Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

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Pumpkin676
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Pumpkin676 »

My opinion on the grammar is that please don't use text talk but if you mispell a word or two and if you forgot to capitalize an I thats okay.
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Post by Exxthus »

This is a surprisingly deep subject, and I tend to split it into (1) personal situational stuff and (2) the all-encompassing idea of language and communication in general. For those who actually read this, forgive me while I sit unable to stop my fingers from typing and inevitably digress about a million times.

In general, I think one should have proper grammar, spelling, capitalization, use of vocabulary, &c. Situational simplifications or "lax" areas of its use are understandable in casual conversation; for example, a chat room, a social media post, or a text message will sometimes have less time to respond, or fewer character spaces for complete sentences, and would warrant a "squishing" of words or removal extraneous lines. (This may or may not be torture for someone who is naturally verbose.) It goes without saying that those with learning disabilities or similar are also given more leniency since... well, they can't really help it. In chat rooms, I will often fade into lowercase letters partly for time efficiency, but also because things in lowercase seem more funny to me and better reflects my tendency to live in a state of half-joking. Meanwhile, a forum such as this has post edit functions, a generous word limit, and no real social time limit for conversation put on a response, and thus I have no real excuse NOT to use proper spelling and such; on a personal level, I'm pretty forgiving of the spelling of others and am a pseudo-perfectionist when it comes to my own work but nothing too ridiculous.

Insofar as using shorthand "chat speak" in places that it has no business existing, I see it as annoying at best and actively harmful at worst. In the workplace, shorthand should not be used at all not only due to professionalism, but also because communication is very important in a company and speaking in a bunch of acronyms just leads to a lot of work and headaches later. In the broader sense we see people become far too lax in their spelling and use of language, shorthand becomes acceptable, some words will even be lost over time to use due to being "too complicated" or marked as not relevant anymore. A simple, but common, example of this would be the semi-recent merging of the words crying and weeping, which mean two different things. Simplification of language leads to the loss of terms for ideas and concepts, which leads to a loss of communication and more complex thought in general. Orwell is probably one of the better-known examples to have explored the idea, but he's not the only one nor the best, if such a thing exists.

There are languages that have no words for concepts like the relative direction of "left", or things like the color pink, which tends to be classified as a form of red in various places around the world. How can one properly discuss a subject in detail if one has no words for it? Ergo, I think the active advancement of language (not mere evolution) is something that everyone should strive for, and honing language is a universally beneficial endeavor for the people it affects. It gives us the tools to discuss a broader range of topics far more deeply that we could have otherwise, and a precision of communication that could help bridge the noticeable gap between the complexity of thought and the somewhat-linear nature of language, and people actively looking to strip language down to its barest form(s) should be stopped as it is harmful for progress in general.

but, you know, if you typo in a post or something i dont really care lol
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Dinomyke »

I don't mind to much about bad grammar. I myself don't have the best but I cam usually correct it but if someone can't take the time to correct it I may be a little bothered.
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Goldenwings »

It really depends on the situation. Personally, I don't think horrendous grammar and spelling is excusable in any circumstance. I don't mind occasional errors or deviance, but complete disregard for the language structure bothers me. In any academic or formal situation, I definitely expect the person to put a generous amount of effort into making sure their grammar and spelling adhere to the rules.
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Fuiuki »

While I really don't like bad grammar, I understand some people don't yet have the skills to speak or write proper English, or plain are just bad at it . What would bother me is when someone doesn't care or think it doesn't matter with proper grammar and spelling, or when they reject people's attempts at helping them correct their grammar simply because they don't want to be wrong. Criticizing someone's grammar should, as with everything, be done with respect of course, so I understand those who take it badly.

An attempt should always be made to be clear and understandable. While private chats can contain more chatspeak and improper grammar, it should still be clear enough that you don't have to put lots of effort into trying to understand the other person. Ultimately, grammar, spelling and punctuation is important simply because you're not possible to understand otherwise.


