StickyMicky

my keyboard has no letters left on the keys and it makes spelling tricky sumtimes

dont like it, ignore it
i really hate it when people type "i am da daddy, i kno dat ****"

arghhh

Re-Bitten Hero

For me, it's down to a few things - firstly lack of decent education on this in schools; it's now "accepted" that it is ok just to get the message across, even if it's not 100% grammatically correct. While I accept that this is fine for normal speech, it's not an attitude that benefits anyone - most kids these days can't spell and are now, subsequently, finding it hard to put together coherent CVs and covering letters for jobs. The fact that they don't care is actually most worrying - the "get over it" replies above show tacit acknowledgement that the spelling and grammar is inadequate, but sadly shows a typical "**** off / who gives a ****" attitude that is so prevalent these days.

Secondly, the appearance of text messaging has seen a fascinating evolution of short forms of words and phrases - it's a very descriptive, efficient and interesting language in its own right. However, it looks cheap, tacky and ignorant when used in a situation where proper typing is normally used. Would you write a CV in SMS lingo? I don't think so.

So there: mini-rant over . I get very bored, very quickly reading threads like the quote in the first post - it's the sort of post I would expect a 13 year-old to write to his mates on MSN Messenger, and it worries me to see an adult use it! (No direct offence intended to the writer - I have no idea who you are, nor do I care - I'm just using it as an example, as was scoobynutta555).

So who cares? You should, it's your pride in what you do that is under the hammer here...

Cheers,
Richard

ps I defy anyone to find anything wrong, either grammatically or with the spelling, in this post

StickyMicky

a small point, i was taught to spell and such at school, but scince then i have had next to no reason to use it

i cant write anymore with joined up characters??
i have to write with blocks
my signiture went to pot and ive had to re learn it so i can pay for petrol with my card

my jobs call for no pen work at all except the odd comment or signature
i blame computers

StickyMicky

shouldnt you have a full stop after the ps?

Re-Bitten Hero

But you have reason to use it every time you write a mail, e-mail, post on a BBS, ... I'm not burning anyone for having illegible handwriting - mine's terrible

Re-Bitten Hero

Possibly

StickyMicky

possible, but if its important then a spell checker and such is used, anything else is just bashed out as soon as possible, and i suspect most other people do the same.

personaly i dont see the message boards as being sumthing that needs to be 100 correct, but i do really hate it wen da peeps sayz da text like da bling man


arghhhh

StickyMicky

LMAO

juan

Their there!
I think your getting you're words confused.

Gotta admit I wonder how some supposedly well educated people get a job with there grasp of English nowadays.

Plenty of graduates can't put a sentence together. Takes the **** really.

fast bloke

I can count 14 punctuation errors. Are those hyphens or dashes?

Im sure we can wheel in TelBoy or Bubba Po to find an extra couple of dozen.

scoobynutta555

Some interesting responses above. Think some people are losing sight of what I said originally. Even for the people on here who say 'get over it', they surely must be put off by a post that is very difficult to read/comprehend, like the example at the beginning of the thread. If that example were to be the norm on Scoobynet, then I would indeed leave this BBS. Although it is nowhere near the norm, it seems to me that unintelligible pap is growing on here.

As previously stated, I have no problem with a typo etc, it’s the long posts of gobbledegook and repeated simple errors.

Possibly the same people who think I’m being ‘****’ are the same people that are decrying the state of our country. Think it’s a cause of national embarrassment that standards are so low.

GaryK

sn

Totally agree but in context this BBS is a tiny tiny little corner of the internet, I can understand what you're saying in a way (even if I vented before!)

Gary

ProperCharlie

people seem to have the idea that at some undetermined time in the past, everyone could read and write and spell perfectly. in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. previously, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, and had no opportunity to develop literacy skills. the privileged minority who received an education were educated to very high standards, usually including becoming fluent in french and latin as well as english.

so what has really happened is that the riff-raff have broken into the drawing room.

MrShades

I'm with you scoobynutta555...

...with a few exceptions, the general level of English Language on here is poor. As has already been said though, it's only a forum so who cares? When it's painfully poor, or when the posts are plainly illegible - text speak - then I care!

Surely people know the difference between "break" and "brake"?
Apostrophes are a complication that few properly understand, so I excuse the occasional "were" rather than "we're", but capital letters, commas, full-stops, exclamation marks and question marks are all simple enough, aren't they?

