(sp?) means ‘I have no idea how this is spelt. I know there’s a gaggle of anal-retentive pedantic assholes out there who will use the fact that it’s misspelled to dismiss my argument completely. Now you can keep your fool mouths shut, since anyone who’d be swayed by your oh-so-wonderful logic will see I’ve admitted it, so unless you’re going to argue the substance of my post keep your yap shut.’
And, yes, there are a gaggle of such idiots out there. So much so, that alt.folklore.urban - known to be one of the most hostile and pedantic areas on usenet have actually taken to batting down the people who go out of their way to correct spellings. These people are benieth (Dammit, no possible spelling looks right!) contempt, but at least ‘(sp?)’ keeps them relatively quiet.
It also keeps people who would correct the spelling just to try to humiliate the poster (another contemptable group) at bay, since an admitted mistake can’t be used against someone.
That leaves 2 groups to post concerning the misspelling:
a) Those who just want to show off their supposed superior intelligence - annoying but tolerable if they’re rude, harmless or even helpful if polite.
b) Those who honestly want to correct the spelling for the beinefit of the poster. Harmless, or even helpful.
Oh, and of course…
c) anal-retentive assholes who think that ‘(sp?)’ is a personal slap in their face. Annoyingly self-absorbed at best, contemptably so at worst.
IMO, (sp?) really messes up the flow of your messages. I’d rather read lots of mispelled words without (sp?) instead of a (sp?) after every word as it gets annoying (sp?) see?
Certain other message boards have a built in spell checker coughgamefaqs.comcough
I use (sp?) a lot. Call me lazy, but it seems silly to go open a word processor and run spellcheck when you are already pretty sure you have the spelling correct. I hate to lose my train of thought, so I just stick the (sp?) on there to let people know that I’m aware this might not be the correct spelling, to save the time of people who feel like they must point out misspelled words to you. In a less informal means of written communication, I would check the spelling - I would also probably be typing it in something that has spellcheck already.
Batz - interesting that you include the time taken to open the word processor. Personally I open Word pretty much as soon as I boot up the 'puter and it sits there while I post and do whatever else I might do whilst the PC is on. Therefore the time taken to check a word I am unsure about really is miniscule - literally the time to copy, change window and paste.
Spiritus - it’s very unlike you to miss the point of the thread in any way - is that baby of yours keeping you up? As Drastic said and as I have said a few times now, I am ONLY talking about those occasions when someone types a word into the window, looks at it, thinks to themself “that isn’t right” and then appends “(sp?)” rather than just checking it out. When it comes to typos and fragmented words due to editing, I’m as bad as anyone.
Tengu - I think you’re getting a little worked up here. Reread the OP - I specifically said that this ISN’T something I consider slap-in-the-face rude. And (for the nth time) nobody’s asking you to rigorously spellcheck everything. I’m just pointing out that when you type “(sp?)”, I have a kneejerk that thinks “a bit dumb/lazy/discourteous”. Apparently I’m not alone. Sorry.
Jackknife - and do you actually have anything to contribute to THIS debate?
And Mikahw is, in my opinion, right about the flow too.
Drastic said it all already. The rest of you either aren’t paying attention or are making tangential comments for the sole purpose of inciting more debate about this silly topic.
Tengu, nice attempt to divert the topic toward people who pick on spelling and grammar errors.
By the way, how much time did you spend thinking of different ways to spell “benieth?” I, for one, am mightily offended that you squandered so much effort on spelling. It noticeably detracted from the quality of your post. :rolleyes:
I’ll leave it to you to look up the correct spelling. If you so enjoy wallowing in your own ignorance, who am I to spoil the fun?
I was responding to the hostile post environment to the spelling-challenged. Yeah, that’s the ticket! hurm No, it isn’t.
Never mind.
[sub]spiritus slinks off with his bloodshot eyeballs trailing between his legs.[/sub]
Podkayne, nice attempt to direct it AWAY from them, because, guess what, dipshit:
IT IS ABOUT THEM. It has ALWAYS been about them.
They’re the ones who make is neccessary to either waste time on spellchecking, or else acknowledge that the word might be misspelled.
Assholes who think that the ability or inclination to use a fucking SPELLCHECKER says more about a person’s intelligence than what they fucking SAY.
See kabbe’s ‘defence’ of the anti-’(sp?)’ position:
That’s exactly what I’m talking about here - except kabbes has a modicum of common courtesy and doesn’t SAY it, until now. A person’s dumb because they’re not a good speller. They’re lazy and discourtious because they think that their readers are intelligent enough to figure out what they mean, and it’s a waste of time to check.
Of course if you can’t see that that’s an attack, then my estimation of your intelligence has plumetted. You might spell like the OED, but your ability to think is aproximately on the same level as ELIZA.
(sp?) is not a discourtesy, it’s not an admission of a lack of intelligence, it’s a simple admission that they can’t spell.
And only an idiot thinks intelligence and spelling are the same fucking thing.
Only an idiot would think that’s the point of this thread.
