I’m a terrible speller and occasionally I get lazy and don’t run my posts through a spell check before I post. Also when I get tired or my sugar is low I’ve posted fairly garbled posts on this board.
Aside from a few light jokes I’ve never felt like I’ve been attacked for my posts and I’ve never had anyone sidestep and argument I’ve presented just to rag on my spelling/grammar. Every time I see someone openly mocked it’s b/c they obviously didn’t care enough to even attempt to put together a coherent post or that their post is so ridiculous that every aspect of it deserves mockery.
In short if your argument is good and you seem to be trying to communicate most people will work with you to get to what you’re trying to say. If you’re just a raving loon or come off like a net rat you’ll be slaughtered.
What I don’t understand is why people seem to be so content to consider themselves bad spellers, instead of trying to become a better speller. It’s not like the words are changing every other week; if you learn how to spell “independent,” it stays “independent” for the rest of your life. You only have to learn to spell words once.
Why do we criticize poor spelling/grammar? Because the words are wrong, that’s why. Spell 'em right, and no one will criticize it.
No doubt. Hope your cold gets better.
Because we aspire to better things here. This person could have written correctly but did not. One of the aims of the SDMB is fighting ignorance and deliberately poor spelling, syntax, and grammar do not further that aim.
We can be mean-spirited around here. But let’s look at this reasonably. He made no mention that English was not his first language, I think you’re assuming that. To me, it appears he is: terribly young, uneducated, or has just spent entirely too much time texting and is now lazy. If there was a problem, he should have defended himself rather than calling people “turds” (real mature by the way).
It hurts my brain to read his posts, taking me twice as long to get through a simple sentance. A minor spelling or grammatical error is fine, you still may get called out for it, but when almost every single word you type is like decoding secret language it gets tiresome.
Anyone who’s been around for a long time or has even lurked for a while knows that we are a fairly intelligent group here. This isn’t the first time someone has been made fun of for this, won’t be the last time either. Quite frankly, I’ve gotten some really great chuckles out of the poking fun at this guy. That’s why I love this place.
I also believe the majority (if not all) of the badgering was in the Pit. Sorry, but most of us have been put in the spotlight here once or twice. We’ve been made fun of and been called some atrocious things. You can either deal with it, or go to some of the other more benign areas.
It all comes down to how you handle yourself and he failed that test. Don’t let it bother you, just move on.
For me, it comes down to respect. By taking the time to spell and use grammar correctly, and not using contracted “words” ( u, 2 for too, etc) i’m showing respect for the people i’m talking to. Just showing that I’m willing to spend a few extra seconds (because that’s all it takes) to write a post, or letter, or essay (although you’ll get marked down for it in this case, anyway) is a message to the person/people i’m talking to that shows I care about the conversation. It’s especially important when you’re asking a question; I don’t know about anyone else, but if some1’s aksing a qeston ritten lik3 th1s, i’m not as motivated to answer it.
And i’m sure there must be some spelling/grammar problem in there, so nitpickers, pick away! 
That’s how I feel about it. It’s like washing your hair or wearing deoderant (if you need it)- it shows people that you respect them enough to want them to have a good impression of you, and that you are willing to follow the basic rules needed to function in society.
Thanks, Case Sensitive. How did you know I had a cold? (Well, of course I’m living in a region with a decidedly different climate than my beloved Monterey, so it’s not a stretch to posit that I’m a bit warmth challenged at the moment!) Anyway, I’m over the cold and the attendant laryngitis is almost gone too.
Behold The Amazing Sensitivo: sees a great deal, knows quite a bit. 
I teach an online course about using the Internet.
A recent topic in the course was using E-mail, and following basic rules of Netiquette. I asked my students to visit a website with Netiquette rules, and comment about the rules. One student (keep in mind that this is a college course that is geared toward second- and third-year students) posted the following to the discussion board:
(I have copied and pasted directly from the student’s post here.)
This student has not informed me that English is not his/her native language, despite numerous requests on my part. The student’s name is certainly a name that could even be typically American, but most of his/her work is like this, and he/she seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that this kind of text borders on being incomprehensible, if not laughable.
This experience, however, has led me to start seriously questioning just how important accurate spelling and grammar are in modern life. After all, in the early days of modern English (Shakespeare, et al.), there were very few spelling “rules”–literate people simply spelled words the way the words were pronounced. Not only did this increase a literate person’s status in society, but it has also given modern-day linguists TONS of evidence about how pronunciation has changed in the last several hundred years.
