Correcting people's grammar - acceptable?

pebbles88

During an online chat with a friend : on asked what she had been up to... Typed... "Am bean me own boss" .....:eek:

coolcait

I've seen a few posts mention spellcheck. My own view is that spell check can be part of the problem.


Spellcheck will not tell you that you've used the wrong word. If I type something like the following, spellcheck will let it through unchallenged:


Two bee err nought too bee – aye no that’s Sheikh spare
Witch is nought good (spill cheque - knot Sheikh spare!). Eye wood of thought.

Pollycat

Izadora wrote: »

I could've done but I wouldn't because, despite your opinion of me, I'm actually not a smug, self-satisfied tw*t. I already said that I know that I'm in the wrong for thinking the way that I do but I can't help the fact that something in my brain screams at me when I read incredibly garbled English. I do however choose not to take people to task over what they've written despite being annoyed by it.

You also choose - by your own admission - not to help people because their spelling, punctuation or grammar is not up to your standards:

Izadora wrote: »

" I think "well, if you can't even bother to try to be intelligible then I don't see why I should bother to listen to what you have to say."

FWIW, a wrong word used, misspelled word, apostrophe in the wrong place or any other error screams out at me too.
The difference is that I see past it and don't just ignore someone because they may not have had the same level of education.

Jagraf

Would you be happy for other people to correct you on, say, your etiquette? Why do you want people to feel inadequate/inferior? Making others embarassed is far worse in my opinion and shows a distinct lack of manners.

securityguy

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.

However, I can see the population getting dumb, and feel such corrections should be made. Otherwise, eventually, 'to' will be accepted as 'too', or 'loose' will be accepted as 'lose' etc.

Thoughts on a postcard...

Nazi is a proper noun and takes a capital letter. You don't need the comma after "I look". "Getting dumb" is a very informal use of "getting" and would be better as "becoming dumb" or, if we're to avoid the casual Americanism, "stupid"; in British English dumb refers to inability to speak. You don't need the comma after "dumb". If you're going to put a comma before "or 'loose'" then you definitely need one before "etc".

Anatidaephobia

I do notice grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. It's not seen as socially acceptable (or polite) to correct people though so I don't. I'm happy to be corrected though. It doesn't bother me when there are minor errors which could just be a typo, auto-correct or a mistake. It grates when there are a LOT of mistakes in one post but I wouldn't treat anyone any different for it. As others have said, there could be any number of reasons for their errors.

The worst thing is when people spell things the wrong way on purpose even though they know and understand the correct spelling. I don't like it but I can at least understand the theory when people shorten words (like txt spk) to save characters on Twitter or whatever. But I have a friend of a friend on Facebook who writes long rambling posts littered with things like "wos" instead of "was".

When it comes to signposts, menus, company websites, professional documents, etc, it is always acceptable to contact the writer/owner/publisher and politely point out the mistake so that they can correct it.

Mrs_Ryan

Being an English Language degree student, spelling and grammar is one thing I have a major issue with. I don't go as far to correct strangers, especially not on here although close friends and family know I have a real bee in my bonnet about it. My best friend has a nasty habit of using 'witch' and 'carnt' instead of 'which' and 'can't' and I have lost count of how many times I have told her that 'LOL' is only appropriate in informal conversation :mad: She sends everything formal she has to send to me first so I can sort her grammar, spelling and punctuation out and because I 'know long words and how and when to use them'
I have done work experience with adult literacy students where my job was to correct their spelling and grammar and tell them where they had gone wrong and on occasions I did feel bad denouncing someone's entire piece of work as it was literally unreadable but as was pointed out earlier in the thread that is how they will learn. I try to be patient, I tell myself I am lucky to be good at spelling, punctuation and grammar, like some people who aren't so good at it might be good at Maths or Science, both of which I am hopeless at. Much as some posts frustrate me, I don't think I could ever correct anyone, as I say unless it was close friends or family who expect it from me now :rotfl:

Voyager2002

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.

However, I can see the population getting dumb, and feel such corrections should be made. Otherwise, eventually, 'to' will be accepted as 'too', or 'loose' will be accepted as 'lose' etc.

Thoughts on a postcard...

People do not usually post to ask for help with their English, so a simple correction will make them angry rather than educating them. So I would only respond to such a post if I had something constructive to say. In the course of saying something helpful, I would often explain that their poor use of English might be preventing other people from understanding the problem and being able to help, and perhaps correct the worst mistakes.

Voyager2002

Jagraf wrote: »

Would you be happy for other people to correct you on, say, your etiquette? Why do you want people to feel inadequate/inferior? Making others embarassed is far worse in my opinion and shows a distinct lack of manners.

Well, a failure of etiquette is bad manners, and if I were rude to someone I could not complain if they protested.

In many cases poor use of English reflects laziness, and it is simply rude to ask for help yet fail to take the trouble to make your post as easy as possible to read and understand.

Pollycat

Here's a question for you, Newlyboughthouse:
how would you feel if you posted asking for advice on a dilemma and the only people to respond didn't refer to your dilemma at all but instead pointed out that you'd misspelled a word, not put a capital letter on a proper noun or missed a comma out?