Monday's Question of the Day - March 13, 2017

Happy Monday!  Today's question is sponsored by the following Meme 
With a side of inspiration delivered via a relative or two and social media in general. 

Are you bothered by grammatical errors online?  More specifically in places like Facebook, Instagram, Forums like this, etc?

I have a few people I interact with regularly online who just can't handle it.  I've seen a few facebook statuses venting that facebook doesn't come with a red teacher pen.  Personally; that's a bit extreme and it can make me hesitate to talk with them.  I do prefer things readable. Especially somewhere where the details of what you are saying are important.  Text speak is distracting although I'll use a little here and there.  Such as replying to a text with "k" or "ttyl".  There are many reasons why a person's language may not be as "good" as another persons but it is not worth losing my cool over.  I know when I type from my phone I'm much more likely to make a mistake and not notice.   I'm also much more likely to be brief with what I say.  

So I guess I like a balance between "I tried" and "I have an advanced degree in the English language and will now regale you with etymological discussions you did not solicit." 

I have a few relatives, friends, and acquaintances who are highly educated and highly intelligent.  A couple have a hard time remembering that it's not necessary to explain every subject to every person.  It's one thing to be passionate about something and another to explain things to a person when it's really not necessary (and in a few cases I have been more educated on the subject than they were!).  It can even be rude.  It makes me more likely to overlook what they have to say in the future.     And sometimes; I'm just too busy or not interested.    I suppose the good part of being online is that I can skim over those kind of posts so I should probably just quit my complaining too. 

Haha!  I posted an image of an inspirational quote on FB and one of my friends criticized the sentence structure.      I gently reminded him to just take the message to heart and not worry about the grammar.    

I hate spelling errors. Having said that, on social media sites I myself have been known to make a few.  Between auto-correction (which always winds up putting in a completely unrelated or misspelled word) to just typing too fast and not bothering to proofread it first.  Here on TCS I do the second way too frequently. Then I look at it once posted and I'm mortified at the errors - go back and fix them hoping nobody read it first LOL

The worst though are things which get passed along and have clearly incorrect spelling, the ones which probably make everyone cringe.  The one that I think I hate most is mistaking "there" for "their" and vice versa.  

I do not use text speak except when Tom and I are texting back and forth since I know he is fully aware of all of them.  I avoid using it everywhere else. I don't want people to guess what I meant to say.

YMMV. Hahaha.

I think context and who it is comes into play.

I know when it comes to texting the shortenings really bother me unless we are talking common ones. Things like "k" or "kk" in response to some things or common ones like "omg" don't bother me. I hate "ttyl" and would rather just get "later" in a text. I do completely understand the intent and purpose of shortenings. I played World of Warcraft religiously for years and there are definite times that typing a few letters is more prudent than the whole word/sentence. But in a lot of cases there aren't limits and typing an extra word or two won't result in a boss killing you and your DPS dropping. I carpooled with someone who was horrible at using shorthand's and partial words in texts. I ended up getting to the point where I would translate his messages and send them back to him; then respond to what he originally sent. Partially to make sure I didn't misunderstand something and partially because I basically had to translate them to understand so typing them helped me.

On something like Facebook or Instagram most of the people I have regular contact with do use full sentences. Honestly, I think I only choose to follow or interact with people who can actually use full words and sentences. I know my few attempts into online dating I have cut contact with guys who can't use full sentences. I usually make jokes about it first and if they don't get the hint I move on. I just think it shows that someone isn't putting their time or attention into something if they can't take the time to type a few extra letter. Back in the days of flip phones and pressing the same key 3 times to get the letter you want they had a little more excuses. Now? Not so much (maybe twitter?). 

Someone I know who knows better? It bugs me because it makes me think they are being lazy or don't care. It honestly doesn't take *that* much longer to type something correctly on a keyboard. Someone I know has more problems with proper English? It bugs me less and I might correct them with a PM or text if it is something that is more confusing to leave wrong (my brother has dyslexia and sometimes he mixes things up in a way that changes the content of his message so in those cases I point it out quietly to him).

Grammar, all around, is not as much of a sore spot because mine is usually pretty weak. Some things like not having periods though will always bug me. There "there", "their" they're" and "were" "where" things I see and laugh a little more than being annoyed. Run on paragraphs and sentences that end up readable text blocks I usually end up just skipping (expect Instagram who likes to drop paragraphs). I also keep in mind autocorrect can be a bear. I can't tell you how many times I have posted something from my phone and find stupid autocorrect mistakes or weird finger slips that it didn't catch. But I usually edit it if I can and fix those mistakes. 

I'm able to work past grammar and spelling most of the time. I almost always post from my phone. Even though I do look through my posts, sometimes thimgs slip through[emoji]128521[/emoji]

There are some posters who are difficult to understand because they don't use any breaks or punctuation and their problem rambles and my kitty is named patches and the vet said she ok but i dont know because she was black and i love her and shes almost 5 years old and i need help right away because now shes sick and i love her and she started coughing a long time ago

That's frustrating because I have to interpret the statement before I post any answer.

