Correcting people's grammar - acceptable?

Pollycat

Peter333 wrote: »

Yeah OK then.....




Formulating an answer? What does that even mean? :rotfl:

formulate
ˈfɔːmjʊleɪt/
verb
gerund or present participle: formulating
create or prepare methodically.
"the government has formulated a policy on waste management"
synonyms:draw up, put together, work out, map out, plan, prepare, get ready, compose, produce, construct, make, develop, contrive, hatch, devise, think up, conceive, create, frame, lay, invent, originate, coin, design; Morewrite out, write down, put in writing, put down (on paper), draft
"the miners formulated a plan to keep the mines open"

express (an idea) in a concise or systematic way.
"the argument is sufficiently clear that it can be formulated mathematically"
synonyms:express, articulate, put into words, utter, state, say, verbalize, word, phrase, render, frame, couch, voice, give voice to, give form to, give expression to;

so now you know.

Pollycat

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

I feel it is necessary to get it as right as possible, because we are evolving and unfortunately may be 'dumbing down' with it becoming acceptable to write in poor English, be that on forums, on social media etc. etc.

It's not an English exam, it's an informal public forum with people of different backgrounds and different levels of education.
The way to ensure 'dumbing down' doesn't happen is in schools.

pigpen wrote: »

I never said it was.. I said how would anyone ever get it right if no one ever tells them it is wrong?? Even queen of the land of pedants wouldn't know if they had never been taught.

How would we ever learn anything if we are not told?

We would all remain as infants!

But an informal public forum is not the place to teach people.
You teach your kids the correct word to use, where to put a comma, how to spell a word - not strangers on the internet. It's not your job.

Spidernick wrote: »

The trouble is that when people put 'loose' when they mean 'lose' (which alas seems to be a majority of people these days) what they have written then makes no sense and I really cannot see the problem in correcting their error.

If someone types 'loose' when they mean 'lose', I would say 99% of the time the meaning is clear from the context of the rest of the post.
Do you have an example where a post would not make sense if these two words were interchanged?

motherofstudents

Language is changing and evolving all the time. If it didn't we'd all be speaking like a character from ' The Canterbury Tales'. That's why new words are added to the dictionary every year.

It's all about usage and if enough people use incorrect words or grammar they will be assimilated into the language and become correct. You only have to watch old films - in 'Brief Encounter', Laura says to her husband, 'I telephoned to you'. That was correct at the time and I'm sure when people first started dropping the 'to' some people were horrified.

It certainly does grate with me to see loose instead of lose etc but in a couple of hundred years that will probably be correct.

pigpen

Pollycat wrote: »

But an informal public forum is not the place to teach people.
You teach your kids the correct word to use, where to put a comma, how to spell a word - not strangers on the internet. It's not your job.

Again, I never said it was.. Public humiliation on a forum such as this, as I already said agreeing with you, is unnecessary, as Mupette says, you don't know the personal circumstances so without knowing that you shouldn't correct anyone in a situation like a public forum.


However, if I got an email from a business I would correct it and send it back privately to avoid embarrassment but corrected to better promote their business, it just looks more professional. I was tickled by a quote from a builder regarding my fireplace saying 'Arth' rather than hearth.


I corrected spelling mistakes on forms sent through from the council for my child applying for a place at high school, they required a 'signiture' in 3 places, not at all acceptable from the local education authority.

My cousin would get notes she had written handed back with corrections made.. not by me I hasten to add! and over time it did improve her spelling, less so the grammar, but also enabled her to read better too. Child of the 60's, left handed and forced to write with the right hand with dodgy teaching methods.

Pollycat

Pollycat wrote: »

But an informal public forum is not the place to teach people.
You teach your kids the correct word to use, where to put a comma, how to spell a word - not strangers on the internet. It's not your job.

pigpen wrote: »

Again, I never said it was.. Public humiliation on a forum such as this, as I already said agreeing with you, is unnecessary, as Mupette says, you don't know the personal circumstances so without knowing that you shouldn't correct anyone in a situation like a public forum.

Didn't you?
You actually agreed with the OP:

pigpen wrote: »

As I am far too lazy to read the whole thread my response to the OP is yes, it is acceptable.

when the OP clearly meant posts on here as she referred specifically to one post on the Pet board:

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

Everywhere I look, I see terrible spelling and grammar. It is shocking. Check out the post in Pets and Pet Care titled 'out of hours vet', for example.

Question: is it acceptable to correct perpetrators? I feel that I can't without fear of being accused of being the grammar police or a grammar nazi. So I just seethe on the inside.

So do you agree with the OP that it's acceptable to correct posters?
Would you have corrected the post she mentions?