Long live the CFPE-EOIF (Campaign for Proper English - Even on Internet Forums)!!!!

now r u lt gowin 2 giv me a brake an right sum propper inglish in ere
l8r

Shades

tiggers

Personally I think correct spelling and grammar do matter even on a forum such as this, but looking around here I'm obviously in a minority.

To me it is just a symptom of today's "couldn't give a damn" culture.

As a company owner I at least have the pleasure of being able to say that I will never have anyone working for me who doesn't at least have some basic command of the written and spoken word.

tiggers.

fast bloke

I find it funny to read people spouting off about it when their own posts contain many errors. Who decides what an acceptable standard is? As above - re-bittens paragraph is not difficult to read, but it does contain about 1 error per line of text. Is this because re-bitten is lazy or uneducated? Some people refuse to use punctuation or capitalization so the text is more difficult to read. Are the pro-correct spelling group saying it is OK to get it wrong as long as you make a decent effort? Maybe re-bitten should be formally reprimanded for not knowing about correct useage of hyphens, dashes, semicolons, colons etc etc. I would guess that most of the population would be hard pushed to formally define the correct useage for each of these?

There is a good chance that the people who write the most difficult to read posts do not have the same level of education as those who can get it nearly right. Neither do those people who get it nearly right have the same level of education as the pedants who point out every single mistake. The logical conclusion is that only those with the highest level of understanding of the language should be allowed to post. Is this not a touch unrealistic?

lmsbman

Whilst I am in no way perfect, I try my best to put my point's of view across as intelligibly as possible. It's personal pride. I have to admit that when I read some of the most unintelligible messages, my first thought, is that the writer is a 'chav'!!

fast bloke

This is an interesting use of the ellipsis. This would usually be used to show that something has been ommitted from a direct quotation or that the writer has deliberately left something unsaid.

As it was not a direct quotation then the latter must be the correct choice, but you have not actually left anything unsaid. Can you also explain the significance of an ellipsis at the start of a new unquoted paragraph?

I do like to learn

Re-Bitten Hero

Now I'm interested!

To those who claim my post has errors: I would be very interested to hear what errors I made! From the grammar I learned at school (which, incidentally, was taught to me by a very strict, traditional teacher) it is essentially perfect, particularly on the punctuation. Care to elaborate? I'm curious!

R

Re-Bitten Hero

Btw has anyone noticed that the sponsored links from Google include "Write your own CV" for this thread?

Spoon

After all said and done it's not the quality of education that someone has had but they way the education was received by the individual.

Chavs had the same chance as most but chose to ignore it.

ProperCharlie

fb - i think you are going a bit too far! you will no doubt be thinking "wtf has he put a hyphen there for?" "why doesn't he use capitals?" i don't use capitals as i think they contribute little or nothing to the readability of the post, and also as i'm too lazy to hit the shift key. i think the use of a hyphen to mark a break in the sentence, as re-bitten does, is also acceptable. language is supposed to be flexible; it would be a dull world if everyone used exactly the same style.

Re-Bitten Hero

FastBloke: I count 9 mistakes in your post...

jas03WRX

Message to scoobynutter555: yes I agree some posts have appalling grammar, but this is a public forum and you can’t do anything about it. Why you have to bother yourself with this is a joke. Go and become an English teacher if it bothers you that much, ...and stop trying to better everyone with your choice of words. It’s becoming: my education is better than yours... blah, blah.

Pathetic.

fast bloke

"For me, it's down to a few things - firstly lack of decent education on this in schools; it's now "accepted" that it is ok just to get the message across, even if it's not 100% grammatically correct.

unnecessary comma after me
hyphen or dash after things. Should be a full stop
firstly. Should have a capital letter
semicolon is questionable after schools - it would suggest that you place an unseen inference between the two sentences. A full stop would suffice as the connection is clear.
The i of it's should be capitalized regardless of the use of a preceding semicolon or full stop.
Why use quotation marks around accepted. This implies the use of irony. The context implies that you want to say something like 'It now now seems to be accepted by some...'
OK should be capitalized or use okay

You also say it's down to a few things, then list two. You don't use a new paragraph for the first but you do for the second, which is inconsistent.


OK - That is the first sentence sorted - Do you want me to go on

fast bloke

more than likely, but I didn't issue a challenge

jas03WRX

LOL

fast bloke

Who defines acceptable. If you leave it to the chavs u wl B tlkn lk ths b4 u no it

If you leave it to those special people at the other end of the spectrum we will all have to stop posting anyway

SiPie

Sad gets actually taking the time to debate this

Get a life

TelBoy

Non flammatory question - how old are you, seriously?