Many people don't have english as a first language. Those posters are very precise in sentence structure and spelling. Those posts are quite easy to read.

Many people will say, "I seen" instead of "I saw" or "I've seen". It makes it hard (for me) to take what they're saying with any value when they can't even use grammar appropriately. But that's just me. I've been told I should have been an English teacher because I notice grammatical errors often. I used to proofread papers for friends in college and even for my boss when I did my college internship. That being said, however, I'm sure I make more than my fair share of mistakes as well, esp when I'm typing quickly. Or if I'm on my iPad. I'll try to change it, too!

It did get to me on FB one time when a guy was posting about not needing a decent education (yes! seriously!) and his post was full of "your" for "you're" and "there" for "they're". Many words spelled incorrectly. And, of course, I called him out on it. He called me a b****. Funny how he knew how to spell that word. But dang, if you're going to post about not needing an education, use proper grammar and spelling, for crying out loud!

I don't like text-speak at all and won't even respond to it. Similarly, on another board, there's a woman who types everything in one paragraph, with no capitals, and little in the way of punctuation. I gave up her a while ago. I simply don't respond because it's too hard to even think about what she might be saying. Again, that's on another board, no one here.

Its and it's. It's so easy to figure that one out! Yet, a lot of people use the words incorrectly.

I'll shut up now.

When I see their/there/they're confusion or your/you're mix-ups, I try to assume the person was just rushed in posting. However, I know a lot of teachers & am stunned when I see them making these kinds of mistakes. I think it will be worse as time progresses.

Kieka said:

 
I just think it shows that someone isn't putting their time or attention into something if they can't take the time to type a few extra letter. 

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I agree with you.  

Winchester said:

 
Many people will say, "I seen" instead of "I saw" or "I've seen". It makes it hard (for me) to take what they're saying with any value when they can't even use grammar appropriately. But that's just me. I've been told I should have been an English teacher because I notice grammatical errors often. I used to proofread papers for friends in college and even for my boss when I did my college internship. That being said, however, I'm sure I make more than my fair share of mistakes as well, esp when I'm typing quickly. Or if I'm on my iPad. I'll try to change it, too!

It did get to me on FB one time when a guy was posting about not needing a decent education (yes! seriously!) and his post was full of "your" for "you're" and "there" for "they're". Many words spelled incorrectly. And, of course, I called him out on it. He called me a b****. Funny how he knew how to spell that word. But dang, if you're going to post about not needing an education, use proper grammar and spelling, for crying out loud!

I don't like text-speak at all and won't even respond to it. Similarly, on another board, there's a woman who types everything in one paragraph, with no capitals, and little in the way of punctuation. I gave up her a while ago. I simply don't respond because it's too hard to even think about what she might be saying. Again, that's on another board, no one here.

Its and it's. It's so easy to figure that one out! Yet, a lot of people use the words incorrectly.

I'll shut up now.

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I think there is a time and a place for proper grammar and that's the heart of this.  Social media is social; let your hair down and relax a little.  In most workplaces and in school it's expected/required.  Even here; a post in the Lounge posting can be more informal. But if your cat is sick and it's hard to read a post; we can't be as helpful.  Facebook seems to be where I get to interact with these people the most.  People do ask serious questions or look for advice there.  Most people are fine.  The relatives you can't really escape anywhere!    I guess the ones with the "extreme grammar pet peeves" are the ones that I just don't see eye to eye with.

For what it's worth Pam; "I seen" is one that bugs me; but my BFF's whole family uses that.  So I've learned to ignore it at least in my conversations with her.     I'm more bothered when someone says "Can I AX you a question."  I think that is semi-regional. 

Yes, I'm a grammar/punctuation/spelling stickler! I try not to correct the way someone talks, because speakly fluidly frequently requires colloquial speech. But there's really no reason for it in writing. Especially from those I know went to college or a really good high school so they ought to know better . But yeah, nobody like a pedant so mostly I just grit my teeth and carry on, lol.

I don't mind reasonable text abbreviations, and typos are usually easy to spot. Some things are hard to spell, and some grammar rules are silly or outdated. But I at least like to see an effort. What really annoys me is when someone spells something several different ways in the same post. At least be consistent about it!

Mixing up homonyms always bugs me hugely, but I very rarely correct people (the only exception being if a friend makes a mistake in an Etsy shopfront, or something else public like that).

I hate lack of paragraphs/punctuation, because they make posts so hard to read - very often I'll take one look and give up on trying to decipher it.

