Spelling on Forums

[Perp]

Not everybody has had the chance to have been educated well. Not everybody who has had an education has done well at it. Not everybody speaks English as their first language.

It may be that some people are lazy. But it may also be that people have difficulty with the written language.

I don't think people's literacy skills should be used as a form of elitism, or to humiliate or disparage. And I don't think there are many who get worked up about the occasional spelling mistake in an otherwise coherent post.

But there are a significant number of posts where people do appear simply to be lazy. If you know that you're not good at spelling, then you can use a spell checker. Surely anybody who's capable of getting onto the forum has the requisite skills to identify a long sentence or paragraph, and insert some commas and paragraph breaks. If you're making quite a few points, it's not hard to number them, or use bullet points, even with poor literacy skills.

If you are asking others to provide their time and expertise - for free - to assist you in solving a problem, it seems both self-interested and courteous to ensure that you state your problem clearly and that it's readable.

People with genuine literacy issues have my utmost admiration for their ability to function despite the continual frustration of living in a world awash with words. I'm sure that if I had to get by in a world which constantly required use of a skill that I lack, such as having to follow a gym class teacher's instructions , I know that I'd find life extremely difficult and frustrating, and quite possibly "go postal".

I confess that I'm assuming that those people who are unlucky enough to have significant literacy issues are unlikely to try and solve their problems by posting on Somersoft; I assume they'd prefer to ask a friend, or phone the RTA or a legal advice line. But I'm admittedly ignorant about the coping skills of people who struggle with literacy, and quite happy to be corrected and enlightened.

 

[Gordon Farkus]

if we are to believe the advertising, then one in six australian's can't read or write. that's kinda scary.

Oh dear, the irony.

 

[topcropper]

In one of the firms I used to work in, one of the men in charge of delivering all of the chemicals necessary for a downhole cement job on an oilwell completely stuffed up one day, mixed the wrong chemicals, and instead of adding retarder to the slurry to give the slurry time to be pumped down the required 10,000 feet where it was need, he added accelerator, which flash set and hence junked an entire well worth about 8m. Rig had to start again.
.

Wow.!! Thanks for the story Dazz.


See ya's.

 

[Sunfish]

Dazz's story puts a different complexion on the "trade tests" we did before we could touch aircraft in the RAAF.

We thought of them as a bit of a joke because they were "multi guess" exams. You know: choice of four, one usually right field, another left field and two you had to consider. You needed 60% to beat the odds of guessing but that wasn't too much to ask.

In retrospect I now realise that everyone on the tarmac could at least read! We did OK. Never saw a real stuff-up.

 

[Bill.L]

Geoff,

Not everybody has had the chance to have been educated well. Not everybody who has had an education has done well at it. Not everybody speaks English as their first language.

I believe this to be a property investors forum, where people deal in contracts, sale notes, mortgage documents, planning authority requirements, advertisements and many other written forms of communication. The nature of the game requires a level of understanding of English to pass through the minefields unscathed.

The types of mistakes I'm referring to are not those of the uneducated, it is the lazy careless ones, that cannot be bothered to put in the effort to read their own posts before submitting them. In the thread where you deleted the posts about spelling, the OP was asking about commercial property, with 5 or 6 mistakes in a couple of sentences. If that person really does have such a bad grasp of the English written word, then they should stay right away from the minefield of commercial contracts as something could easily be pulled over them in the fine print buried on page 37.

The only conclusion I could draw from that original post was that the poster wanted knowledgeable people to spend time freely giving valuable tidbits of information, without him bothering to give the courtesy of asking the question in an easily readable format in the first place.

bye

 

[Ms Jade]

AARRGH! Mods, can you change this thread topic to "Spelling on Fora" PLEASE?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )

 

[geoffw]

AARRGH! Mods, can you change this thread topic to "Spelling on Fora" PLEASE?

Fora is the correct plural in the original Latin. From what I read, both forums and fora are acceptable plurals.

So it should follow that "florums and faunums" is also acceptable.

 

[geoffw]

There seems to be a logical fallacy implied in here.

If somebody cannot speak or understand the language they are not likely to spell well. But the reverse is not true. Lack of good spelling does not imply poor knowledge of the language or bad literacy.

Spelling is no longer emphasised in our education. My children were never drilled in spelling to anywhere near the same extent that I was. 95% of the university students who work for me are poor spellers.

My wife speaks English as a second language. She works daily reading and sending emails. Her comprehension is excellent. Her sentence construction is often awkward to an English speaker, but her meaning is always clear. She really struggles with English spelling- especially coming from a language which is mostly spelt phonetically- except for words which have come into the language from English. Her bad spelling should never be taken to imply that she has a bad grasp of the English written word. The same could be said of most of the university students I've mentioned. Or even my daughters.

 

[batgirl]

To anyone I have ever offended with my poor speeling, grammer or tyPos, I am truly sorry. Please accept my sincere apology and I will try to do better in the future.

 

[Alabex]

I find it excruciating watching my husband and sons type with two fingers, and often used to type while they dictated the content, to save me having to watch them struggle.

Ha ha - I do that too! I am fast, but accuracy is only around 85-90% so i do get the odd swap of letters in my typing. But i simply cannot watch my husband type with two fingers, it drives me nuts.

I am also not a fan of using the mouse pad (on a laptop) to click by tapping it.. it just causes problems... thats why they give you the buttons It is still a one handed operation.

 

[dan c]

....but I think the point of alot of the posters who have taken the trouble to enunciate their woes geoffw, is that the gross lack of care in spelling / grammatical errors distracts them from contributing positively or even understanding what the initial poster is asking / saying.


