Correcting people's grammar - acceptable?

missbiggles1

Pollycat wrote: »

But that is a totally different scenario - those posters are asking for advice as meritaten points out.

The OP is looking down her nose at someone who is less able to express themselves verbally than she is.
And in my book, that's not very nice at all.

Surely the discussion is about somebody's problems in expressing themselves in writing rather than verbally?

missbiggles1

meritaten wrote: »

and another thought - Do you use the same language down the pub or chatting with your friends as you would at a job interview or addressing a public meeting? I don't. I view the forum as more 'chatting with friends' - its not a job interview or a written assignment or examination. it SHOULD be more informal. and that means some posters have to be more tolerant of people's writing style.
if you really DONT understand what the poster means then it's ok to ask for clarification - just don't correct their post for them (I hate that - I always imagine the corrector as this fuddy duddy English teacher), or put them down (I hate that too - I always think OOOOOhhh and how perfect are YOU?). Some very intelligent people I know can barely string a sentence together coherently - but, they are very, very good at their jobs.

No, I don't.

However, neither do I say "I done" or "you was" when chatting informally. There's a big difference between speaking or writing informally and doing either incorrectly.

missbiggles1

pollypenny wrote: »

Hey! We English teachers are not all fuddy-duddy , ya know!

I've never corrected a spelling or punctuation on a post. However, I did pm a young teacher about a mistake once. It was a teacher-bashing thread and I didn't want her to give away more ammunition.

I remember the horror of reading a post by a teacher which was headed "Learning my son Spanish"!:eek: She argued that forums weren't the same as essays and just couldn't understand why so many people were scandalised, both by her grammar and her attitude.

bildersfriend

I think correcting grammar could be seen as disrespectful because most people in this country have not been taught grammar unless you went to a posh school!

Conveying the message is the most important thing, unless of course its a publication (not a forum) and that should clearly be perfect if possible.

pathtofreedom

I have a degree but as it was in a technical subject none of my work was ever corrected at uni for spelling or grammar.

I left school in 96 and did gcse english lit and english lang, yet wasn't taught grammar really, or had any work in any subject corrected for it. I know what a verb is and a noun but that's about it. For the gcse's it just wasn't part of the english syllabus then.

I am dyslexic but that isn't the reason I don't know grammar, as if you asked anyone else at my school they would say the same. I was at the same school from the age of 6 to 18, and they forgot for 8 years of that I even was dyslexic, so it wasn't like I was being let off being corrected because of it.

I don't mind being correct as such, as I do want to learn. What annoys me though is when posting in a forum or facebook and you see people make perfectly formed arguments, then there will be a reply which is just *you're or something. Which seems like they grammar geek is ignoring the total response, which is still readable, on the basis of one word being wrong.

If people replied agreeing, or disagreeing with the topic, but then said something nicer about the grammar at the end, eg might be a typo but I think you mean *you're then that would be fine. Just posting *you're and nothing else though seems pedantic to the extreme. As if you're not willing to read anything that person has written, no matter how valid, due to a mistake.

Seeing so many posts like that has put me off starting my own websites, as even though I have a lot of knowledge that would help people, I can't afford proof readers, and the fear of getting it wrong because of this trend of correcting people is too much.

I have started this course though and want to learn more so I can still do my websites. https://www.coursera.org/learn/grammar-punctuation/home/welcome I don't know if this might help anyone else here, it is free if you choose the without certificate option. Who knew there were 12 different tenses and not just 3, past, present, future like I had thought.

Just to add I've re-read this post 3 times now, which I normally wouldn't do for a forum post, just for fear of even posting this. I'm sure there are still mistakes I've not seen. I hope though my experience helps people, more than the risk of mistakes stop people from reading and judging.

pollypenny

Pollycat wrote: »

Out if curiosity, why wouldn't you correct a spelling or punctuation mistake in a post on MSE?

Do you think it's not appropriate or do you think as the OP does - that it's not the way to 'win friends'?

The former - not appropriate. However, I would pay less attention to a badly written post, as it would rankle.

When I see the odd error from regular posters I would not wish to embarrass them. I'm not their English teacher.

meritaten

Polly - I have never seen you correct anyone's post. and I do KNOW not all English teachers are pedantic. I had some lovely ones.
buuutt - I cant help thinking when I see somebodies perfectly lucid post picked apart because the Spelling wasn't perfect, or there were a few grammatical errors, that the corrector was 'on a mission' to teach. and not on the forum to offer help and advice.
If the post is so badly written that I cannot understand it - I move on, or ask questions until I get the gist of it.

Pollycat

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Surely the discussion is about somebody's problems in expressing themselves in writing rather than verbally?

Well.
10/10 for being pedantic. :T

coolcait

meritaten wrote: »

... I cant help thinking when I see somebodies perfectly lucid post picked apart because the Spelling wasn't perfect, or there were a few grammatical errors, that the corrector was 'on a mission' to teach. and not on the forum to offer help and advice.
If the post is so badly written that I cannot understand it - I move on, or ask questions until I get the gist of it.

Yet how often does it actually happen that a post is 'picked apart' because the spelling wasn't perfect, or there were a few grammatical errors?


In the main, as the majority of posters on this thread have said, the replies will concentrate on the subject matter (give or take a tangent or two!).


The main exception to that rule seems to be those occasions where a post contains a large block of text without paragraphs. Those posts definitely attract negative comments about the poster's style.


Other than that, there doesn't seem to be an epidemic of post correction happening on MSE.


So, although I find this an interesting topic, it's one which - for me - is a hypothetical situation rather than a discussion of something which I have seen happening regularly on the MSE forum.

missbiggles1

Pollycat wrote: »

Well.
10/10 for being pedantic. :T

I'm not being pedantic, you used the wrong word and instead of saying "whoops, I made a mistake!", it's become somebody else's fault because they happened to notice it.

Much better to be the bigger person, accept that you're wrong , learn and move on. We all make mistakes, it's how we deal with them that matters.:D