Lack of Proper English (On the internet)

[ArenaBoy]

I can understand if English is a second language for some or that one may be dyslexic but good lord some people cannot write properly that it makes my head hurt. I can deal with uncapitalized letters as long as proper punctuation and grammar is met and I can also deal with broken English as my French tends to be broken at times but when I see a sentence that reads like this: Anywey i canot beileve tht Sc di d taht.* It drives me insane! I know some people may have something to say but as soon as I see a post with bad grammar I'm skipping it. It's not worth hurting my head. It's sad that we need to have reminders about proper punctuation on CS but then again I may be wrong.


*It actually hurt my head to type that. I think I killed my own brain cells.

[Seshat]

Communication has two sides. The one communicating - the speaker, the writer, the artist, the singer. And the one being communicated to - the listener, reader, viewer.

In professional communication, the side which is professional should do more of the work: when I'm writing and working on it, I do more proofreading and editing than I do in chatting here. When you're telling your disjointed life story to your therapist, they're doing a lot of listening work.

In amateur communication, however, both sides should be doing roughly the same amount of work. I think we forgive people for whom English is a second language, because it's clear that they're doing extra work just trying to communicate in a foreign tongue.

However, if you (generic you) just can't be bothered forming your story into a coherent tale and choose to write as if a drunken hyena tapdanced on your keyboard; you'd be better off NOT posting it on a public forum.

Posting it on a public forum is stating, by implication, that you wish for other people to read it. This implies that you are asking for some of their time and attention.

Writing it as if a drunken hyena tapdanced on your keyboard requires people to put effort into deciphering each word. If you also choose not to write a clear story, that adds even more effort on the part of the reader.

The occasional typo, or rambling sentence, or 'oh yeah, I forgot X' is fine. This is amateur communication, after all - it's not your doctoral thesis or the manuscript for your New York Times best-seller. I'm talking about people who are egregiously obscure.

In amateur communication, put in as much effort as you expect your reader to put in. That's all I ask.

[protege]

I think we forgive people for whom English is a second language, because it's clear that they're doing extra work just trying to communicate in a foreign tongue.

I second that. Most non-English speakers are pretty good at it. Some of you know that I belong to a model-car site as well as here and CS. Because many of our members and visitors over there speak English as a second language, we've actually made an effort *not* to allow "idiot-speak" over there. Some of them have trouble with English as it it...why add to their difficulties?

As for myself, well, I hate stupid people. I assume, that if they're going to talk like an idiot, I'm going to assume the worst, and treat them accordingly. Sorry, but I have better things to do than translate "Idiot" to English

[Greenday]

Whenever I do posts on a forums, I try to keep them as coherent as possible and I try to use proper grammar and such. But whenever I instant message people, that kind of goes out the door. I mean, I'm not one of those people who type stuff like, "idk my bf jill", as that kind of crap annoys me. I don't capitalize my words and the only punctuation I use are commas, question marks, and exclamation points. I'll use lol and lmao. I'll use g2g ONLY if I'm in a hurry. But I only try to do that with the most basic stuff. Otherwise, everything is spelled out.

[NightAngel]

Arenaboy:
I'm with you 100%- it gives me a headache as well.
*passes Ibuprofen*

As for myself, well, I hate stupid people. I assume, that if they're going to talk like an idiot, I'm going to assume the worst, and treat them accordingly. Sorry, but I have better things to do than translate "Idiot" to English

Thank goodness I'm not the only one that feels this way!

Moron, Idiot and Stupid are not languages it's a shame that so many people speak them fluently!

[Seshat]

Whenever I do posts on a forums, I try to keep them as coherent as possible and I try to use proper grammar and such. But whenever I instant message people, that kind of goes out the door.

When you instant message people, usually you already know them and have a common set of 'shorthand' terms with them. You're also available to clarify what you meant. When you post on forums, you're posting to a much wider audience, and you aren't available to clarify.

I figure you probably know that instinctively, Greenday, which is why you do it that way.

[BlaqueKatt]

When you instant message people, usually you already know them and have a common set of 'shorthand' terms with them. You're also available to clarify what you meant.

I don't even use text "shorthand"-I spell out and punctuate/capitalize everything-I've actually gotten pretty good at it-I refuse to assist in the slaughter of grammar(and grampaw ) and literacy. It's innocent, it never saw it coming(cries)-my husband doesn't use shorthand either-we've both found it helps with our typing speed to actually type out the words completely.

[horror]

I can't help but wonder why some people sound like such tools when they type. Is it laziness? Genuine stupidity? What?
I mean, if you can speak properly and with reasonable eloquence why in the hell doesn't that translate to written forms? In forums I think for the most part we all often write like we speak, which makes me wonder, do people who write in Moron think and speak in Moron as well? If so I want to move to Mars.

[theredbaron47]

I can't help but wonder why some people sound like such tools when they type. Is it laziness? Genuine stupidity? What?
I mean, if you can speak properly and with reasonable eloquence why in the hell doesn't that translate to written forms? In forums I think for the most part we all often write like we speak, which makes me wonder, do people who write in Moron think and speak in Moron as well? If so I want to move to Mars.

I've often wondered that myself. I can clearly remember one member on CS who had a very disjointed writing style, used little to no ( correct ) punctuation, and often misspelled words as well. A few people gently brought it up to this member that we were having problems understanding the member's posts ( we tried our best to read posts by this member, but our efforts were usually for naught ), and all hell broke loose, so to speak.

Honestly, if a keyboard intimidates you that much that you can't be bothered to learn or use it correctly, why are you even on this forum, where the primary mode of communication is writing, as in typing?

I use that story as an example some of us can relate to, but it bothers me having to sit there for twice as long as I should to decipher the writing of someone who couldn't bother to proofread what they wrote before they finalized it.

Instant messaging especially irritates me in this regard.