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When is poor spelling/grammar ok? Discuss literacy...

Its never ok unless its in an SMS to someone. We have forums at uni, and people write like this in :

cn eny1 telz me bout da eqshion we need to use ?

I wrote back one day something not very nice. That went something like this: Wow, im really amazed at how far you have come in your degree with what skills you have. You obviously have no conception of grammer, syntax or basic spelling. Please enlighten me as to what skills you are using instead. something. something.

Anyway yes it did make me feel like a big man, but FFS its a university webpage that all of read, like 500 of use, and its unbelievable that people think its approapriate to write like that.

THIS IS NOT A FUCKING SMS.
 
^ exactly. And how is "any" any harder to type than "eny"... or "tell" than "tellz" (it has *more* letters!). I don't think these SMS-addicted young people are being lazy, I think they seriously don't know how to spell half these words. Or they think it looks cool or something. :\ *shudder*
 
I don't reply to 'cool' sms'. They get deleted immediately.

And oh God, please, if you're going to post in this thread, at least spell grammar properly :\
please please please =|
 
^^ Um I was completely drunk when I wrote that post. completely. and you all fucking suck and I completely disagree with everything you say.
 
There was a time, long long ago (however not in a place far far away; it was on this board, though in a previous incarnation), when a little bluelighter who called herself GhOst, was known to type lik dis and dat and wat eva. One day, her Uncle flip, candyflip to those who knew him not-so-well, decided that enough was enough. He told her she was a disgrace, that she was ruining the English language, and that she should put some effort into learning the language properly or by golly she'd get what for!

Well, little did Uncle flip know that our GhOst had quite a firm grasp of the English language. She went on to prove this fact by way of an exquisitely written retort, one which left not only no doubt that GhOst was capable of writing 'properly', but also showed that she was as accomplished as, if not better than, anyone else posting at that time. And certainly more than poor embarrassed candyflip.

Right. So the point of all that is, as Raz and others have mentioned, the way someone writes is not a reflection of their intelligence. It may not even be a reflection of their true writing ability. GhOst wrote the way she did because it was easier. It was what she was used to because of time spent on IRC. And because she knew people would understand her anyway.

So that's my second point, the same as made much more concisely by smileyfish, that being able to understand what's written is more important than perfect grammar and spelling.

But (OMG, he started a sentance with the word 'but'! *gasp*), I think it's just as important to be able to write well. I don't care if someone makes a few mistakes, or doesn't capitalise at all, or even uses some IRCesque abbreviations, as long as they're capable of writing 'properly'.

Me? I'm pedantic to the point of musty smelling, glasses-on-the-end-of-the-nose, disapprovingly frowning, tweed-jacket wearing, stuck-up obsessiveness. My SMS' usually take up exactly enough characters to fill up the entire SMS, with every word spelt correctly. I might throw in a smilie at the end though. ;)
 
There's a line. A fine line. What shits me is when people say things like 'I'm just a writer at heart' or 'I express myself soo much better in words' and then go and misspell really simpel shit or put a comma, where it isn't needed.

The worst is when you just KNOW someone's dragged out the thesaurus, when some really superfluous word has been interlineated to give the illusion of intelligence. Of course, when you take everything out of context for the sake of verbosity, you start to lose the impact...

Anyway. I think it all depends on the situation. If you're writing a formal report, or an essay or something, then it's probably advisable to make sure all your spelling/punctuation/sentence structure is down to pat. On a messageboard? As long as you're coherent, it doesn't really matter. The ones that pretend to be something they're not, though...well...

edit: forgot the e in messageboard. That would've been embarassing
 
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Is there a short course available at TAFE on writing skills?

I'm fairly good at spelling and I have a decent sized vocabulary, but some things like commas fuck me over, and there's a few other things I would like to get up to scratch with.

I was a late bloomer and didn't start wagging school really 'til years 11 and 12, so although I did advanced english, my learning (and retention) of it suffered somewhat.

