# Spelling: Why does it bother some people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 4, 2002, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234 "2002-05-04T10:32:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/21 "2002-05-04T17:06:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lawoot \* > \*\*Just keep your **there, their** and **they’re** s straight. Not to mention your **your** and **you’re** s \*\* Two, to, too:D ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/22 "2002-05-04T17:30:59Z")
If you’re trying to convey an intelligent opinion, poor spelling and grammar undermine your credibility. Also, when someone uses proper spelling and grammar, I tend to evaluate their post based on the quality of the post. The grammar and spelling used don’t really give me any impression of the poster. However, when I read a post with “kewl,” “ppl,” and “u,” I tend to assume–perhaps unfairly–that the poster is a fairly young teenager. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/23 "2002-05-04T17:32:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cougarfang \* > \*\*Somehow, I have a talent for spotting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. They stick out like sore thumbs to me, like my brain’s screaming out an alarm every time I see one. With too many errors, my brain goes into overload and my head explodes. > \*\* I have this same problem, and I work in a job where spelling errors cost actual money, traceable on the weekly budgets. Because I type the way my brain thinks, and my brain sees the word spelled out, it actually takes me longer to use abbreviations like “u” and “ppl”. I try to type in as complete a sentence as I can, and though I have been known to play fast and loose with structure in a post or chat message, I have trouble totally violating the rules of garmmar. I do not think I am better than someone else if I type so that everyone can understand me. I have always tried to tell students who have trouble writing to “write the way you speak”. If your spoken conversation is a collection of disjointed fragments and verbal shorthand, your written conversation will be the same. And yes, people are going to judge you by the way you express your thoughts, as well as the content of the thoughts. Tough shit. Get used to it. Oh, and people who learned how to type on actual typewriters, in the far-away mists of time, tend to type with proper capitalization and punctuation because we had to get it right the first time. It’s habit to type those two spaces after each period. I’m trying to break that one, but it was easier to stop indenting paragraphs four space. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/24 "2002-05-04T17:33:46Z")
make that spaces. Only wish I could type as fast as my brain thinks. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/25 "2002-05-04T17:50:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kittenblue \* > \*\*Oh, and people who learned how to type on actual typewriters, in the far-away mists of time, tend to type with proper capitalization and punctuation because we had to get it right the first time. It’s habit to type those two spaces after each period. I’m trying to break that one, but it was easier to stop indenting paragraphs four space. \*\* 😛 I still type two spaces after every period. I can’t help myself. And I know Message Boards like this one remove them for me. Is there a 12-Step Program for old people like me who learned (in the faraway mists of time) how to type on a typewriter? ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/26 "2002-05-04T17:52:49Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s habit to type those two spaces after each period. I’m trying to break that one, Why? I can’t stand that .html and some other programs automatically reduce your two spaces to one. I think it’s more readable with two, but maybe that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/27 "2002-05-04T18:00:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Maybe the posts that they are writing is important to them and they want to get it out there as soon as possible and they do not remember to spell check. \*\* How can a post be so important that it doesn’t matter if it’s audience can comprehend it or not? How much difference is another ninety seconds going to make, really? If it’s that important, call someone and tell them. Immediate gratification. This board is not like a lot of others on the Web. We DO place a great deal of importance on spelling, grammar, and usage. And we’re proud of it. They are your credibility. One thing you’ll discover as you wander around here is that those who have been around for a long time take care with the language. Sure, they make typos, and sometimes misspell words. But the point is that they try. People who say “u” and “ppl” and fail to use capitalization and punctuation generally don’t stick around very long; probably because most other posters ignore their posts (I do, myself) and they don’t get much interaction or attention. ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/28 "2002-05-04T18:07:34Z")
**winnowill** : “_it doesn’t matter if it’s audience can comprehend it or not_” A few grammar errors are entirely forgivable. I know some really intelligent people who for the life of them can’t get the it’s/its thing right. Love, The Grammar Police ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/29 "2002-05-04T18:17:38Z")
Well, I can understand why HTML eliminates extra whitespace. Allows for prettier code. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/30 "2002-05-04T18:41:43Z")
Sometimes there are good reasons for bad spelling though - a poster may be using English as a second language or suffer from a disability. My wife, **Washte** , not only has a fused wrist which causes problems with typing but also carpal tunnel syndrome which makes it damn painful sometimes. When she’s hurting, her spelling turns to crap. (She doesn’t post as often as she’d like to because it hurts too much.) That said, all that SMS type spelling does my freaking head in. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![heptapod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@heptapod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heptapod)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/31 "2002-05-04T19:50:16Z")
