Rantrantrant
Jun. 11th, 2002 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drcuriosityI just posted a big rant about grammar and spelling to the KAOS mailing list. Since it's something I do occasionally get concerned about, I thought I'd repost it here, for your comments, flames, and criticism.
Am I being too critical, and trying to hold back the tide of language change? Am I trying desperately to shore up the failings in an education system that seems to be turning out people who're incapable of composing a well-formed paragraph? Am I merely an elitist snob who's just being a big meanie, and holding his old-fashioned command of written language over others like some kind of misbegotten badge of honour?
To: ...
Subject: Re: Computer game come to life
From: Morbid Curiosity <...>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 17:05:29 +1200
On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 12:07:35 -0700 (PDT), Dormention Northersfest
wrote:
>you know it aint that unusal for someone to have bad spelling and
>gramma, why did you bother even pointing it out? Reallly why?
>
>serriously who cares? its readable
[steps up to the crease]
This social group, especially in its electronic communications forums,
has a long history of being pedantic, and flaming people for continued
bad spelling and grammar.
Though some people (through such learning disorders as dyslexia and so
forth) have a legitimate claim to being unable to spell, there are a
lot of people who're just plain lazy. Plain and simple.
The kind of attitude that says "who cares? its readable" is _just_ as
rude as the attitude that needlessly nitpicks every last typo - a good
behaviour in editors and proofreaders, but annoying in day-to-day
conversation.
If someone is going to write in a consistently lazy fashion, it's
consistently more difficult for other people to read. Now, I don't
know about you, but I find it much easier to read well-formed,
accurately-spelled English than I do English that's been mangled
almost beyond recognition[1]. I'm fairly certain that a lot of other
people around here share that particular affliction.
If you _can_ spell well but can't be bothered putting in the extra
effort, you're shifting that extra effort that you can't be bothered
putting in to your readers. And on a mailing list, that's often quite
a lot of readers. If you can't be bothered, it shows just how much
respect you have for the people reading what you write. Now, in some
areas your readership may be such that they don't care about it one
way or another. This isn't one of those places. There are people who
care, and occasionally one of them may say so. Here, "bad spelling and
gramma" is unusual.
So, if you're using something as a sig that is badly-spelt and
consistently there for people of a pedantic bent to get annoyed by,
sooner or later someone's going to comment. It's not unusual to be
flamed by anyone (apologies to Tom Jones).
If you can't spell well, you can always consider this place good
practice. If you have a specific learning disability which makes words
seem to slip around on the screen or in your brain, then it's a bit
more difficult - on the other hand, getting a mail reader with a spell
checker - or a stand-alone spell-checker - shouldn't be too difficult,
nor too difficult to use.
>What if this reality is somebodie elses dream?
>when they awake i will no longer exist.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.
Morbid
[1] Given that I spend time on IRC on a semi-regular basis, this only
goes to show that I have a masochistic streak.
Can you read this graffiti?
Can you decode this information?
Can you work out what they're saying to you?
Can you read the signs yet?
Can you read this grafitti?
Can you decode this information?
Can you work out what they're saying to you?
Can you read the signs yet?
Can you read the signs yet? Can you read the signs?
(On a Shriekback kick again. Thanks JWZ.)
Am I being too critical, and trying to hold back the tide of language change? Am I trying desperately to shore up the failings in an education system that seems to be turning out people who're incapable of composing a well-formed paragraph? Am I merely an elitist snob who's just being a big meanie, and holding his old-fashioned command of written language over others like some kind of misbegotten badge of honour?
To: ...
Subject: Re: Computer game come to life
From: Morbid Curiosity <...>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 17:05:29 +1200
On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 12:07:35 -0700 (PDT), Dormention Northersfest
wrote:
>you know it aint that unusal for someone to have bad spelling and
>gramma, why did you bother even pointing it out? Reallly why?
>
>serriously who cares? its readable
[steps up to the crease]
This social group, especially in its electronic communications forums,
has a long history of being pedantic, and flaming people for continued
bad spelling and grammar.
Though some people (through such learning disorders as dyslexia and so
forth) have a legitimate claim to being unable to spell, there are a
lot of people who're just plain lazy. Plain and simple.
The kind of attitude that says "who cares? its readable" is _just_ as
rude as the attitude that needlessly nitpicks every last typo - a good
behaviour in editors and proofreaders, but annoying in day-to-day
conversation.
If someone is going to write in a consistently lazy fashion, it's
consistently more difficult for other people to read. Now, I don't
know about you, but I find it much easier to read well-formed,
accurately-spelled English than I do English that's been mangled
almost beyond recognition[1]. I'm fairly certain that a lot of other
people around here share that particular affliction.
If you _can_ spell well but can't be bothered putting in the extra
effort, you're shifting that extra effort that you can't be bothered
putting in to your readers. And on a mailing list, that's often quite
a lot of readers. If you can't be bothered, it shows just how much
respect you have for the people reading what you write. Now, in some
areas your readership may be such that they don't care about it one
way or another. This isn't one of those places. There are people who
care, and occasionally one of them may say so. Here, "bad spelling and
gramma" is unusual.
So, if you're using something as a sig that is badly-spelt and
consistently there for people of a pedantic bent to get annoyed by,
sooner or later someone's going to comment. It's not unusual to be
flamed by anyone (apologies to Tom Jones).
If you can't spell well, you can always consider this place good
practice. If you have a specific learning disability which makes words
seem to slip around on the screen or in your brain, then it's a bit
more difficult - on the other hand, getting a mail reader with a spell
checker - or a stand-alone spell-checker - shouldn't be too difficult,
nor too difficult to use.
>What if this reality is somebodie elses dream?
>when they awake i will no longer exist.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.
Morbid
[1] Given that I spend time on IRC on a semi-regular basis, this only
goes to show that I have a masochistic streak.
Can you read this graffiti?
Can you decode this information?
Can you work out what they're saying to you?
Can you read the signs yet?
Can you read this grafitti?
Can you decode this information?
Can you work out what they're saying to you?
Can you read the signs yet?
Can you read the signs yet? Can you read the signs?
(On a Shriekback kick again. Thanks JWZ.)
Re: Marry me immediately.
Date: 2002-06-16 06:17 am (UTC)My rant on the subject was to someone who hasn't been around and on the list for a particularly long time, and who seemed relatively recalcitrant (I seem to be using that word too often, recently) about shaping up and making his posts easier for the rest of us to read.
I think the fact that people can get through to university (or even graduating high school) with so sloppy a level of written language skill is a damning indictment on the state of education curricula these days, though. While grammar may be boring and non-creative subject to some, knowing how your language works can enable much more creativity further down the line. I may be too much of a traditionalist for some, but I'd rather be an artist and craftsman with my language than meander along with meaning in a formless, postmodern any-interpretation-is-valid fashion. You can step away from foundations if you like - if that's what suits your purpose - but I'd rather have the choice to use whichever technique I thought fitting.
I usually prefer to build from a structure, rather than a ball of mud. You can put mud on a structure, and it either stays on top or runs off the sides. A structure built on mud will sink in, appearing only as though you have more mud :-)