A Call To Better Spelling

[Blue Crab]

Sorry Lancer, but the term "English" should be capitalized in post #28. I was an English teacher for many years. I tend to catch more errors than the average guy. It's a curse really. Trust me. And it doesn't make you any friends. Know what I'm saying?

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by Lancerbye

Is this another April fool's day thread coming in late? If we are worried about the spelling and punctuation of stuff written on the internet causing social degredation, I have to say we are too late. That ship has already sailed. Now that chat and texting abreviations are being added to the english dictionaries, I think the door is way past being opened. I don't think it affects sailing.

ug2bk

[markpierce]

Much of English is non-phonetic because it has adopted many foreign words without revising the spelling to conform to rules. English has the largest vocabulary and greatest nuance (many synonyms with different connotations) at the expense of spelling ease.

[peterp]

I use my laptop for most of my email work, when composing a post in the reply box I have found that if I accidently swipe the touchpad I sometimes loose the text I have typed, most annoying, I also have found that if I type in a hurry error’s nearly always creep in, spelling or typo’s we all know there is nothing worse than reading one’s post and notice a glaring error long after one can correct that error I must say I am not the world’s best at spelling so I now mostly use word to compose the post which has solved my swiping problem, and can be saved for later editing and of course spell checking, then I simply copy and paste. I am in Australia, some words such as ‘tyre’ are spelt ‘tire’ in the USA one of the anomalies of spelling I guess.
Regards Peter

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Since CF is a world wide forum, should we give latitude to those who have a first language other than English?

Pete

and for Americans

[Lancerbye]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

and for Americans

LMAO

[Bill Burgette]

Based on a study at Cambridge University a little typo shouldn't be all that big of a deal. Certainly not big enough to give the mods a raise. If we can still read it and know what's meant, (instead of said) we should be OK.

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

[four winds]

Yse, I hvae seen taht bfeore, and it is aamzngily esay to raed.

[ShaunJ]

For some reason, I could read that last post easier than all the others.......

Thanks Bill

ShaunJ

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Lucky Larry

Ciao! (did I spell that right?)

Nope! It's spelled "
"Chow"...otherwise known as military food
<tongue firmly planted in cheek>

My current faves are "you" (example boat) instead of your (boat),
your instead or you're and countless others.

As far as people whose first language is not English, it's usally pretty obvious from their sentence structure, so it's easy to cut them some slack.

A couple of years ago, I spent a couple of weeks with some (barely) English speaking Swiss technical engineers.
When I came home, my sentence structure sounded like the English version of German!

And yes, I did edit this for an additional paragraph, but I capitalized "English" already!

[Bill Burgette]

Another pet peeve would be the folks that add worthless information to a thread and use words improperly. If people would just realize that some comments are invenereal. I can almost tell the bad posters 100 years before they post because I have extra century perception. Good English and don't forget that good punctuation means never being late.

With kind regards to Mrs. Malaprop.

[Starbuck]

No, please don't correct anything, be it titles or body text.

As long as it falls within the guidelines for the site, people have a right to have what they create be seen, unaltered. Whatever impression others get, whether good or bad, justified or not, they get.

If you are a bad speller, or a careless typist, or a scrambled thinker, or have some condition that makes interfacing with your keyboard difficult, then that is part of you. It's no business of the moderators to change any of that. And I have a right to know the real person, not some sanitized virtual person.

If I care about your spelling, then I care about your spelling, and if I skip over your post because I find you indecipherable, then I do. Mods, please don't spare me from others' peculiarities, (and in doing so, spare me from my own, honest reactions), by tinkering with people's language. It (everyone's language) is too much an intimate part of who they are to allow Speech Control.

If anyone edits anything I create, I'll be very pissed. I'd rather my whole post were deleted than to have it altered in any way whatsoever. Who the hell are you to change my bad spelling, or ungainly usage, or lack of coherence?

We have a fundamental right to be who we actually are, even if what we are is ugly.

Mods have better things to do than to be running around trying to insure equal outcomes to make the CF "fair"; that's the job if misguided governments.

Oh: have a nice day!

[markpierce]

I too find misspellings and grammatical errors to be distracting. I try to ignore them. While such errors negatively reflect on the writers' command of language, I realize we all make unintentional mistakes.

What bothers me the most, however, are extremely long -- more than five-line -- paragraphs. Such paragraphs are painful to read. Thus, I usually don't read them.

Writers! Please be kind to and respectful of your readers. If not, your message may be be disregarded.

[Feral Cement]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

You mean "let's", right?
I freak out when I see the "it's/its" mistake in my morning paper.

I can't quite (not "quit") seem (not "seam") to (not "two" OR "too") ever get that one straight myself, but the abuse of there/their/they're is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I understand "it's" as a conjunction of "it is"; what is the rule on the possessive?

John

[Feral Cement]

Originally Posted by Artif

Well I hope you spell "colour" correctly.

I remember having "honour" marked wrong on an early spelling test. My Anglophile mother was ready to start a revolution.

John