This is terribly English of me, but certain American spellings (and to a lesser extent, turns of phrase) grate on me too :anon:

Whilst I don't correct others, if I read back one of my own posts (sometimes a good while later) and catch grammatical/other errors, I just HAVE to go back and edit to fix them :lol3:

Like others, I'm not a fan of text speak either, with a few exceptions (tmi is one that springs to mind).

The only things I really explain out (even if possibly unnecessary/unwanted) are technical things about my pony when talking to non horsey people (or people unfamiliar with the natural horsemanahip/classical equitation training style I use). I'm sure some of that's unwanted, but I figure people can skip it if they're not interested I can sometimes over elaborate about music too, which comes from my former life as a music student (before life and health issues got in the way, I was training/hoping to be a professional musician).

However much grammatical errors etc bug me though, I just don't see the value in correcting people (except in the privacy of my own head :winkblue: ). Auto correct and/or tiredness have caught me out way to many times for me to be too judgemental of others!

I'm usually quite alright about it as long as no one writes like this "Hey how r u 2day sup I h8 u dbag y u mad" etc etc


Especially if you are an adult. Seriously! No excuses, it does not make things go faster. I had actually refused conversations with people in the past if they talked like a 13 year old, which funny enough I have seen 13 year olds write better than that.


And don't write long paragraphs without commas or periods, especially if it is something like a political rant somewhere. It looks childless and I question your intelligence and integrity. 




Other then that, small errors are bound to happen here and there by accident, so no use fretting about it. As long as for the most part people try!








 

We all make mistakes, but it pains me when I do. IMO, English is an amazing language & I like to respect that. Typing on my iPad is not for the faint of heart. Everything needs to be proofread at least twice. (iPad changed twice to wife just now.) I think if I have time to post, I have time to proofread it. If I don't have time, I won't post. Some people simply cannot spell, but I think bad grammar is worse.

i could care less about grammatical errors that people sometimes make. as long as i'm able to understand what they're saying, that's all i will ask for.

i agree that there are many reasons why people make grammatical errors, and many/most times it's not that they're lacking in intelligence in any way.

i prefer to treat others as i would want to be treated, and focus on the important things -- like what the person is saying/meaning, and not how they say it or any grammatical errors.

some of you may notice that i rarely use capital letters when i post. pretty much the only times i'll use them is in typing members and/or their cats names or similar, which is out of respect to them. and the reason i rarely use capital letters......is that i type with one finger, kind of 'hunt and peck', though i'm familiar with the keyboard layout.

Some of them grate on my last nerve, but I don't say anything about it, generally.  I think the one that bothers me most is when someone doesn't use "Mary and I" correctly.  IT ISN"T ALWAYS "and I!!!"  Sometimes it is "and me."  I bite my tongue, although I've been known to yell at the television, generally something along the lines of, "you're a professional writer, for God's sake, get the grammar right!"  

I have a hard time with paragraphs, actually.  It's a function of my ADD.  No, I do NOT have ADHD.  I have the energy levels of the average tree sloth.  But my mind flicks here and flicks there.  So I try very hard to be accommodating to others, in hopes that they will return the favor.

As for the spoken word, my paternal grandmother actually spoke the King's English, and she drilled me mercilessly on "enunciation, pronunciation, grammar."  I hold myself to that standard but try very hard not to hold others to it (with the exception of those script writers, who really ought to know better).  Grammarly helps   .

One thing that Americans do that took me eons to get used to is the use of personal pronouns when the person in question is standing close by. "Please give it to her. She will come with me. What did she say?" Ugh, still makes me cringe.

~ Grammatical errors are a problem because it often makes it difficult to read - especially lack of punctuation. I do not see this much on The Cat Site.
I think most people are considerate and try their best , but some are just lazy or think it doesn't matter .

I don't really care. That used to bother me a great deal but you really do need to choose your battles and it wasn't one worth fighting. I have no use for Facebook so I don't really know what goes on there. I don't spend time picking apart posts here because it doesn't matter if the post is grammatically perfect if I understand what the person is trying to say. We have many posters here who are native English speakers. They do the best they can. I understand that. Judge not.

Kat0121 said:

Judge not.

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Personally, I am not judging anyone. Simply answering the question of the day.

although I've been known to yell at the television, generally something along the lines of, "you're a professional writer, for God's sake, get the grammar right!"

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Hahahaha, especially when it doesn't fit the character! Once on a fairly recent NCIS, Ducky said something like "are you inferring that I [did a particular thing]?" Even though earlier in the series (yes, fine, I'm an NCIS nut), he once corrected someone else, saying "I imply, you infer" so the character clearly knows better, and is a bit of a pedant anyway so he would never say that. Argh! See, I can yell at the TV too .

I do prefer proper grammar and spelling. Having said that, I make plenty of typos and auto-correct makes me sound crazy sometimes. I wouldn't correct someone online though. :dk: OK, I think I may have before, but it was a friend that points out every single time someone makes an error. :lol3: