My Stupid Rant of the Day: Spelling

[solidstatemind]

You did not.

Go back and read your post. It comes off as if you're attacking anyone who isn't perfect.

We're going to have to agree to disagree about this: you chose to interpret 'undermines the credibility' as me having a superior attitude, when I would say that I was making a generalized statement, and did not explicitly or implicitly say "...which means I'm better than you."

Your criticisms of my post are entirely subjective. Let me correct your sentences here (I won't quote them since I'm changing their substance.)

"The way you worded your entire argument made you sound TO ME as if you were looking down your nose at anyone who makes a mistake."

"Go back and read your post. It comes off TO ME as if you're attacking anyone who isn't perfect."

The fact is that you are only one of about three posters who had that reaction to my post. That means it's reasonable to conclude that I did make it clear enough to most of the people who replied. Again, I apologize if you took it differently than I intended. (Seriously.) That does not change the substance of what I was saying, however: spelling kind of counts.

Ad hominem. And even if dismissal was too strong, the fact of the matter is even saying it makes it weaker is wrong. Unless the argument is about what a great speller they are or if they'd make a great English teacher or something along those lines it is utterly irrelevant and undermines nothing. And the logical thing would be to dismiss such feelings, ignore them.

Dismiss out of hand? Huh, I guess I wasn't so far off the mark. And anyway, if we want to talk about fallacies you are now shifting the goal posts. You said undermines credibility, now you're bringing up arguments you cannot understand. Being so poorly spelled that you cannot understand it doesn't undermine its credibility, it just can't be addressed.

It's not an ad hominem fallacy; I fail to see how discussing the spelling in a post qualifies as a attack against the author. It is a statement of fact.

Given your 'witticism' about 'not being far from the mark' about an entirely reasonable statement ("I only dismiss out of hand arguments that are so poorly spelled as to be unintelligible"-- well, what do you do? Spend hours trying to figure out what the person was trying to say? Really?), you clearly are trying to intentionally be adversarial. Therefore, it's probably pointless to actually try to have a discussion with you; you just want to 'win'.

Okay, you win. Whatever.

 

[viranimus]

Ehh, I am in the camp of "When you use proper spelling, punctuation and grammar, an angel rips its wings off"

I honestly do get it and there is a certain level that should not be crossed. However getting upset over alots (loved the referenced page) and missing apostrophes in contractions is borderline grammar nazism.

My rule of thumb is.. am I able to get the point the poster is trying to get across? If I can understand it, I really do not care. If not I will read it at least a second time. Beyond that if I still am unable to get it, then yes, its problematic.

And I have read (and like to think have written) many well thought out posts/ideas on forums over the years with failing spelling and grammar that did nothing to diminish the quality of the point being made. Also spelling is NOT a "you play like you practice" sort of correlation. Im in school in a very essay driven degree progression and I have yet to be admonished for my spelling in any paper I have written, because I will take the extra time to ensure my contractions are properly apostrophe'd and run it through a spell/grammar check before submission. Should I do that with forum posts? Should I also cite in APA format every reference used in forum posts while I am at it?

TLR If its comprehensible, then accuracy of spelling and grammar is nice, but irrelevant.

 

[solidstatemind]

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It has become abundantly clear that neither of you actually wish to have a discussion: instead, you either simply repeat what you have previously stated, as if iteration will give it additional authority, or you create additional misdirections and false pretenses. Ah, the early twenties... such a great time for being incapable of error.

I try not to tilt windmills when I can avoid it. So you win, I guess. Or you're right-- whatever your goal was. Spelling is unimportant. Now go forth and chatspeak as much as you wish...

I have a really good feeling about that!

 

[solidstatemind]

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It has become abundantly clear that neither of you actually wish to have a discussion: instead, you either simply repeat what you have previously stated, as if iteration will give it additional authority, or you create additional misdirections and false pretenses. Ah, the early twenties... such a great time for being incapable of error.

I try not to tilt windmills when I can avoid it. So you win, I guess. Or you're right-- whatever your goal was. Spelling is unimportant. Now go forth and chatspeak as much as you wish...

Not really, I pointed out where you apparently misunderstood. Well at least I hope it was a misunderstanding and not you just being dishonest.

It's rather amusing though, you claim that we were creating misdirections and false pretenses. But do you point them out? No, because you're simply lying to save face.

Fine. One last post- you want me to point them out? How about: "Lol? It's just a statement of fact. I wasn't far off the mark since you apparently are talking about dismissal."

And yet, I explained why dismissal was a legitimate response to the situation; an explanation which you intentionally chose to ignore because it didn't suit your argument. Misdirection... and obfuscation, if you want to get into specifics.

