Category: the Rant Board
I wish people would learn how to fucking spell! Yes, I am a geek in just about everything under the category of language arts, and that includes spelling. I imagine mine isn't perfect 100% of the time, but to constantly spell words incorrectly is terrible. When someone is typing to you, and you have to do a word search to figure out what the hell it is they're saying, it's a damn shame. It makes you wonder what people are learning in school, or what habits they're intentionally picking up. It just really annoys me!
I know everyone's not a grammar geek like myself, but some things are just unreasonable. But people who spell shit wrong all the time like Morgan just annoy me. And people like John who forget to press the space bar make me irate! It's not like it's hard to reach or in a weird location or something. I've not a problem with them, but their typing and spelling are atrocious! Not trying to put people on blast, just giving an example.
It's understandable to get words mixed up, to leave a letter out or include an extra sometimes, but if your typing looks like you're beginning grade school or you're an unlearned dislexic, there's a huge problem!
My apologies if I offended anyone here, but I just had to get that off my chest.
roflmao. Morgan's typing is called shorthand. And people who types in shorthand are really annoying. And I'm pretty sure people who types with no spaces are just doing it for fun. You gotta calm down a bit dude, girly, or whatever, lol. Trust me, people who types like they don't know grammar gets on my nerves too, but yeah.
"Trust me, people who types like they don't know grammar gets on my
nerves too"...nuff said
Sept.Twilight, I think that for each time you used the word "types" in post 2 you were actually supposed to use "type". I might be wrong though. HTH
Yes Minh, you were supposed to use those verbs in the singular, but I understand that English is your second language.
I agree with Post #1, with the exception of people whose first language isn't English. I mean, if you have no kind of mental impairment that effects your academic ability or physical disability that makes it hard to write, then you have no excuse not to be able to write legibly. People who don't capitalize their I's, write in shorthand rather than taking the time to spell the actual word, run their sentences together, and misspell at least one word per sentence get on my last nerve because it suggests an utter lack of concern for writing skills. It's really not that hard to proofread. Adults, and young adults, should write as such.
Namaste,
Becky
I am in complete agreement with the first poster! I have been a spelling and grammar geek ever since I can remember, and often find myself catching others' spelling errors, especially online. On sites such as this one, I often find that I judge the intelligence of a person who I don't already know by scrutinizing his or her writing, and poor spelling can definitely make a huge first impression for me. Now, I do realize that such conclusions are not always accurate, and redemption is usually possible for me if I do turn out to be wrong. I can also understand why some people use Internet shorthand, but I tend to avoid much of it and am still not very impressed when I see people using it. Let's face it. If I am to receive a private quicknote which says something like, "hey linzee i just red ur profile and wanted u 2 know that i think u r an entresting purson. may be we can talk some time on the sight." I may still respond to you, but I probably won't be as motivated to get to know yu as I would have been if you had just spelled most of your words correctly. I definitley understand that writing isn't everyone's gift, but, if you really struggle with spelling, I would suggest that you just run a spellcheck.
I agree with the last poster, and the creator of this board. I don't usually point out grammatical mistakes, in case people get annoyed and start bitching at me for it.
It's so refreshing to find out I'm not the only spelling and grammar geek on here. It's discouraging sometimes to see how many people are bad at articulating their thoughts in written form. Like someone else said, it definitely influences my impression of a person, and I tend to think they are not very intelligent. I have been proven wrong at times because some very smart people just type too fast and are careless in their typing, but if you want someone to give you a second chance, you really need to write well or they may not be inclined to type chat with you.
In my first post to this topic, I made fun of the poster above me. I'm sorry about that as I now realize English is not your first language. I admire anyone who attempts to learn English because I hear it is one of the hardest to learn. So if I know someone was not born in this country, I do cut them more slack.
I agree with both Beckies, Lindsay, and the creator of this board. I try not to say too much about it, but like Lindsay, I tend to judge whether I want to talk to someone based on their writing ability. If you can't make sure your messages are legible, the message that sends to me is that you don't really care about what you're saying in the first place. I think I'm such a spelling and grammar fiend because I've been an avid reader since I was very little, and reading often influences how a person writes and spells. I think a lot of blind folks in particular don't know how to spell properly because they're always listening to tapes or some form of audio, rather than getting their hands on Braille and reading that way. Audio is a great format, and I use it myself sometimes. But it doesn't teach you how to spell anything. The other thing that helped me was that I was never allowed to use Grade 2 braille on spelling tests when I was in school. I used to hate that, but now I'm grateful for it.