I might look into it when I go back to TAFE in a week.

I'm sure there is plenty online to read about the matter, but I learn much better when I'm forced to do assignments etc.

Word of the day from the oxford dictionary, by email.

This is pretty cool.
 
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^^^ I honestly don't remember being taught much about grammar and punctuation in high school, despite undertaking advanced levels of english all the way through.
 
sourlemone said:
There's a line. A fine line. What shits me is when people say things like 'I'm just a writer at heart' or 'I express myself soo much better in words' and then go and misspell really simpel shit or put a comma, where it isn't needed.

The worst is when you just KNOW someone's dragged out the thesaurus, when some really superfluous word has been interlineated to give the illusion of intelligence. Of course, when you take everything out of context for the sake of verbosity, you start to lose the impact...

Anyway. I think it all depends on the situation. If you're writing a formal report, or an essay or something, then it's probably advisable to make sure all your spelling/punctuation/sentence structure is down to pat. On a messageboard? As long as you're coherent, it doesn't really matter. The ones that pretend to be something they're not, though...well...

edit: forgot the e in messageboard. That would've been embarassing
Click to expand...

'simpel' shit?

now THAT would be embarrassing
 
ever heard of irony? notice I also put a comma where it wasn't needed (in the same sentence). FYI I used a thesaurus to find 'interlineate.'

Don't be embarassed, though ;)
 
Thanks man. You should be my editor. That's how I write, like it or not, and it flows a lot better without your corrections (in my humble opinion).
 
RaVPup said:
The worst is when you just know someones dragged out the thesaurus
Click to expand...

someone's

Contraction. Apostrophe.

Now, please let's stop using this thread to correct posts and talk about the actual topic.
 
Poor spelling and grammar, isn't something I hate, I can sort of ignore it, but the one thing I hate more than anything when it comes to communication is messy hand writing, messy hand writing shits me no end.

I know everyone can't have perfect cursive hand writing, and mine is not perfect, but it's legible and consistent and it all slopes the same way, and at the end of the day, it's just not that hard to write neatly...
 
swifty said:
...at the end of the day, it's just not that hard to write neatly...
Click to expand...
Imagine you've been stuck in exams all day, your hands are sore, your forearms are cramping. At the end of that day I'd bet you wouldn't be singing the same tune...

Regardless, for those of us who don't write much (if at all) using pen and paper, writing neatly is hard. Any skill fades if not used. That old cliché of never forgetting how to ride a bike once you've learnt? Right, sure, if you hadn't been on a bike in 2 decades, sure, you could probably get on one again and stay upright, but you're not going to look very graceful, and you're sure not going to win any races.
 
swifty said:
at the end of the day, it's just not that hard to write neatly...
Click to expand...
It is when you don't have thumbs. :p

Some Architects have writing that resembles Hyroglyphics (sp?) closer than it does letters. It baffles me to no end how they can write S's that look like backwards C's.
 
I just don't believe the rubbish about computing affecting handwriting. I use a computer for many hours each day and I have beautiful handwriting. So there.
 
swifty said:
...and at the end of the day, it's just not that hard to write neatly...
Click to expand...

It is for me. My handwriting has always been atrocious, and even when I'm trying to write as neatly as possible, it's pretty damn messy. Even I find it hard to interpret at times.

Largely due to this, I absolutely hate having to hand write anything apart from my signature, to the point where I will find someone (anyone) else available to even write on a CD for me, rather than do it myself.

I appreciate good handwriting as much as I abhor my own, but given the very few occasions that I actually write, it's not something I can see improving any time soon without a whole lot of repetitive exercises. :\

Anna! While it's certainly not the only factor, I think the fact that I have used computers daily since I was 10, and have always typed rather than written if the option is there, (even down to convincing primary school teachers to let me type lines, rather than write them as punishment [before they knew about cut'n'paste ;)]), has had a pretty big impact of my current witing skills.
 
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