I agree with the points in your post - businesses really should know better and should be told if they get it wrong.
Imho, posters on here shouldn't be expected to know better and shouldn't be corrected - as long as the meaning of their post is clear.

One big problem I can see happening if people think it's acceptable to correct the grammar, spelling and punctuation of other posters is that virtually every thread will be derailed by pointless arguing over a misplaced or missing apostrophe.

Is that really what the OP wants?

Newlyboughthouse

Pollycat wrote: »

It's not an English exam, it's an informal public forum with people of different backgrounds and different levels of education.
The way to ensure 'dumbing down' doesn't happen is in schools.

But it's too late for that. Pretty much everyone on this forum probably isn't going back to school are they - so when will they learn?

Please remember, I don't actually correct people's spelling and grammar as I know it won't win friends lol.

So really - we just let it slide and let loose become lose? I'm noticing there are fewer and fewer 'grammar police' and it worries me :rotfl:

Pollycat wrote: »

But an informal public forum is not the place to teach people.

Where is the place?

Newlyboughthouse

Mupette wrote: »

Sheer pettyness.

I live with MS, a brain disease that has destroyed my memory my language and spelling.

I people want to correct what i write carry on, I have far better things to do with my life, and if you still want to get stroppy then walk in my shoes and then come and apologise to me after

suki1964 wrote: »

Well for me that means reading the information, understanding, thinking of my reply, then spending ages - perhaps an hour or more writing, re writing, checking the spellings, even having to use word to have a guess at the word I'm looking for,before hitting send

Quite often by time I have done all that, the thread I'm interested in has moved on so far I'm left behind and I delete my post

I'm not thick or stupid or lazy, I even got a CSE in English many moons ago. I think if I were to take it again with there being less emphasis on spelling and grammar I would get a pretty decent grade.

However when I took it, computers were big old things the size of warehouses and poor grammar and spelling lost you marks, no matter how much you understood and tried to get your point across

I struggle daily with the written word. Most people are surprised when they realise I'm am dyslexic as no one realises until I have a pen and paper. As I said in a previous post, home pc's have allowed me to communicate in a way that I couldn't before

So when I get something wrong - spelling or punctuation or grammar - and I'm pulled on it for no other reason then someone being smart - I'm mortified

Which is why when someone else is as bad or worse then me, even though my eyes will bleed and I think why not go through the agonies I go through to make a post, I say nowt and do my best to reply if I have anything worth adding

The vast majority of people aren't living with MS/dyslexia, yet most people can't seem to get it right. I know there are some that are living with dyslexia/brain diseases and I wouldn't dream of correcting them if I did usually correct people, and wouldn't think anything of a grammatical error that they made.

Lily-Rose_3

It's never easy to read a post that's littered with grammatical errors and huge spelling mistakes.

But at the same time, I can't help feeling that some people (not many, but some,) seem to think that if they are good at English (spelling/grammar etc,) that means they are 'better' than people who have poor English skills, and more intelligent.

I certainly get that impression from some people on this thread.

So the builder spelt hearth as 'arth!' So what?!!! He is a flippin' builder/skilled tradesman not a poet laureat.

As for the comments about 'most people are not living with conditions like MS/dyslexia etc etc..; how in the WORLD do you know that?! Not everyone is going to tell you of their personal health struggles! Good grief!!! What a gross assumption!

I despair for humanity sometimes.

missbiggles1

Judi wrote: »

Not everyone has studied English language though so they probably wouldnt know any better.

Most people will (or should) have studied this at school.

Pollycat

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

But it's too late for that. Pretty much everyone on this forum probably isn't going back to school are they - so when will they learn?

At school :wall:- where I learned and presumably so did you.

Posters on here don't 'need to learn' - as long as the meaning is clear.

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

Please remember, I don't actually correct people's spelling and grammar as I know it won't win friends lol.

So why ask the question then?
If it mattered to you that much, you would correct people anyway.

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

So really - we just let it slide and let loose become lose? I'm noticing there are fewer and fewer 'grammar police' and it worries me :rotfl:

Yes, as long as the meaning of the post is clear.
For the sake of clarity - I'm talking specifically about people posting on public fora.

'grammar police' don't belong on here.
Take your worries elsewhere.

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

Where is the place?

School. :wall::wall:

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

The vast majority of people aren't living with MS/dyslexia, yet most people can't seem to get it right. I know there are some that are living with dyslexia/brain diseases and I wouldn't dream of correcting them if I did usually correct people, and wouldn't think anything of a grammatical error that they made.

So how do you determine which posters do have MS/dyslexia and which don't? How would you decide who should be corrected and who should not be?
Maybe you could give me the winning lottery numbers with your crystal ball.

How do you know the person you sneered at in your opening post doesn't suffer from some illness that makes writing coherently difficult?