Any moron can use a dictionary. All it takes is time and effort. Using “sp?” doesn’t mean you can’t spell and you’re stupid, it means you can’t spell and you’re lazy.
Cripes, why do I bother? You can’t find the point with a GPS reciever, a 300 Watt lantern, and four people grunting, shoving, and pulling you in the right direction. I’m through.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, but Tengu, I don’t think dumb/lazy/discourteous if the word is merely spelled incorrectly. That I brush off as either a mistake or an understandable lack of knowledge. Fair enough.
The kneejerk is specifically in response to “(sp?)” That tells me that you can spell well enough to realise that there is an error but that you can’t be bothered to do anything about it.
It is the fact that you can’t be bothered to do anything about it that nerks me, just a little bit. Not the error itself. And it is the fact that you can’t be bothered to do anything about it that I consider dumb and/or lazy and/or discourteous.
And I am merely warning people here as to how they may be perceived. If you don’t wish to do anything about it then I shall not bother you again. I might occasionally point people at this thread if they are particularly egregious examples and I haven’t mentioned it to them before. But that’s it.
Consider it a public service
But thankyou for saying that I have a modicum of common courtesy. One does one’s best.
Spelling and grammar have always come easy to me so I don’t spellcheck every post I make. If I think I misspelled a word I’ll type it in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste the correct spelling. It doesn’t bother me too much to see (sp?) unless it’s next to a word that would be really easy to look up or check. Then it’s kind of irritating. Most of the time it’s * just a sign of laziness and an “I don’t care” attitude. I think that’s too bad. With all the intelligent people we have on this board, we shouldn’t see (sp?) at all. It really doesn’t take that long to check the spelling of a word and I would think that everyone would want their posts to be as grammatically correct and as error free as possible.
And one more thing… (this is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to grammar) it’s “in regard”, not “with regards” or “in regards.” I had an English teacher in college who drilled that into my head so it irritates me to no end to see “with regards” or “in regards” used in a sentence. Whew! I feel much better now.
kabbes, fair enough, but I still think it’s ridiculous to expect people to spellcheck their posts. It’s not laziness, it’s not disrespect, it’s simply not wasting effort. Unless the spelling could lead to confusion, there’s no reason to waste the effort.
But, you’ve got enough sense to realise that the perception is on your side, which is always a plus.
For that, if I respond to you, I’ll not use ‘(sp?)’. You’ve obviously enough sense that your respect is worth having.
Well, with due regard for the preferences of your old instructor, in is not the only acceptable preposition with which to introduce the word “regard”. “In regard to” is a traditional usage, but “with regard to” is perfectly acceptable.
Also, while regard in the sense of attention, concern, esteem, etc. is singular, regards as a plural meaning affectionate or respectful greetings is just fine.
So, pass on this not to your old instructor with regards from me.
It’s instructive to learn that people like you hold spelling rules higher in regard than the worth of human beings able to communicate with one another. Not all of us attended repressed schools that taught nothing but rules, however. No doubt in your heaven, everyone wears the right clothes, speaks properly, and spells everything according to a dictionary that you, personally, approved.
Oh, good. After Tengu went a spoiled everyone’s fun by acting all concilatory, it only took a few minutes for someone else to come in and stand up for willful ignorance.
Tell me, partly, did you actually bother to read anything in this thread other than the OP? Such as Kabbes explicit (and excellent) clarification that the point of the OP is not about the ability or lack there-of to spell, but rather using a word you know is incorrect and assuming that everyone who has to read your post has nothing better to do than decipher your take on English phonetics?
BTW, I had to look up “phonetics” to spell it. Entire time spent in rising from my seat, getting the dictionary off the shelf, looking up the word, and returning to the keyboard? 28 seconds.
Oh, cool! My first hostile response. It’s nice to know people are actually reading the posts with comprehension.
Yes, I actually did bother to read the earlier posts. It was tough, but I did.
“Willful ignorance”?? Hmmm… “Yes, your honor I did know, but I purposely forgot.” Sure, a judge would buy that.
It’s true that some words can be looked up in 28 seconds, there are, however, some cuties that can take several minutes, for example if one uses the OED, as I do.
Spelling is not one of my strengths. It was not taught for many of my years in a “progressive school”. On particularly bad days isn’t a simple matter for me to correct spelling at all. In fact, even with spell-checkers I occasionally get into a situation where the spell-checker can’t guess what word I’m trying to write. If I’m at the point where I want to communicate, but the spelling is being a barrier, then yes, I might do (sp).
Another purpose of (sp) is to avoid the instant criticism that comes from some anal types the moment they spot an error. I mean, heck, you could be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald, and some idiot would be neatly marking each time British spelling or the alternate dictionary spelling is used. I can vividly hear someone arguing with me that the primary dictionary spelling is the only one to use–otherwise why would it be first?
Preserve us from pseudo scholars.
Oh, by the way, thanks for answering. Honestly. I’m almost so pleased I won’t point out there’s a spelling mistake in your message. <evil grin>
