Do you judge people by their spelling?

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Aurora Firestorm

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May 1, 2008
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Yeah, I do. I can understand the occasional misspelling, but when something is written in this fashion: "So yesturday I was on my bicicle and I was roling past the stop sign and I saw a kiten," then I have to grab my hair and ask, these are words you should have known since you were a kid! I can understand misspelling big words or scientific terms or something, but really now!

If someone is known to not speak English well or they have some concrete problem like dyslexia or whatever, I give them an exemption. But for all the native English speakers...you should at least be able to spell the most common words correctly. Hell, they're even marked in red in Firefox to tell you that you did it wrong.

Maybe it's me being arrogant, because I was always the spelling bee kid, and words just sort of intuitively make sense to me, but I figure that the way you write says a lot about you, and if you don't have the desire to make sure your writing has decent spelling, you're writing in a slipshod way, and it makes me think you don't care enough about what you're saying to actually make it legible. If you were inviting a new acquaintance to your house, you wouldn't leave dirty laundry everywhere, would you?

Just one of my pet peeves.
 

Tibike77

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Mar 20, 2008
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Not dismissing people entirely because of horrible spelling, but it sure does make a very bad first impression.
I'm also much more likely to judge the contents of their posts using far less leniency and/or patience.
Basically, I assume whoever keeps making such mistakes is not likely to be very bright and/or well educated.
And no, English is not my first language. It's actually my THIRD one.
 

Dalek Caan

Pro-Dalek, Anti-You
Feb 12, 2011
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If is a typo or a mistake on a word that I to would probably miss-spell then no, not fair. On the other hand if you intentionally miss-spell a word i.e.Guys replaced by guisee then I ignore them. Saw a post a couple days of ago were something intentionally miss-spelled every word to seem cool. Don't think many people replied.
 

the27thvoice

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Aug 19, 2010
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I do feel that we let things slide a bit too much in regards to people spelling things wrong. We feel like we're picking on people if we point out mistakes, and I believe that to be a core issue with language deterioration.
As an example, years ago I was confused about the word "sense", I spelled it "science", a flaw no spellchecker would correct me on. Thus I would go into IRC chatrooms and make an arse of myself by proclaiming "that makes no science to me". Eventually someone pointed out my mistake and I am grateful for that. These days a correction of that calibre would probably be attacked with labels like "grammar nazi".

That's one of the reasons it pains me to see people confuse "who's" and "whose". These are people who are simply wrong and we're all being too "nice" to point out their flaws so that they can correct them.

As for typos, those do occur, of course, but if you don't have the time on a forum to re-read your own post once before going public, if you can't glance through it once to weed out the majority of the slip-ups, then I might not bother to read through it either.
 

emptyother

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Feb 12, 2008
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Yes, i do judge people on their spelling.
I dont notice spelling mistakes, and can eevn raed wehn the ltrtes are in the worng oderr without noticing.
For me to notice it, the writing have to be way out of wacky sanity. And i will dismiss the writer as someone not interested in being heard.

The occasional faulty use of their/they're/were/we're/rouge/rogue, i dont care and probably wont notice. For all i know, he might be uneducated or a non-native english-speaker like me.
 

Veldel

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Apr 28, 2010
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Cheesus333 said:
I don't for simple mistakes like accidentally putting 'your' instead of 'you're', things like that. It's typing like this...

goin 2 da shop cus wer owt ov mlk
Or this...

GoIng tO tHE shOp bEcaUse we'RE OuT of MILk
That puts a glaze on my eyes. I know I shouldn't be so supercilious, but then again, they shouldn't force me to squint if I want to understand what they're saying. Which I usually don't anyway, so I guess it all works out.
is it bad i had to look at both of those examples just to understand what was said....
 

Chromanin

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Apr 6, 2010
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archabaddon said:
Yes, I do.

Barring any legitimate excuse like dyslexia, writing English as a second language, or misspelling something on purpose for emphasis and the like, the only thing that I know about a certain poster on a forum is how he or she presents him/ herself through writing.

If they can't even be bothered to spell correctly (or reference the Internet to look up tricky words), why should I care to read it? Why should I take someone who uses thumbpad text in a normal conversation seriously?

Personally, I'm not a very good speller, but I do at least take the time to figure out why my words end up with little wiggly red lines underneath them.

That's my opinion. You don't have to like it ;)
I think I love you.
 

Nihilism_Is_Bliss

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Oct 27, 2009
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Lose =/= Loose

How come 99% of people do not know this?!?

