Thank YOU E1.
If a non-native speaker of English can post grammatically correct prose, why can’t everyone?
Who else has had that horrible sinking feeling when you’ve just hit “Submit Reply” and spot an appalling error just before your post vanishes into the void?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I know that I’ve been spoiled by the spell checker in Word that automatically corrects “adn” and “teh” and other common typos. I can’t type for shit, and thanks to Bill Gates, now I don’t have to learn! 
Actually, I do proofread my posts, and I think I pick up the most egregious errors.
Chris, I think that “some of the things to which you’re making reference” should be “some of the things to which you refer”. 
Just my bias in favor of short sentences.
The Cat In The Hat
As long as the point is made, I have no problem with typos. Everyone here is able to communicate well enough for me to follow for the most part.
I do wish this board would allow posters to edit their posts. This way we would be able to fix typos and whatnot. I believe this board is able to do that if the administrators allow that option…
Yes? No? Maybe?
Brian O’Neill
CMC International Records
rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html
ICQ 35294890
AIM Scrabble1
Yahoo Messenger Brian_ONeill
I really don’t mind typos either, but Do try to remember Rule #1 of communication:
If the other person doesn’t understand you, your’re not doing it right.
I used to work for lawyers. <shudder>
One in particular allowed me (nay, encouraged me) to write first drafts for him. (And sometimes seconds and finals and birthday cards to his mom, grocery lists, whatever.)
I’ll always remember one time – I needed to respond to something written by the opposing attorney, and I needed to quote that attorney.
Well, the piece I was citing included a really petty typo, and I asked my lawyer, should I “sic” him?
Of course, you all know that [sic] is inserted to denote an error in what you’re quoting, thereby drawing the reader’s attention to the stupidity or carelessness of the other guy.
My lawyer’s response?
“Live by the sword — .”
I ain’t gonna bitch about any of the missteps you guys take, and I hope you’ll return the favor.
Like, don’t point out how many times I mixed tenses in the preceding post, okay?
MINI RANT ALERT!***
Typos, as such, are pretty obvious from merely the reading of them. We all make them, and we all hate doing so…if for no other reason–as has been mentioned previously–they provide opportunity for humor at our own expense. Furthermore, we all generally make exceptions for them.
People are normally evaluated on the basis of their self-presentation, and the internet is no exception. The “limiting” factor is that a person’s written constructs become the only factor determining their credibility and acceptance. Personally, I don’t consider this to be a limitation at all. To the contrary, by its very nature, communication over the internet removes the externalities that often cloud issues with opportunities for illogical argument.
As a teacher, I deal daily with a wide variety of writing styles and have been amazed at my ability to derive intent from even the worst of spelling and grammar. It didn’t start out that way–it developed over time.
If a student is defficient in their written communication, I point it out to them for two reasons:
-
To inform them that they have a problem with communication, and it’s their responsibility to take corrective action.
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To assist the student in remediating the problem.
I am further amazed at the number of functionally illiterate adults occupying space in today’s post-secondary classrooms.
Illiteracy, not as a result of ESL issues, is easy to spot, and is indicative of laziness. Quite frankly, the ideas of a lazy person don’t merit much consideration.
While I can derive meaning from the vast majority of writings found here, I do observe that some people sell themselves short in framing their ideas for presentation here. Sometimes it’s just too much work to decipher a senseless point out of the mess in a particular post…In that case, like other folks here, I’m off to the next posting.
I’m getting used to the member names on the new boards, and am developing a feel for the kind of ideas that will generally follow a given poster’s name.
Folks, this is the internet–the bastion of the informed and educated. It is The Territory of the Educated. If you sell yourself short, or you simply don’t respect yourself enough to make a literate presentation of your ideas; don’t expect others to respect you in greater measure or care enough to take you seriously. You aren’t entitled to respect that you don’t give to others first. S & G is one component of that respect, as has been mentioned before.
You can’t force anyone to do your work for you, and ranting about the fact that people can spot your writing deficiencies (sometimes pointing them out to you) is absurdly defensive. Calling it elitist is even more ridiculous.
From what I can see, this is nothing compared to the good old days of the “S & G Police.” You’ve got it easy, as most of the Regs really do have the “kid gloves” on with respect to S & G.
Are some people “anal” about S & G? You bet they are, but not to the degree that is being claimed here–it’s more of an abberation rather than the norm.
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds”–Einstein
–Kalél
Common ¢ for all ages…
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
{{I do wish this board would allow posters to edit their posts. This way we would be able to fix typos and whatnot. I believe this board is able to do that if the administrators allow that option…
Yes? No? Maybe?}}
As I understand it…we could allow it, but if you can modify your own post, you can modify other people’s. I don’t think that any REASONABLE person wants this. I’m sure that there are some people out there who would enjoy this…but I’m talking reasonable people here. There may be some way to allow posters to modify only their own messages, but I’m not the person to ask. Try asking in the “About This Message Board” forum.
If you find that you NEED to have your post removed or modified, LET ME KNOW! Send me an email or IM. I’m LynnBodoni@aol.com and lynnbodoni@earthlink.net. If I’m on Earthlink, I usually have AIM going. My AIM/IM name is LynnBodoni. I can remove or modify posts in any forum, but if your post is in another forum, let the other forum moderator know about this as well. This is a matter of courtesy as well as practicality. The other moderator might be able to get to the post before I can. Please note that I’m NOT online 24/7. Even if it’s what I’d prefer.
