spoken rather than the written word; however, it also carries a wider meaning.
So while flyboy cannot express himself orally on a messageboard, he can well express himself verbally.
I’ll go now.
Yuh-huh! Merriam-Webster is on my side.
Pish-posh.
I acknowledged that a common usage of “verbal” is “spoken rather than written”. But just look at the other usages of the word; specifically, 1 and 5.
flyboy’s use of the word – which is the issue – was perfectly appropriate.
Oh yeah, to however sent that email to Zebra: that was a astonishingly crappy thing to do. If you really wanted to help someone out with their spelling, at least preface your corrections with an explanation to that effect, and sign the damn thing!
Zebra said in the OP above that the e-mail included the “full name of the person who sent me the email”.