RIP spelling and grammar

[Samus Aaron]

I've been to several threads lately and it seems that spelling and grammar has lost its place in the modern world of technology. Personally, I find value in these dying arts and it drives me absolutely crazy when I see people ignoring simple rules of grammar. Does anyone else agree with me or see this as much as I do?

You know what, here's a quick grammar lesson for the heavy offenders:

your vs. you're
your is possessive. "It is YOUR pie."
you're just means "you are". "YOU'RE completely deficient in grammar."

That's it. It's not rocket science people. Next week, on our fun-filled ride through the laws of grammerz: "Its" versus "It's".
Feel free to add YOUR own lessons to supplement my nerdy rant.

OP: I think you all misunderstand me. I'm not just talking about The Escapist - I'm talking about the internet in general. People just don't seem to care about spelling and grammar anymore. Maybe the internet just causes people to be a bit lazy is all, or maybe I'm right and language as an "art" is actually deteriorating (keep in mind, when I said "art" I'm not being completely serious. I don't actually think that spelling and grammar qualify as art per se, it's just that that was the only term that I happened to think of when I typed up the thread.)

Also, for those of you who think I'm a troll, I assure you I am anything but. I've actually been browsing The Escapist's forums for more than a year now, only actually joining during the great "Valve vs. Zynga War of 2010." I know very well that The Escapist is one of the more literate internet communities (though as you can see from some of the below comments, I wouldn't say that it's completely pure either.)

 

[Marter]

This really isn't the place to be preaching. The Escapist is actually pretty good when it comes to grammar and spelling.

 

[Dragon_of_red]

Woah man, woah. Calm down. The spelling and Grammar that I see here isn't to bad. Calm down.

 

[dthvirus]

You're just excessively pedantic. I used to twitch every time I saw an error. Now I don't rip on it unless it's extremely bad.

 

[Sleekgiant]

Funny, I use proper grammar when I am here, who are you preaching at eh?

 

[Asturiel]

I am disappointed in your lack of using the phrase "jokes". wat a trabvesty.

OT: Honestly, the people here keep a good use of the language, that there is just being a grammar nazi, so long as it looks nice and people can read it without being strained I see no issue with it.

Funny, I use proper grammar when I am here, who are you preaching at eh?

Holy crap you were able to fit that avatar in the new size limit? I'm surprised.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

I do have to agree with you on the "your" vs. "you're" thing. I see it all the time and it really is annoying, because it just comes off as ignorant.

 

[Lust]

A lot of people here don't misspell words on purpose.

Edit: There's always the edit button.

 

[enzilewulf]

Yeesh, rant a bit much troll? Look here on the Escapist the spelling is SUPERB compared to other sights. So what they use it out of context, I spell like this on Facebook "well i bet there isnt much going on with u these days is there". Its not school so I don't feel the need to capitalize or punctuate everything. Also welcome to the Escapist. Its not wise to rant here if your not looking for mass criticism.

 

[Tartarga]

The spelling/grammar errors are made mostly by the new people and they tend to get that under control pretty quickly.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

As long as I can generally understand what's being said, I'm not overly picky about it. After all this is the Internet, not High School English class. Also since it's the Internet and the Internet is worldwide, english is not going to be everyone's first language. And for myself, I know that when I'm rattling off my thoughts into a text field spelling and grammar are not foremost in my mind so errors are inevitable. I do try to correct most of 'em before hitting the 'post' button, but I can't get 'em all; although Firefox's spellcheck helps.

 

[MasterChief892039]

I've been to several threads lately and it seems that spelling and grammar has lost its place in the modern world of technology. Personally, I find value in these dying arts and it drives me absolutely crazy when I see people ignoring simple rules of grammar. Does anyone else agree with me or see this as much as I do?

You must have just come from youtube/4chan/yahooanswers, because The Escapist actually has a fairly literate userbase. Everyone seems to use proper sentence structure here, and I've noticed people actually use the shift key to capitalize proper nouns and the first word of each sentence rather THAN TO TALK LIKE THEY'RE YELLING AT YOU ALL THE TIME.

Occasionally there's a spelling error in a post, but for the most part they're just genuine accidents rather than the result of actual stupidity.

Not to mention that arguments on these threads are pretty consistently backed up by logic and examples, rather than being based on flaming and non-sequiturs like "well ur point is invalid because i slept with ur mum".

OT. I feel you know full well that the Escapist has high-quality threads, at least when it comes to the use of the English language. I think you're intentionally trying to start a fire.

 

[AyrSuppli]

Woah man, woah. Calm down. The spelling and Grammar that I see here isn't to bad. Calm down.

Wait, was that on purpose, or...? It's fine, don't worry. Just thought the irony was funny.
OT: I can live with decent to perfect grammar, but if it gets to subbing words with numbers and "dis" instead of "this", I start getting annoyed. One of the things that REALLY ticks me off is "there". It is NOT possessive. GOD. I can't take it when people screw up "there", "their", and "they're". I mean, "you(('r)e)"? Maybe. But not "there". I don't know why, but it pisses me off. I'll immediately tell the person to use correct grammar if they mess up "there".

 

[Blair Bennett]

Umm...forgive me, but I'm somewhat offended by this. As someone who holds linguistics and grammar in the highest regard, I can't help but feel as if you're preaching to the choir. The Escapist is probably the only forum that I would be able to frequent without being driven completely insane, and having said that, I feel as if you've made quite the unfair judgment of our community here. Hell, we're practically a haven for grammar Nazis and those who still value proper use of language. However, I can definitely agree with you on your love for dying languages, and the respect they once commanded. Since I was 12, I've wanted to receive even a rudimentary education in Latin.

 

[unoleian]

Unless you get embroiled in pedantry, the members here are pretty keen on making an effective statement.

(wow, that was borderline pretentious)

((is using the word 'pretentious' pretentious?!))

 

[Nouw]

This really isn't the place to be preaching. The Escapist is actually pretty good when it comes to grammar and spelling.

Yes it is. Especially the Grammar Nazis of here. Yes, there is a UserGroup and you are welcome to join it if you want. The Errors are usually made by the new people of the forum so don't worry or give them a friendly heads up.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

Unless you get embroiled in pedantry, this place is pretty keen on making an effective statement.

(wow, that was borderline pretentious)

((is using the word 'pretentious' pretentious?!))

Yes, but it's a forgivable offense here.

OT: Yeah, the userbase here is fairly literate. Extremely so if you compare to nearly anywhere else.

The misuse of homonyms bugs me though, can't lie. There/their/they're and your/you're are the ones you'll see most often.

 

[Penguinness]

I've been to several threads lately and it seems that spelling and grammar has lost its place in the modern world of technology.

>it seems that spelling and grammar has lost its place in the modern world of technology
>it seems that spelling and grammar have lost their places in the modern world of technology?

Occasional slip-ups are fine and I don't stumble across many posts that are filled with errors. It's a general rule that you'll make an error yourself when bringing up the topic of errors.

 

[Omikron009]

Their: Possessive. "That is their ball."
They're: Contraction of "they are." "They're going to the store."
There: A place. "They're going over there to get their ball."

That's all for now, folks!

 

[Dragon_of_red]

Woah man, woah. Calm down. The spelling and Grammar that I see here isn't to bad. Calm down.

Wait, was that on purpose, or...? It's fine, don't worry. Just thought the irony was funny.

Yes... I totally meant that...

[small]I dont see it...[/small]