Spelling and grammar police (RANT)

z31maniac wrote: Meh, being publicly shamed is a great motivational tool.

On top of the fact that "meh" is not a word, your sentence is grammatically retarded.

I teach English as a second language. And, while I notice mistakes, I generally refrain from correcting them, unless the mistake is so wildly off that it hurts my brain. This however, is rare.

(Yes, you can start a sentence with 'and'.)

Good on you Dean for calling them out. I, for one, have never had a problem understanding your point; or anyone else's either.

I'm probably one of the worst offenders of hard to read posts. Where spelling is concerned, I'm so so. What I can't remember, spell check will usually catch. If in doubt, I usually Google it. Like weather and whether. At this moment I can tell you which is witch. In ten minutes, that might be another story. Punctuation, on the other hand, I suck. The comas end up missing or in the wrong places. Sentence structure, what's that? I also tend to write how I think, in shorthand. Every post I make, I have to go back and add the words I leave out.

fast_eddie_72, good post, I'll have to agree as well.

I guess if this was a English or writers form I could understand the gripes about spelling and proper punctuation. On a car forum, not so much. It's not like everyone is trying to use text speak.

And if someone wants to teach punctuation, I'd be happy to try to learn it. My English teacher never could get it through my head. The obscure rules are just that, obscure. You can start with this post, I'm sure it's wrong and I've been through it four times.

100% of my posts are from my ps3. I have no spellcheck to fall back on. Sometimes I want to type a word but my brain shuts down when I try to spell it. So I change the word to something my brain will let me spell.

carguy123 wrote: Are there any phones out there that still don't have full keyboards for typing?

Yes it is called a flip phone and I wouldn't trade it for 5 iphones. But then again, if you have a flip phone you aren't on the internet with it.

poopshovel wrote:

z31maniac wrote: Meh, being publicly shamed is a great motivational tool.

On top of the fact that "meh" is not a word, your sentence is grammatically retarded.

We could discuss the overuse of the basically meaningless word "that."

Or the Oxford comma?

Toyman01 wrote: Good on you Dean for calling them out. I, for one, have never had a problem understanding your point; or anyone else's either. I'm probably one of the worst offenders of hard to read posts. Where spelling is concerned, I'm so so. What I can't remember, spell check will usually catch. If in doubt, I usually Google it. Like weather and whether. At this moment I can tell you which is witch. In ten minutes, that might be another story. Punctuation, on the other hand, I suck. The comas end up missing or in the wrong places. Sentence structure, what's that? I also tend to write how I think, in shorthand. Every post I make, I have to go back and add the words I leave out. fast_eddie_72, good post, I'll have to agree as well. I guess if this was a English or writers form I could understand the gripes about spelling and proper punctuation. On a car forum, not so much. It's not like everyone is trying to use text speak. And if someone wants to teach punctuation, I'd be happy to try to learn it. My English teacher never could get it through my head. The obscure rules are just that, obscure. You can start with this post, I'm sure it's wrong and I've been through it four times.

Honestly, grammar is much more fluid than people think. And while some people would argue the merits of the semicolon for dependent clauses and m dashes instead of parentheses, it's really all relative.

z31maniac wrote:

poopshovel wrote:

z31maniac wrote: Meh, being publicly shamed is a great motivational tool.

On top of the fact that "meh" is not a word, your sentence is grammatically retarded.

We could discuss the overuse of the basically meaningless word "that." Or the Oxford comma?

Hey now, that demonstrative pronoun isn't useless! Same goes for the Oxford comma, which still has a place when ambiguity exists in the meaning: "I am taking my mom, Doug and Jim out to eat."

carguy123 wrote: I'm suspecting he's feels he's been made to look bad or ignorant with some corrections in the past.

Quoted for irony.

Why is this perfectly written thread not in the off-topic forum?

Some of you people are annal. I never took typimg in school and now my eyes are failing.

TRoglodyte wrote: Some of you people are annal. I never took typimg in school and now my eyes are failing.