Now, I can safely say a) I wasn't lying, and b) you just authoritatively proved my point about creating misdirections and false pretenses to suit your argument.

Thank you for demonstrating vividly to everyone on this forum how you aren't worth the time to have a discussion with.

 

[Irriduccibilli]

Keep in mind that not everyones native language is english, so it may not be as easy for everyone to spell perfectly, when we only got english as a second language, and focus more on learning how to spell in our native language.
Though I agree with you that spelling stuff like mssive and such is really annoying. Going through your text before you post can't really be that hard. Also, I hate internet language when people are spelling a sentence like this "Hello, it is nice to meet you", like this "hllo, nice 2 meet you". That I hate

 

[MaxwellEdison]

This is the most important reason to spell correctly:

College professors and your boss are not the only people who think less of you for not spelling correctly. I think less of you for not spelling correctly, and everyone who spells correctly does to.

Shitty spelling and a lack of grammar automatically puts us in the mindset of reading something written by a drunken fratboy. Is that fair? No, it's not - which is why you should spell correctly. If you want people to avoid writing you off as a moron unfairly, take the time to at least APPEAR legible.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

\
I can write in not only grammatically correct English, but I'm also decent at writing artistically and I was fairly competent at writing short paragraphs in iambic pentameter back in my school days. Am I going to do it on a gaming forum.... fuck to the no.

Ironically, your post is pretty much fine from the point of view of someone who agrees with this post.

 

[Redingold]

My form tutor used to work for some computer-based company. When he was reviewing applications, the second thing he did was throw out all of the ones with spelling mistakes (the first thing he did was throw out all of the handwritten ones). Spelling is important in the real world.

 

[ScoopMeister]

Usually, people for whom English is not their first language are better at spelling and grammar than those who are used to English as a first language, because they spend more time and effort in order to avoid making mistakes. And then they apologise for it, when the people who should be apologising are the English speakers who can't spell.
So yeah, blatant disregard for spelling and grammar never fails to annoy me, but an accidental mistake here and there isn't too bad.

 

[Zakarath]

Yes, spelling and grammar errors make me twitch... and you shouldn't just trust a spell-checkers to get everything write, either. Their ark errors they tend to miss

 

[Corekrash]

While poor spelling and bad grammar bother me (Only a little) when I do read the posts made by other people, here or anywhere, I usually ignore it for a couple reasons.

1. I have a terrible habit of putting the "g" before the "n" in words like something when I'm typing too fast, or typing "I" in lower case. I usually take the time to go back and quickly proofread my posts, just to make sure I didn't spell any words wrong, but not always. Which is easy because I do not make a habit of really long posts... Usually.

2. If I can understand the poster even with awful spelling and downright bizarre grammar issues, I just go with it. But when people over abbreviate or type out whole statements of 1337 and acronyms I get really annoyed, and am not above hassling them for it. You may understand the jargon you just typed, but not everyone does.

One bad habit I developed was after a long time of typing in chatboxes in MMO's (I rarely use a headset unless it is really necessary), I began to subconsciously mess up my spelling and grammar when writing things out really quickly. writing or typing words like "Through" as "Thru" on work documents, etc,.. Luckily I do tend to go back and caught such errors before my co-workers noticed it and thought I was some special kind of fool they could find another reason to laugh at.

The point being when you regularly spell words like that in one place, it can sometimes leak out and may cause issues as Solidstatemind said, like messing up a resume. Believe me, filing a resume under "110" is way easier when a person spells badly and at least one other person has applied for the same job. That has made my job easier. One of my favourites was an application for a position as a secretary, in which the individual mispelled literally over half the words in their resume, which they had emailed.

 

[Corekrash]

Yes, spelling and grammar errors make me twitch... and you shouldn't just trust a spell-checkers to get everything write, either. Their ark errors they tend to miss

I see what you did there

 

[Lukirre]

Under normal circumstances, a post containing improper spelling and grammar does not bother me. Though, improper grammar generally doesn't bother me under any circumstance as there are many grammatical nuances in the English language that even I admit that I might be ignorant of a few of them.

A post that contains horrendous spelling, however, will bother me if someone quotes me and tries to start an argument. That's usually the only time that it does.

To be honest, while spelling is an important part of society, on the internet it's not as vital a skill. I'm capable of deciphering posts that contain poor spelling and grammar, so I don't see it as a problem. Unless of course it's so terrible that one is unable to read it properly.

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Spoiler

 

[Dr.Cereal1]

People in the escapist are fairly intelligent....this place is nothing to complain about while other websites...

 

[fragmaster09]

i will spell like i'm English, not like american people, i WILL correct them when they spell Colour wrong, or anthing else like that, after all, you are speaking our language(English) so should spell it the English(and Scottish,Welsh, and Irish) way.