Those kinds of errors and internet shorthand bother me because I expect better of people. I wince when I see people writing like that and being completely serious rather than pretending to be idiots. Sometimes I think that an individual is new to the internet and they’re enamored of the supposed lingo of “HEY PPL NE1 WNAT SECKZ??? 2 31337 4U!!!1” so I hope they grow out of that. The written word is how people represent themselves on the internet. One’s writing style conveys how much they care about their ideas and sharing them with the rest of the world. It’s analogous to showering every day. Someone who insists on bizarre contractions, shorthand and poor spelling is akin to maintaining poor hygiene. I would assume people would avoid that individual or if they did socialize with that person the subject of “You really _should_ shower” would eventually come up because the stench would get on one’s nerves. What I really can’t stand are people who use shift-8 encryption (f_ck, for example) because everyone knows what the word is so why bother writing out 3/4 of the offending word? Why even use such language? Are you lacking in creativity or completely ruled by the right side of one’s brain that one must express oneself with potty language but you think that "sh_t" is better than “shit”? Then there are people who don’t understand the difference between plural and possessive. I never realized such a concept was so difficult to grasp. So why do people get so upset when their mistakes are corrected, especially on this board? Isn’t the SDMB about fighting ignorance? ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/32 "2002-05-04T21:15:47Z")
I’ll admit that I tend to jump people over grammar and spelling mistakes. I try not to, on a regular basis, but the errors tend to just glare at me from the page. I had proper spelling and grammar drilled into my head from a very young age, and I learned to type on a typewriter (in the early 1990s!), and so writing at least _fairly_ properly has become so ingrained in me that I have to actually stop and type slower in order to not follow “the rules.” Things like “u” and “ppl” and “ne1” make me lose all respect for the writer. They don’t save much time and have the effect of making the author appear, at least to me, to be an uneducated person who does not care about their appearance. I like **heptapod** ’s analogy with bathing - online appearance comparable to physical appearance. Maybe I _am_ “anal” about it. I don’t know. All I know is that ne1 who cumz in + type lyke this - u ppl p\*ss me off. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/33 "2002-05-04T22:09:27Z")
> [@](#): > > I often skip posts with bad spelling, extremely poor grammar, or one that is not capitalized correctly, since they are just too much of a pain in the ass to read. If someone doesn’t make a minimal attempt to make themselves understood, I’m not going to spend the time to try and decode the post. I agree completely. Call me anal if you want, but I get paid to help students fix their grammar and spelling mistakes. If you can’t be bothered to type out a six-letter word, I can’t be bothered to read your post. Most posts like that come across as complete gibberish to me, anyway, and I don’t feel like expending the energy to decode them. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/34 "2002-05-04T22:47:50Z")
Things like internet shorthand (‘u ppl r kewl’) come off to me, as other peopl have said, like the typer is young, immature, or just doesn’t care. That might be an unfair way to think, but in my expereinces it seems to be true most of the time. I haven’t yet talked with a middle-aged, mature, thoughtful person online who thinks they are ‘m0r3 1337 7h4n u!’. Things like improper spacing, and lack of capitilization make it hard for me to read. I’m one of those people who, even in IRC and AIM try as hard as possible to be grammermatically correct, as because of that, take forever to chat with :p. If I type an entire paragraph, and one ‘I’ isn’t capitilized, I will go back and fix it. I’m anal, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/35 "2002-05-04T22:48:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > Sometimes there are good reasons for bad spelling though - a poster may be using English as a second language. Sometimes there are good reasons for bad spelling though - a poster may be using English as a second language or suffer from a disability. True. On the other hand, there are non-native English speakers on this very board who have no trouble at all with English spelling or grammar. This makes the pleas of **native** English speakers for tolerance for their errors sound pretty lame. But I don’t have a problem with an occasional typo. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/36 "2002-05-04T22:56:37Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by No Disguise_ > Some people even go as far as to capitalize the first letter of and put a period after every single sentence or even sentence fragment they type when chatting. This actually annoys me a hell lot more than when people misspell or use shorter versions of words. Then you’re just as “anal” as the people you accuse. God forbid anyone actually try to write as if they’d been educated. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/37 "2002-05-04T23:57:44Z")
Spelling mistakes bother me a lot. So do “u” for “you” and things like that. It bothers me that laziness and bad grammar have become an acceptable standard. ---
**Author:** ![heptapod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@heptapod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heptapod)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/38 "2002-05-05T00:00:19Z")
What’s with people who misuse ellipses. Finish your thought or don’t speak at all. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/39 "2002-05-05T00:06:12Z")
I forgot to add that typographical errors are another story. They are okay, but not in every sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Christina25](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@Christina25](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Christina25)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234/40 "2002-05-05T06:23:45Z")
What I find amusing is that some of the most educated people are those who cannot spell worth a damn. I mean here we all are trying to expel ignorance, but in our collective obsessive/compulsive nature we serve to turn the truly ignorant away at the SDMB door. Perhaps it is annoying that people may use those annoying abbreviations, but does that make their OP or the premise of any of their original thought any less valid than ours? I still have a nasty habit of ending sentences in prepositions. Try as I might, I always end up with a sentence or two ending up with one. Typos to me are annoying as all hell, and the fact I dont see them until I reread my post and CANNOT edit them burns me to my own core. Now posting while drunk… all typos and grammatical mistakes are forgiven. If there are none, praise be! You must be a god. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-why-does-it-bother-some-people/107234.md?page=3)