Perhaps through a certain level of frustration, they are trying to correct the "gross lack of care". Invariably, the initial poster comes back with "who cares, just answer my question - now"....with the predictable response.

100% agree. It's the lack of care, rather than genuinely not knowing how to spell something that annoys me. Lack of care shows disrespect to other forumites.

 

[Tuppence]

If you are asking others to provide their time and expertise - for free - to assist you in solving a problem, it seems both self-interested and courteous to ensure that you state your problem clearly and that it's readable.

hear hear!

My wife speaks English as a second language. She works daily reading and sending emails. Her comprehension is excellent. Her sentence construction is often awkward to an English speaker, but her meaning is always clear. She really struggles with English spelling- especially coming from a language which is mostly spelt phonetically- except for words which have come into the language from English. Her bad spelling should never be taken to imply that she has a bad grasp of the English written word. The same could be said of most of the university students I've mentioned. Or even my daughters.

I don't think anyone has a problem with those who have learnt English as a later language. I see many posts on here from people who clearly don't have a particularly good grasp of English, yet make a great effort to be clear in what they are asking or saying. It's those who do have a good grasp of the language and make no effort to use it properly that I find bothersome.


(on another note, I just learned how to multi-quote - woo hoo)

 

[rugrat]

I just think it is ssssoooo funny that people here even care that much. I am a lazy speller. I am very lazy with my grammar when it comes to internet forums. I don't proof read what I write, and I could care less about the English Language Nazi's on the internet (particularly those who get things wrong themselves when attempting to correct another. I do not apologise for this, and I could not be bothered proof reading and editing every post I make (particularly those one handed ones, where I am busy doing something else, like feeding babies) just so some person I don't know from a bar of soap feels better about what they are reading.

Seriously, get over yourselves.

It's spelling, It's not the end of the world.
If the author has managed to get their point across DESPITE poor spelling and grammar, then the only people who care are those with way too much time on their hands and an over inflated sense of self.

Everyone here complaining about spelling should stick there heads into a few other forums and see the comparative standards; SS isn't doing too badly.


Oh and for what it is worth, I have 10 years of university education under my belt - Commerce, Economics and Law. I KNOW the importance of words and spelling and grammar - but you know what writing a post on SS is hardly the same as writing a legal document.

If the poster truely is illegible and you are honestly unable to understand what they are saying, well then either leave it alone or tell them so - but most errors people tend to point out are completely irrelevant to the questions posed IMHO.

Edited to add: Yes I am completely aware of all the bad spelling and grammar in this post

 

[travelbug]

I agree Rugrat.

I'm a teacher and am constantly correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation.
When I get on forums I do so for pleasure. I don't want to have to proofread my posts. Sure I look at it to see if there are glaring mistakes but that's it. I'm a good speller. Sometimes my typing is not so good (especially now as I have just had my acrylic nails put back on).

For some posters English is not their first language either.

I do laugh at some of the language (or miss use of it) but it's no big deal.

Can't think of an example right now. A girl I went to school with constantly said "I'm used of it". Drove me crazy.

 

[Perp]

I do laugh at some of the language (or miss use of it) but it's no big deal.

Can't think of an example right now.

What about people who say "miss use" when they mean misuse? LMAO

 

[Simon]

Other malapropisms I dislike are:

Baited Breath

Tenderhooks

Deep Seeded Belief

For all intensive purposes

I am sure I could find a lot more if I thought about it.

 

[BayView]

Hi all,

Over the years there has definitely been a reduction in the standard of spelling in the typed words in this forum. Just recently it has been getting worse, to the point that I get distracted from the content by the mistakes. Most of the mistakes are not because the person cannot spell, but as much from lack of attention to any details in their posts, even in the headings of new threads.

Now before you get stuck into me about being pedantic about it, or sins and casting stones etc, let me be the first to say that I am an atrocious speller, plus I always received low marks in English at school. However I will make an effort to check and correct my spelling mistakes by opening up another window in my browser and googling the spelling of words I have difficulty with.

My gripe is that there is a growing number of people who do not make any effort in their communication at all, yet expect their posts to be taken seriously.

Rant over.

bye

I'm frikkin' with ya on this one!

And, I don't take their posts seriously either; I don't have a lot of time for them if they can't be bothered making a reasonable attempt at correct English.

Yeah, yeah - "get over oursleves" and "who cares?" and all that argument....

Yes, it isn't important - but it is - it's respect for the other forumites who have no choice but to attempt to read the tripe if the poster wants us to listen to their point of view.

You can't have it both ways; you can't spell like a 4 year old, and ask us to take you seriously as an intelligent adult.

 

[jaycee]

What about whinging like a 4 yr oild and making a mountain out of a mole-hill and complianing about the obvious as it it's something new that only you and a few elite were are the only ones to overcome - can you take those people's posts seriously ?

Have you guys just got too much spare time with nothing worthwhile to worry about ?

I make a post in the coffee lougne asking for suggestions about wedding gifts, and someone suggests that I a) learn to use spell check and b) takes p1ss out of me for suggsting I buy the bgroom ( my borther ) a present on his big day... that's much more mature than me not double checking for a typo

 

[Piston Broke]

I fink dumm spellin on a four rum is fully shick mait.
Butt neva me, myne is supa and that hay.

 

[Sunfish]

and I could care less about the English Language Nazi's

Think about it. Does this make sense? What does it mean? Literally (Note: checking every word I type) the correspondent is saying he/she cares less about other things than "correctness" with an assumed "than" to follow. We all know the opposite meaning was meant.

Correct usage would be and I could not care less about the English Language Nazi's

If you are lazy and putting the left pinkie on the "shift" button is an effort, (a generic statement) why type a passage which reads the opposite of your intention?