The only argument I can really find to stand up against my experience, though, is personal preference. I read by “sight”, meaning that I scan words and interpret words as I recognize them, rather than “sounding out” words. Therefore, when I see a word spelled agre, I have to stop and sound out the word, and possibly read the words around it, to figure out what word they meant, since I don’t recognize it on sight.
Who am I, though, to dictate that others must follow rules that I have chosen to follow, especially when a Personnage of Greater Importance than I has announced in public that Potatoe ends in e?
I can top that. I participate in an online writers’ critique group. This group is explicity set up for people who hope to see their fiction and poetry published in magazines. We’re talking professional magazines that actually pay serious money. Last week a new aspiring author arrived. His first post started out with:
Eloquence is a mark of excellence. IMHO its better to lead by example, taking the high road in how you choose to respond rather than simply criticizing the mechanics of speech. If you have a problem with others grammar and spelling, combat it by ensuring the spelling and grammar in your response is perfect, keeping the meaning of your response on point with their point.
That is not a “personal preference,” because it’s not just you; everyone has the same experience. Forcing your audience to slow down sound words out is impeding communication; to say nothing of the possibility of confusion among homonyms.
Because most people with repetitive, egregious spelling and grammar issues are generally unaware of how bad the issues are. As an English teacher, I routinely deal with students who do “know better,” as they recognize the errors when pointed out to them, but nonetheless, continue to repeat the errors because they simply do not take the time to check their own work.
Your theory is akin to saying that the way to deal with someone who has personal hygeine problems is to just make sure to shower yourself and hope they follow suit. It is unlikely in the extreme, for the simple reason that people (including the hygenically-challeneged) tend not to notice it when someone doesn’t stink, just as people (including the spelling-impaired) tend not to notice when someone doesn’t misspell words.
Something I’ve noticed on the 'net, almost from the beginning, is that there are people whose native language is not English who have a better grasp of spelling and punctuation than many native speakers.
The problem with aggressively bad writing is that it unfairly puts the burden of communication on the reader. Communication, like any other social transaction, requires both people to, more or less, evenly exchange effort. If one person is doing all the work, he or she will eventually not be willing to do so. It’s just not worth it. Criticism might cause the misspeller to make more of an effort to be intelligible and even if it doesn’t work, then at least it provides an emotional outlet. Many people are just tired of trying. They don’t care anymore, they aren’t willing to make the effort to understand someone who obviously doesn’t really give a crap, and so they just criticize.
What Sleel and furt said. (Yes, I realize that was a fragment, but I’m being emphatic here…)
I teach English too, and many students could be doing better if they’d take the time to check over their work and not just pound it out at the last damn minute.
It looks as if they don’t care, and apparently some of them think that just turning in a piece of paper with some words on it is good enough. It isn’t. We’re in the tenth week of the 18-week semester, and many of them are still doing the same things wrong they’ve done since the beginning, despite the corrections and all the suggestions regarding tutoring, spellchecking, and the reading and writing assistance center.
I’m also reminded of a friend who works as a paralegal doing clip licensing/clearances. Occasionally she sends me copies of requests which have come across her desk from people who seem to want something from her, but she can’t figure out what it is because the whole thing is rife with run-ons, fragments, or other problems. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that someone who is making a request for a film clip or likeness–or anything, for that matter–would at least try to make sense and be professional about it. There’s a respect issue here as well, I think. My friend finds it very hard to take such people seriously when she can’t make out what they’re saying and already has a pile of crap to look at.
I wish that were true. My spelling has deteriorated over the last twenty years. Since I was an English teacher, the problem is humiliating. At SDMB I’ve chosen not to double check or even preview everything I post. That leaves me vulnerable and unlikely to criticize the spelling and grammar of others very often.
I guess I got it out of my system after twenty years in the classroom anyway.
After working in tech support for a couple years, I am usually able to squeeze meaning out of the most rambling, misspelled, ungrammatical crap you ever saw. Usually. It stressed me the hell out though, so I moved to other tech fields.
This sort of thing is what I’ll be taking advantage of when I’ve finished my editing and proofreading course. I can see a long and prosperous road of editing and proofreading lazy Uni students’ work for money ahead of me, from what people have posted and what I’ve seen in my own investigations.
But to get back on topic, I agree with pretty much everything said here. So now I’ll shut up.