Interestingly my typing class was the one I really didn't want to take and yet has turned out to be the most useful. Who'dathunk that computers were coming?

But being able to type doesn't give you any special language skills. What's that old saying? Oh yeah, "Garbage in, Garbage out." Or is that just garbage for brains?

carguy123 wrote: I'm suspecting he's feels he's been made to look bad or ignorant with some corrections in the past.

Quite the opposite. I am of the age now that I don't give a rats a$$ what people thing about me. I know exactly what and where I stand. It really is true "a man has to know his limitations". However, the reason for my post is I am tired of the happy shiny people pointing out stupid stuff and $hitting up an otherwise constructive thread. Spelling and grammar is important and pointing it out to a poster is always a good thing but it is much more constructive to bring it to the attention of the poster privately so it can be corrected.

Otherwise you end up with what becomes a bunch of nitpicking one ups man ship postings that will probably cause some, that may have invaluable information to share, to clam up and not post. That sucks!!! I don't think that is what GRM wants. I know it is not what I want.

On the other hand. The whole text speak acronym language of the sideways wearing hat a$$ hanging out of their jeans that are around their knees generation needs to be stopped. (How is that for a run on sentence LOL) That is purposeful butchery of the English language and should be called out. Hell I sometimes fall in the acronym speak when discussing Megasquirt and the people that called me on it were absolutely correct in doing so.

And about posting this in off topic.. .. I meant to. I screwed up.

dean1484 wrote: the reason for my post is I am tired of the happy shiny people pointing out stupid stuff and $hitting up an otherwise constructive thread.

It is spelled E36 M3ting.

carguy123 wrote: I'm sure not everyone is a hick from backwoods Arkansas (pick your state)

Texas.

I have been called out on grammar on this very board. While I appreciate the constructive criticism, I really could give a flying poot. To me this board is made up of wonderful like minded folks.This is not a board for sentence structure buffs. We are farking car people. I'd like to believe that any of us would give their favorite Snap On tool for another GRM'er.

In reply to erohslc:

I hate "prolly" instead of probably and similar phonetic spellings of mispronounced words. I also hate "nakin" instead of napkin.

ls1fiero wrote: I have been called out on grammar on this very board. While I appreciate the constructive criticism, I really could give a flying poot. To me this board is made up of wonderful like minded folks.This is not a board for sentence structure buffs. We are farking car people. I'd like to believe that any of us would give their favorite Snap On tool for another GRM'er.

To be fair, I don't think I've seen anyone called out for dangling participles, ending a sentence with a preposition, or any other such nonsense.

Mainly, "could you type a coherent sentence? geez." type comments.

I gloss over the mistakes, but sense someone made a rant thread I joined in.

Mainly, "could you type a coherent sentence? geez." type comments.

That's really all I've seen too.

"I saw a lady on TV, she was born without arms. That’s sad, but then they said, 'Lola doesn't know the meaning of the word ‘can’t’.' And I think that's even worse. Not only is she missing arms, but she doesn’t understand simple contractions."

-Mitch Hedberg

I'm pretty tolerant of grammar and spelling as long as I can make out what they are saying. It's not like they're typing in 1337!

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z31maniac wrote: \I gloss over the mistakes, but sense someone made a rant thread I joined in.

Something about glass houses and stones comes to mind.

Personally, I think we've beaten on this horse enough.

For those with bad spelling and/or grammer: Try to make half an effort to proof-read before posting.

For those who seem to care to much about unimportant things: If the above is ignored, get over it already.

Ian F wrote:

z31maniac wrote: \I gloss over the mistakes, but sense someone made a rant thread I joined in.

Something about glass houses and stones comes to mind. Personally, I think we've beaten on this horse enough. For those with bad spelling and/or grammer: Try to make half an effort to proof-read before posting. For those who seem to care to much about unimportant things: If the above is ignored, get over it already.

Quoted for posterity.