Something that bothers me personally is when someone does not use punctuation properly... always ending a sentence either in several trailing dots... whenever not using exclamation marks! Or perhaps a question mark? Then going straight back to trails... I don't know how it is for others, but all punctuation has a sound for me, and you just sound really weird when you type like that.
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Revan »

Fuiuki wrote:snip
I am actually a person who uses the '...' sometimes after a sentence, or even sometimes on its own. You can actually find it in some novels, so it's not entirely bad punctuation. It typically represents (on its own) the want to say something but not sure what to say. At the end of a sentence it can be used to represent 'trailing off,' like in a actual conversation where you start to say something, but aren't sure how to complete your train of thought. At least that's how I view it at any rate.



While I do agree with Fuiuki that English is not everyone's native language, and thus we should expect mistakes, what I can't stand is 'text speak,' the purposeful shortening of words into basic letters and numbers, Example: gtg (got to go), ikr (I know, right?), and as of recent times, I've seen these abbreviations for even whole sentences and much larger words. The only one I really care to use is 'lol.' After awhile, the abbreviations just get so confusing, and unfortunately it's widespread use among the youth can sometimes affect their performance in school. Back when I was in high school, there were several students in my English class that actually inserted some text speak (in the case of one girl, it was a lot) into their actual assignments! My English teacher absolutely hated it.
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Fuiuki »

Revan, while I understand what you're saying, I was complaining at the people who do it CONSTANTLY when writing online, instead of using a dot. Like with any punctuation, a trailing should be used when it's appropriate, which I do not think "all the time" is ^_^'


Using ikr, gtg and such isn't entirely chatspeak, being like "u r da purrdiest, it wus gr8 to meet u" is. That's just... annoying to read usually, but the one place where it DOES serve a purpose is in gaming! Specifically, multiplayer gaming where you don't always have a lot of time to type, and where you can't pause and resume your typing without erasing it all.

An essay, however, is NO place for chat speak or shortening of words. Shortenings should only be used as well when pretty much everyone knows what they mean. I tend to use tbh a bit, or fyi on rare occasions, as I don't mind typing out pretty much everything else ^-^
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by snowflakeseal1234 »

Bad grammar....
I'm okay with people not punctuating, as long as the sentence isn't overly long.
Other than that, bad grammar annoys me.
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Rijolt »

I prefer proper grammar and spelling, but mine isn't perfect. If I'm excited or in a rush I'll just type and send without double checking. Sometimes I just have no clue how things should be in a proper sentence.
However, I don't mind if English isn't a person's first language- English is difficult to learn. If the spelling and grammar is terrible, and IS a person's first language, it'll deter me away from the person who typed it. Unfortunately that can include entire conversation topics and rps.

I will intentionally mess stuff up for dank memes though.
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Re: Bad Grammar - Bothersome?

Post by Pok »

Man, if I said that bad grammar is horrible, that'd make me a really big hypocrite. :sweat:

I don't mind imperfect grammar so long as the message is coherent. :lol: Bad grammar is only really bothersome if I can't understand it no matter how much I read and reread, and even then this may not always be due to poor grammar. My inability to understand a message can also be caused by atrocious spelling to the point where it's unrecognisable, or strange punctuation (which tend to throw me off a lot).

Spelling:
I'm a user of chatspeak myself, and I don't always type in Proper English, so the use of slang and common chatspeak terms is not new. I don't find any problems with that, especially because typing in chatspeak is also faster for some people. :bounce: I use it mostly either to fit the mood, or because I'm typing with one hand.

Punctuation:
Lowercase is okay, so is all caps. I'm guilty of the former because of the dinky little shift keys on phone keyboards. Alternate caps, title caps and camel case are okay. My biggest issue is excessively random sticky caps, but let's face it, few are prepared to read through an entire paragraph with tiny chunks of upper-and-lower case letters. :wat:

Also, trailing off at the end of a sentence with commas bugs me...
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