And in response to OP, I've always been good at spelling since I was a kid and I don't really understand how some people struggle so much with it, like I'm sure people who are good at maths can't understand my ineptitude in their field.

My point however, is that spelling isn't an area that is always a good gauge of intelligence (Fig 1: me), as I know many people who are highly skilled in sciences and mathematics who simply can't spell a word to save themselves. So yeah, I might make some slight assumptions about completely awful spellers, but I won't judge them to be a dumb-ass right off the bat.
 

SenseOfTumour

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Jul 11, 2008
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Well, I don't think we're that bad at the escapist, I deliberately put an error in my earlier post and no-one's bothered to pedantically point it out, or maybe just no-one cared enough to notice :D

Either way, maybe we're not as full of 'grammar nazis' as people think...
 

kortin

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Mar 18, 2011
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Well seeing as this website is popular in both North America and Europe, I don't tend to judge people based on spelling and grammar here. However, if its a website that is predominantly North American, I expect at least the basics of spelling and grammar to be applied correctly.
 

Creator002

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Aug 30, 2010
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Sometimes, because I believe using proper language when typing/writing to someone is a form of respect. Also some people believe spelling and grammar isn't important, well, let me tell you why it is: bdoab?fia jeiBf jiahciane jab¥

Understand that? No? THAT'S WHY IT'S IMPORTANT!!!

I am lenient on dyslexics and non-native speakers, of course. It's not their fault they don't know/can't remember the rule(s).
 

theravensclaw

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Oct 13, 2010
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It really depends on the extent of the errors. I have a person on facebook who types gawjus all the time and it makes me rage. Also the misuse of their there they're etc. the odd typo or abbreviations like 'u' don't bother me much unless its every second word or ones that are just ridiculous combos of letters and symbols.
 

Reincarnatedwolfgod

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Jan 17, 2011
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no shoud i? what kind of sik bastard deos that?

i suck at speling so if i me a mastake why should i care waht odher poeple thinc.


out of all seriousness i really do suck at spelling with out spell check so i double check if it sounds right before posting.

i don't judge but it looks bad if someone spell something so bad that i can even notice it.
 

Aethren

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Jun 6, 2009
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If a non-dyslexic person who speaks English as a first language habitually misspells their words (more than the occasional typo) at a rate worse than a person with English as a second, or even third language, then yes, I will consider them of lesser intelligence. Grammar and punctuation I generally let slide, unless it's something completely asinine.
 

Broken Haiku

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Nov 26, 2004
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Do I judge people by anything? Let's not pretend here, hell yes we all do. On the Internet you don't have much to go on but for what they write and how they do it, so it becomes essential for how you render your view on people.

What's worse, is that suddenly everyone's a dyslectic. We're not talking the normally estimated 5-10% of the world's population. Being a dyslectic means you have to try harder, and one can use a built in spell-checker (Hello Firefox Dictionaries) and other aids to make life easier, and I know many dyslectics do. The real ones, not just the lazy people that need an excuse for not trying harder.

To make a comparison, no one expects a blind person to amble around crashing into things without a helper dog/cane; while shouting "I'm blind leave me alone!". He's still blind, this is an explanation, not an excuse.

And you can't blame the media. "LOL IT IS THE INTERNETZ!" is not an argument. Sure, life on the Internet isn't a perpetual essay either. The whole idea is about putting forth your thoughts in a sensible, easy to understand way. Your output is judged by how much effort you put into it - and this includes your writing.

For me? There's grades in hell. If someone can't figure out the difference between then/than, they're/their/there or whatnot that's one thing, but when they think LOL replaces a period and Ur is a possessive pronoun or worse, when they think "LOL?" is a valid retort; then yes, you're losing points in my book. Points in how serious I take your thoughts.

I have a tendency to do horrible run-on sentences myself, but I do try. And I think in the end that's where you have to draw the line. Try, don't just throw around excuses and breeze by.
 

Tdc2182

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May 21, 2009
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Depends on the depth of message they are trying to get through in their writing.

If they are making grammar mistakes and spelling words wrong whilst writing a review, I will make no hesitations to call them out on it.

But if it's something along the lines of an offhand comment, I will look down at it snootily.

Though as of late I'm having problems with too and to...
 

Kadoodle

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Nov 2, 2010
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I judge those that type a long rant without punctuation in caps lock that conveys little logic or intellect (such tirades often are for the purpose of calling me a ******).

I am annoyed when people mix 'their' with 'there' or 'they're,' or when they 'accept' instead of 'except,' although such cases are not the end of the world.

As for spelling, there is no excuse for not using spellcheck, especially on a site like this where spellcheck is readily available.