Correcting people's grammar - acceptable?

Pollycat

Gloomendoom wrote: »

It is.

It's likely to be read by a lot more people, some of whom may not realise that what they are reading is incorrect and go on to perpetuate the error themselves, both on forums and in their own workplaces.

So you think public fora should take the place of a proper education? :rotfl:

If you don't know how and when to use apostrophes - as opposed to apostrophe's :cool: - or other rules of grammar by the time you join a forum such as this, it's a tad late to learn.
That's not the purpose of this website.

Gloomendoom

Pollycat wrote: »

So you think public fora should take the place of a proper education? :rotfl:

I had a "proper" education and yet I still make mistakes. When I do, I don't mind being corrected on this forum or anywhere else.

If you don't know how and when to use apostrophes - as opposed to apostrophe's :cool: - or other rules of grammar by the time you join a forum such as this, it's a tad late to learn.
That's not the purpose of this website.

It's never too late to learn.


As an aside, somebody bought me this mug for Christmas:

http://picture-cdn.wheretoget.it/da31tb-i.jpg (Don't look if you don't like the "F" word)

I first saw the text on an American public forum (motoring related) where, in the equivalent to the MSE Arms and Discussion Time, quarter is rarely given for poor use of English. Members are predominately male (99.9%) and come from all walks of life. Whinge that your grammar or spelling has been corrected and you are likely to get one of these posted in response:

Pollycat

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I had a "proper" education and yet I still make mistakes. When I do, I don't mind being corrected on this forum or anywhere else.



It's never too late to learn

I too had a decent education.
But not everyone is so lucky.

My own personal opinion is that to correct someone's grammatical or spelling mistakes could discourage them from posting again.

Is that really what MSE boards are all about?

IIRC, the thread the OP criticised was typed at a time when the author of that thread was under stress.

In those circumstances, I could forgive anyone who makes mistakes and feel that someone who can't do that is lacking in feeling towards others in their time of need.

Kim_kim

Pollycat wrote: »

I too had a decent education.
But not everyone is so lucky.

My own personal opinion is that to correct someone's grammatical or spelling mistakes could discourage them from posting again.

Is that really what MSE boards are all about?

IIRC, the thread the OP criticised was typed at a time when the author of that thread was under stress.

In those circumstances, I could forgive anyone who makes mistakes and feel that someone who can't do that is lacking in feeling towards others in their time of need.

I think the use of phones & tables causes a lot of typos.
Either because they are small the Typer can't see what they are typing to check - an issue to those of us over 45 :-(
Or they keys are so small & close together that mistakes are made.
Or damn autocorrect - which gets us all!!

thorsoak

I too am a bit of a "grammar nazi" - but am of the opinion that the only people who should correct other peoples' grammar are lecturers or teachers and the parents of young children who are learning to talk.

I mutter and grumble about grammatical errors but try not to make public my opprobrium!

Gloomendoom

Pollycat wrote: »

I too had a decent education.
But not everyone is so lucky.

My own personal opinion is that to correct someone's grammatical or spelling mistakes could discourage them from posting again.

Is that really what MSE boards are all about?

IIRC, the thread the OP criticised was typed at a time when the author of that thread was under stress.

In those circumstances, I could forgive anyone who makes mistakes and feel that someone who can't do that is lacking in feeling towards others in their time of need.

I wholeheartedly agree, in those specific circumstances.

Pollycat

Kim_kim wrote: »

I think the use of phones & tables causes a lot of typos.

I guess you meant 'tablets' rather than something one might eat their dinner off.
But that just proves yours and my point. :T

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I wholeheartedly agree, in those specific circumstances.

And that was the point I made a year ago.
To make oneself look superior to another person on t'internet by pointing out deficiencies in the way they write says more about the criticisers than the original poster.

ripplyuk

What annoys me is when people 'correct' me, but they're actually wrong. I was recently laughed at by someone because I said 'Could have' and the other person insisted it was 'Could of'.

Someone else I know corrects everyone who says eg: 'Me and Jane" with 'No, no, it's 'Jane and I'. This is totally regardless of the sentence or context.

Lambyr

I work, partly, as a copywriter. Therefore, I am expected to have a good grasp of spelling and grammar. I am also required to understand other technical aspects of the written word, such as passive and active voice, transitional words, Flesch scales, copy presentation, etc.

Honestly, when you spend as much time as I do agonising over word choice, pacing, sentence structure, paragraph length and other such details, you tend to relax on a forum.

Sentence fragments, unnecessary trailing ellipses, overuse of pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, misplaced commas, misused semi-colons, squinting modifiers. I'm guilty of all these crimes against English in casual writing. People are welcome to pull me up on it, but there's a good chance I already know it's wrong.

I admit, I'm just being lazy. I do fix the most egregious errors, but that's usually because my Grammarly plugin starts shouting at me.

Izadora

ripplyuk wrote: »

What annoys me is when people 'correct' me, but they're actually wrong. I was recently laughed at by someone because I said 'Could have' and the other person insisted it was 'Could of'.

People getting that wrong is bad enough but the fact that it's now so common that people pick you up when you're correct is quite worrying. If anyone did that to me I fear that I would end up going into a pretty long rant about why they were wrong.

ripplyuk wrote: »

Someone else I know corrects everyone who says eg: 'Me and Jane" with 'No, no, it's 'Jane and I'. This is totally regardless of the sentence or context.

If you want to be really pedantic, "Me and Jane" would never be correct as you should always put the other person first