I will remove or modify posts if you said something that you think you shouldn’t have (in fact, I did that just a few days ago) or if you need a typo corrected, a word inserted, something like that. I won’t do this without you asking me, as a general rule. I won’t modify an old post where you assert one thing and then new evidence comes up to contradict you. Let me know if you want a post removed or modified, and I’ll TRY to accommodate you. Particularly if you promise me chocolate.
Lynn/SDStaff Lynn
For the Straight Dope
Lynn, I believe the request is to have a function similar to the one on the The Other Teeming Millions Message Board that Opal has provided on fathom.org: as one posts, there is a pop-up that allows the poster to review the post in its “deliverable” form; the poster is then given the option to go back to the creation page and fix errors before they are placed on the board (at which time they are permanent).
Your answer, and that of the techies, may be the same for that sort of function, but I just wanted to point out that it is possible (possibly not in UBB) to have a last-chance review without opening all posts to re-working by other posters.
Tom~
Byz, keep in mind that I consider “fuck you” a pleasant invitation.
I don’t consider posts on message boards to be the same as formal writing. Thus, I am not as careful about spelling, grammar, or style.
I reckon I orta be more keerful. Hit mite be better fer me to thank abowt whut I’m a-fixin’ ta rite, soze ya’ll don’t figger Ize a plum fool. Reely ize jest a plain ol’ run-o-the-mill dummass.
How wrong you are, TennHippie. You are NEVER run-of-the-mill. ;).
Tom,
I don’t know if it’s possible. It might be, it might not be. But I always try to proofread my posts…and I advise others to do the same. Even if it is a pain.
A review window WOULD help, especially to check that the HTML is working. Again, this subject would be better discussed on the About This Message Board forum. I don’t make any decisions about how the MB is set up, and I rarely even offer opinions on this subject.
Lynn/SDStaff Lynn
For the Straight Dope
Well, often people who learn a second language learn more about the language than the native speakers do. However, that is no excuse for not knowing when to write “their”, “there”, “they’re” (A far too common mistake, and something that can change the whole meaning of a sentence).
I admit, I often don’t watch what I am doing. Like Auraseer said, I also don’t consider this place to be a place for formal writing, so my writing is often unformal and full of some of the errors you all have mentioned (never really any spelling errors, just bad punctuation and capitalization).
When I am chatting with friends, my writing is very unformal, and would get me flamed by the grammar and spelling gods here :).
FTR, TennHippie (not I) wrote about not considering this MB formal writing.
what’s your beef about lack of capitalization? it’s simply faster for me to not to have to hit the “shift” key all the time. and i do make an effort to capitalize proper names and such (God, especially) so as to avoid accidentally offending people.
ellis
by the way, i’m honestly curious here.
Since when is “God” a proper name? It’s a job title.
Anyway, it denotes a lack of respect for your reading audience. How much time can it possibly take you to hit the “Shift” key a few times? Is someone timing how quickly you can post? All you’re really saying is, “My need convenience of shaving 2 seconds off my posting time outweighs my need to make myself understood.”
Do you skip the caps when you write in cursive, also?
pldennison-
i guess we’d have to ask GOD to find out if he/she considers it his/her name, now wouldn’t we?
you said:
“‘My need [for, of?] convenience of shaving 2 seconds off my posting time outweighs my need to make myself understood.’”
and also:
“Anyway, it denotes a lack of respect for your reading audience.”
wouldn’t typing “2” instead of “two” denote this same lack of respect? and, as i mentioned in my previous post, i attempt to alleviate any potential signs of a lack of respect by capitalizing names (and i do notice that your name contains no caps). i view not using the “shift” key constantly along the lines of using abbreviations such as “caps”. i don’t see anyone complaining about this, so why is my lack of caps a sign of disrespect?
regarding the first of your quotes contained in this post, how does a lack of caps interfere with comprehension on the part of my readers. maybe i’ve underestimated some of you, but i’ve been assuming everyone here can handle not having words capitalized without suffering any impairment to their comprehension skills. in fact, i’d think that the complete omission of words, maybe “for”, would hinder understanding a little more.
ellis
Ellis, think of it as a purely visual thing. Paragraphs of prose without capital letters are harder for me to see, and therefore read.
And gee whiz, the amount of effort it takes to press a shift key is pretty neglible, isn’t it?
>And gee whiz, the amount of effort it takes to press a shift key is pretty neglible, isn’t it?
Well, lets take pldennison’s example of 2 seconds. According to his info, he’s posted 852 times. That works out to about 28 minutes. so if you didn’t use any capitalization you might have a spare half hour now. and if you didnt use punctuation either you might be able to add an extra 25 mins
andifyouelimnatedspacingandpostedenough
youmightcomeupwithawholeextraday
andyoucouldpostmanymoretimesinthat
extradaybut
thatsmootasnoonewouldreadanyofyourposts
(Bad Mojo. Write too many letters in one line. But Lynn fix.)
[Note: This message has been edited by Lynn Bodoni]
[Note: This message has been edited by Lynn Bodoni]
And screw up the MB in the process. Apologies to all- that wasn’t my intention 