Thank you. I thought I had been clear, but guess not. When ALL the reader has to go by is the written word, miscommunications can and do occur often. It is NOT the reader’s problem as Cisco would have us believe. The burden of expression lies with that poster/writer. Clarity of communication as a goal is THE reason punctuation exists. It is not some esoteric elitist practice that only the most erudite can appreciate. Punctuation matters. Spelling matters. Word order and choice matter as well.
Most spoken statements would read as incredibly uninformed. We all stumble and say “you know” and “um” etc waaaaay too much. But Joe Mechanic isn’t given the luxury of gestures and tone and expression and all the other things that help us convey emotion and information. All we’ve got is his “words”. And if his best is “u so rong pwned u ha”, there isn’t much there, is there? Sure, he has made a point, but is it the one he really wanted to? Discriminating readers may never know. I contend that most won’t care. Maybe even Joe doesn’t care, until the issue is something that does matter. Then Joe has a problem.