To the last post, I wish had had your instructors, as I think grade two/contracted braille as they now call it was the death of spelling for me. Thank God I cam from a family of good spellers, and I discovered Scrabble in high school, or I'd be in real trouble. I've seen many people who write Internet shorthand in their papers and formal writing which really annoys me.
Lou
My spelling certainly isn't great, and it's certainly something I know that is bad for many blind people who grew up using braille as their first medium, though I'm often baffled as to why, as you should still need to know what the contracted braille spells. However, what really annoys me in the electronic world of today, is how many people will spell things so their screen reader says themcorrectly, or the take a screen reader's pronunciation as the guide to whether something is spelled correctly.
I personally use a spell checker for Email and Word proccessing, though obviously that's not possible on the zone, though I try to take care for the most part. I don't worry about other's spelling too much unless it's names, where I think there is a digree of respect in trying to learn to spell people's names correctly, Isee even names which are usernames spelt incorrectly by people too lazy to check the spelling. I also dislike the use of abbreviated text language being used for the most part. I will use it in it's rightful place though I don't know a lot of it. lol but unless I'm using my phone to access the zone I wouldn't do it here, and rarely then.
I totally agree with the original creator of this board! I understand some shorthand, typos, stuff like that. But there are so many people, blind and sighted, that just don't care, and their writing is almost impossible to read. If I have to work to decipher something because of the spelling, it's not worth the effort.
I completely disagree with post 1. Regularly spelling words isn't terrible. If that's how you define terrible you must live a very sheltered existence. And there's nothing wrong with txt spk either.
If bad spelling really upsets you or makes you angry, I can't imagine how the death of close relatives, or being dumped or divorced is going to make you feel.
Strangely enough this was a topic I was just thinking about last night while luxuriating in the bath. I was struck by several thoughts, primary among those thoughts, I am a snob! That is to say that I too, like others have stated on this board already, do tend to judge people by the quality of their writing. On an intellectual level I understand that I shouldn't do that, poor spelling in particular doesn't necessarily mean poor intellect, but I'm getting old and set in my ways I suppose and I just find it difficult not to make such a basic assumption. After all, I'd hate to think that people would form such judgments of me in that manor and yet without question, spelling is a weak point of mine. So not only am I a snob, but I'm even a snob with double standards which is far worse! However in my defense I do make the effort to spell check things, not only in word documents or emails but even in quick notes if I'm not sure of the spelling of a particular word, I also write all board posts out, such as this one, in a program that has a spell checker so that I have done my utmost to ensure that the finished article is as error free as I can make it.
Poor spelling is one thing, text message short hand though is quite another, and that is something that is, at least in my view, quite rightly abhorred by myself and others on this board. It is nothing short of laziness to write (ur) for (your) or the number (2) instead of the word (to). It is especially worrying when, as motifated says, that people are starting to consider it acceptable practice to use such orthographic bastardizations for important documents. It isn't even an especially sensible form of laziness when you think about it, how much longer would it take you, for example, to type (Y O U) for (you) instead of just the letter (U)? With only a moderately good typing speed to type two extra characters on a keyboard you're only saving yourself fractions of seconds and that for me is the real concern because really, when you think about it, people aren't using these forms of short hand any longer as forms of short hand, they're using them because they believe them to be acceptable. Fortunately we haven't yet reach the point when whole books, or respected publications are written in this irritating fashion but it is a worry that one day it actually might happen. Hopefully not of course because quite aside from any other considerations, it is horrid to read with a screen reader.
I think I'm fast reaching the point when I start dribbling on about kids today, the decline in standards etc. etc. So I'll bog off now before I really start to show my encroaching age. I've actually just found this brilliant new book to read, it's called 'Tn ways 4 u not 2 sho ur age'. The dust jacket declares it to be a gr8 read!
Dan.
I would not excuse people who learns English as a second language if they have been using English for a while and especially if they live in the United States. English wasn’t my first language and I have no problem with spelling or grammar. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either.
I am also in to English and do spot mistakes, however, I do hold back my criticisms.
Again, to the post above this here, when you used the word "learns" you were actually supposed to use "learn". HTH
English isn't the first language of most Americans, that is American English wich in many ways is quite different, so I'd not excuse them either. lol
I totally agree with post fourteen. And, I would give an alien a bit of leeway. No matter what kind of English it is that a person is learning, it's very difficult to learn.
