what happened to the "spelling" thread

moonrakerz

LemonGrove wrote: »

I like to think it was deleted because of two reasons, people were using it as an insult thread, and it was a pointless vent.

It seems to be a common thing now for people to respond with aggression to the most minor of things. This can vary from a "nasty" post on MSE to a beer glass in the face on a Friday night.

LemonGrove wrote: »

Some people just don't feel posts are so important that they need to spend time checking over them for spelling when it's quite clear what is meant anyway - which you can hardly blame them for.

I really don't see this as a justification. If the post isn't important - why post it ? If it is important, surely doing your utmost to make it correct and intelligible is not only in your interest but a matter of satisfaction to yourself as well.
I spent 23 years in the RN, the first 5 years as an Apprentice seemed to consist solely of grizzled old Chief Petty Officers telling me "you're doing that wrong!" - it certainly made sure that I did it right for the rest of my career ! When I became a grizzled old Chief Petty Officer myself, I like to think that the vast majority of those who I gave the same advice to appreciated that - though perhaps not at the time.
Why should pointing out the differences between "your" and " you're" or "their", "there" and "they're", always be taken as some smart*** trying to score points ?

I have just read another post on this site, with a story about an incident, asking what they should do. I won't mention the thread !!!

The post, not to put too fine a point on it, is almost unintelligible. The grammar is dreadful, there is NO punctuation, there are obvious factual errors in it and the whole thing is written in lower case.
For anyone wishing to offer helpful advice it is VERY, VERY difficult to properly understand the full story. Then, to be honest, I really just cannot visualise how any sensible advice given would be translated into a meaningful letter/email to the company involved. If it was of the same standard as the OP in that thread, I really would understand if the waste bin or the "delete" key were the first steps taken by the recipient !

Perhaps the most worrying thing about this is, not that people get things wrong (including me !), but that our education system, which is "getting better every year", we are constantly being told, is turning out people who cannot see the difference between "apples" and "apple's" and write things like "I could of wrote" (actually seen on this site !!)
If the schools won't correct this ....................... !

I must go now, I have to walk across the lake to get to the shops

LemonGrove

moonrakerz wrote: »

It seems to be a common thing now for people to respond with aggression to the most minor of things. This can vary from a "nasty" post on MSE to a beer glass in the face on a Friday night.



I really don't see this as a justification. If the post isn't important - why post it ? If it is important, surely doing your utmost to make it correct and intelligible is not only in your interest but a matter of satisfaction to yourself as well.
I spent 23 years in the RN, the first 5 years as an Apprentice seemed to consist solely of grizzled old Chief Petty Officers telling me "you're doing that wrong!" - it certainly made sure that I did it right for the rest of my career ! When I became a grizzled old Chief Petty Officer myself, I like to think that the vast majority of those who I gave the same advice to appreciated that - though perhaps not at the time.
Why should pointing out the differences between "your" and " you're" or "their", "there" and "they're", always be taken as some smart*** trying to score points ?

I have just read another post on this site, with a story about an incident, asking what they should do. I won't mention the thread !!!

The post, not to put too fine a point on it, is almost unintelligible. The grammar is dreadful, there is NO punctuation, there are obvious factual errors in it and the whole thing is written in lower case.
For anyone wishing to offer helpful advice it is VERY, VERY difficult to properly understand the full story. Then, to be honest, I really just cannot visualise how any sensible advice given would be translated into a meaningful letter/email to the company involved. If it was of the same standard as the OP in that thread, I really would understand if the waste bin or the "delete" key were the first steps taken by the recipient !

Perhaps the most worrying thing about this is, not that people get things wrong (including me !), but that our education system, which is "getting better every year", we are constantly being told, is turning out people who cannot see the difference between "apples" and "apple's" and write things like "I could of wrote" (actually seen on this site !!)
If the schools won't correct this ....................... !

I must go now, I have to walk across the lake to get to the shops

Perhaps I should word it differently, I don't mean that the post itself isn't important, I mean that it's simply a post on a forum - not one of the most important things in life.

Posts that simply can't be read are a different matter, as what is being said isn't evident, but moaning at someone because they have said your instead of you're or something equally minor I think is just being pointlessly awkward.

RadoJo

As a bit of a grammar fan myself, I have to admit that I tend to refrain from correcting spelling/grammar, because I've seen the way it's received on this site. However, if someone posts on here asking for advice on what to say/write to get the result they want, and then takes umbrage about corrections to their spelling and grammar, I think they deny themselves the opportunity to make their complaint as effective as it can be.

Customer service departments don't need any excuse to delay processing correspondence - any barrier to someone understanding what you want from a complaint is going to work against you, so making your correspondence as clear, easy to understand and simple as possible should be the goal for anyone wanting to get a result. It seems that often people's insecurities about their own abilities or sheer lack of interest in doing things 'properly' seem to put them on the defensive rather than taking the opportunity to benefit from someone else's advice.

I was always told at school that even though you only get x marks for spelling and grammar, an examiner is going to be more inclined towards generosity if they didn't have to waste time trying to work out what you meant, and it's the same with asking for advice, or making a complaint. I can understand why people get annoyed when every typo is pointed out, but I can also see why regulars who go out of their way to try and help people get frustrated when others don't show the courtesy of trying to make their post clear. And I have been in the position of trying to help someone by asking for more info, only for them to get shirty and defensive, which does make you feel less inclined to try and fathom out their meaning and more inclined to point out why you're having trouble understanding them.

Unfortunately, I think people who are already fired up about a consumer issue probably aren't that receptive to comments (which can be a bit personal sometimes) about how to express that anger constructively, and people who are trying to help aren't that inclined to continue if someone won't help themselves, so you end up with a stalemate situation where everybody feels frustrated. Maybe a spell-check which underlines as you go would be an option, so people would at least see most of the errors before they post without having to remember to spellcheck?

moonrakerz

Just doing my morning trawl through the new posts.

Found one of interest:
Single sentence, 21 words - 8 spelling and basic grammatical errors in it !

mrcol1000

moonrakerz wrote: »

Just doing my morning trawl through the new posts.

Found one of interest:
Single sentence, 21 words - 8 spelling and basic grammatical errors in it !

What an exciting life you must lead counting all the errors in postings. I have some paint if your like to watch that dry to liven your life up a bit.

moonrakerz

mrcol1000 wrote: »

What an exciting life you must lead counting all the errors in postings. I have some paint if your like to watch that dry to liven your life up a bit.

(My highlighting)

Shouldn't that be "you" ? :rotfl::rotfl:

If my post was unexciting, then surely your post commenting on mine must be even more unexciting ?

voiceofreason

mrcol1000 wrote: »

What an exciting life you must lead counting all the errors in postings. I have some paint if your like to watch that dry to liven your life up a bit.

"...if your like..."?

LemonGrove

moonrakerz wrote: »

(My highlighting)

Shouldn't that be "you" ? :rotfl::rotfl:

If my post was unexciting, then surely your post commenting on mine must be even more unexciting ?

It would be, only the paint line was rather titillating.

Twopints

moonrakerz wrote: »

(My highlighting)

Shouldn't that be "you" ? :rotfl::rotfl:

If my post was unexciting, then surely your post commenting on mine must be even more unexciting ?

"you'd" ? :beer:

mrcol1000

moonrakerz wrote: »

(My highlighting)

Shouldn't that be "you" ? :rotfl::rotfl:

If my post was unexciting, then surely your post commenting on mine must be even more unexciting ?

Well this reply must be as exciting as you correcting my spelling and grammar. Well done OP this must be the most exciting thread on MSE ever.