And as for post thirteen, I didn't say that bad spelling and grammar makes me want to slit my wrists, cry, depressed, or so angry that I need to break things in fourths. My point is that since I am a geek in anything under the category of language arts, it makes me a bit upset and disturbed to see many people make an unreasonable amount of errors in their typing. If my life was so sheltered, I might not be able to figure out what these sloppy and/or careless people are trying to say.
Raskolnikov
Thank you for the correction.
BlackBird
Ha ha ha, that’s funny. Perhaps I should be more careful next time. I do mean American English when I say English, though. I am just so use to calling UK English British English.
Rachel
Nice post, Dan. I liked it a lot. I'm glad to see there are so many on the Zone who feel the same way I have for a long time.
I don't mind the odd typo myself. I make them sometimes, but if you don't make an effort to try and spell properly, well then...
It annoys me on messenger enough, and I also tend to judge people by the quality of their writing. However, what really annoys me the most is when a person is writing an Email. In that case, a person has no excuse for not editing their work. Even so, it also annoys me when people have to make fun of the occasional typo. It happens sometimes.
When a friend of mine emails me, her typing is so atrocious, and hard to make out. I understand that some words are hard to spell, but I couldn't tell what my friend was saying in that email. I'm not perfect myself, but you should at least try to make your typing as accurate as possible.
Yo, iz like U never spellt Nuttin NCorrectly N Yo Life?
Calm Down, Iz like if U want 2 Spell shorthand, den do it, and das yo business.
Bad spelling doesn't bother me at all much during chats, but I do admit to thinking that short hand users, when chatting with me, tend to get little attention. Shorthand is fine if you are sending a text, but on IMs or forums, it comes across as lazy and immature.
What I sometimes find strange is how a person can take the time to write a tremendously long post, and not spell check.
I had to spell check this to make sure everything was speltNCorrectly.
Yo….
Lmao! Alex, you kick ass! And of course, I totally agree with you.
Shorthand really gets on my nerves! How hard is it to add one or two more letters to each word?
Hahahaha, nice ebonics.
Ahh, the ever-popular, ever-stupid TXT SPK! dont u jst luv dat?
I can not even begin to express how incredibly annoying it is when someone writes you a message, especially by email, that is impossible to understand. For instance, I received a message the other day that went something like this:
hey whattup hope u ben doin wel havnt tlkd 2 u in ages bt writ bck if u want
I sat there for a moment, mouth hanging open, marveling at the extent of this person's stupidity and laziness. I then showed the message to my mother, who couldn't even figure out what certain portions of it were intended to say.
There was, in fact, an individual who was logged in a few days ago, spelling horribly, and basically telling everyone that if they did not like the way she typed, they could put her on ignore.
Personally, I wouldn't object to a txtspk filter being implimented on quicknotes. I would laugh.
What I truly have a difficul ttime understanding is why blind people adopt this way of typing. I had thought at first that it was simply a thing that sighted people got into the habit of doing, however I have recently been seeing more and more blind individuals using the same form of typing. I often wonder to myself, firstly, how the person in question started typing like this in the first place, and second, how in the world can this person stand to hear their own typing read back at them by a screen reader voice such as eloquence, which is clearly lacking in txtspk abbreviation translations.
Personally, the farthest i've ever gone is lol, brb, bbl, and the occasional lmao. I will never stoop to that level of intelligence / laziness.
I have no problem with people using this kind of typing on cell phones or even sometimes on messenger, but at the same time, I am not unlike some of the other posters to this topic in that I sometimes tend to judge intelligence by the accuracy of typing.
I do make the occasional typo myself when typing on msn, but I most certainly do not go out of my way to type words in short form and I would never put any kind of abbreviation on a school assignment, and rarely in an e-mail, depending on who the intended recipient is.
lol I am the queen of shorthand because I am not a very good speller.
Well, I consider ebonics a language in and of itself, so I have no problem with seeing it written. But shorthand annoys me greatly and is the only thing I'm not looking forward to when I am able to text.
Becky
agree with what's been said. -- I seem to judge people on poor spelling and grammar as well, though I'm not always 100% accurate myself.
I hate it when people use shorthand typing on the PC, but I tend to use it when writing an SMS, simply cos it uses less characters when there is a limit.
My pet hate though is when people type with no punctuation what so ever so when the speech synth is reading it makes you sound like you're getting short of breath you know what Im saying it just sounds so uneducated to me.
And let's not forget the people who, for some reason, FeEl It NeCeSsArY tO tYpE LiKE ThIS (with every second letter of a word a capital letter); why do they do that?
why would one write like this in an e-mail? That doesn't make sense to me, especially if you're in school, and if you have to e-mail a professor, you'd at least want to write well out of respect for the professor who will read it, because it would definitely be a waste of his or her time if he or she had to work out what in God's name you were trying to say.
Well, I really don't know. I guess this is my question as well, and also what causes me to judge people's intelligence by the way they type. I mean, I have plenty of friends who are not the greatest spellers, but most of them do not type quite that badly. And also, the CaPiTaL tHiNg is just ridiculous. Who would want to sit there alternately pressing and releasing the shift key simply to make their msn messages and screen names look cool. It actually takes longer to type than normal words, which really makes me wonder why in the hell people do it to begin with.
Oh, my grapes! Agreed Andrew.
I greatly despise shorthand. And I can't stand it when people spell words with numbers included or with letters left out. And the people who leave out punctuation in contractions or at the beginning of a sentence need to go back to the second or third grade.
And another thing that makes me sick when I'm reading, is when people put three periods between every word or sentence. Sometimes, I'm just so provoked to ask people where they learned how to type.
My goodness! Is it the level of ignorance, or a lack of intelligence? It's one thing to be lazy, but when it comes to typing and/or writing, one should be considerate. And it scares me that so many people say that they don't look over their writing and edit it. Makes my stomach turn!
I hate it when people type like this. I've seen this on myspace surveys, and i just quit reading them.
I? ha?T?E? wh?e?n? p?e?Opl?e? t?y??p?e?? l?i?ke t?h?I/S?.
Is it supposed to make some random picture or something?
lmao, I think it is supposed to make some sort of picture, because the character isn't always a question mark. Sometimes it's something that JAWS doesn't recognize. But yeh, it's a right pain in the arse when you're trying to do a survey.
Becky
What I hate is when people on my messenger have these names that are just a bunch of unicode characters that jaws won't recognize, and then if i happen to not recognize the email and ask who t is, they get mad at me because the characters, apparently, spell out their name, at which point I have to force myself not to hit alt+k, and calmly explain to them that since they had the misfortune of using annoying little alt codes instead of just spelling it out in plain english, they can't expect a speech program which is not configured to recognize stupid little sighty codes to read their name properly, can they? God, that is so annoying!
Moldy grapes! Lmao! Mike, I'm with you on that one. I can't stand it when people type like that! What is the point of adding in those extra characters?
It's funny yet annoying how people will either leave out letters in punctuation, or add in extras. My goodness!
I don't have much more to add that hasn't been said here already, but I just have to say I thoroughly enjoy reading this thread. First of all, due to the nature of the topic being discussed, it's probably the cleanest thread on the Zone. By that I mean, cleanest in terms of the writing. No lousy short-hand, grammar, or spelling. I don't mind the occasional type-o. It's refreshing and wonderful. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only Zoner with this particular gripe.
Ok, typing on these school computers and maintaining my typo count is going to be extremely difficult, but here goes.
Firstly, I guess I am not the only one who is deliberately spelling as nicely as possible on this thread. And second, I have found this thread quite enjoyable as well. Honestly, I am glad this was started, because i've been wanting to rant about this for quite a while, and it's good to have a thread where I can do this.
I was actually speaking to someone on messenger earlier who had somehow downloaded a program to convert their keyboard to use fancy, strange-looking, unrecognizable characters, that jaws would not read. I had to go so far as to tell them I was going to block them if they could not do me the simple favour of typing correctly, before they finally took it off. I was actually kind of irritated about that, because this person, and no, they are not a zone member, is rather annoying anyway, and I was kind of looking for a reason to block him. Well, maybe he'll turn it back on and I can get away with it, lol. Seriously, I don't know what that program was, but it was annoying!
I'm glad you all find pleasure in reading and ranting in this board. I didn't really care too much, but was curious whether I'd have many people agreeing with me, or if I'd just have a bunch of posts under mine, telling me to get over it, and that not everyone's a spelling and grammar nazi like myself, so I should just fucking deal with it. But it makes me happier that there are many who agree with me, and I'm not one of a few people in this world who actually cares about writing skills. One's writing skills are just as important as one's skills to do arithmetic, or figure out an equation for science. But not many people think about this, so I hope it comes back to nip them in the ass!
I know a few people, however, that go way too far with the whole spelling thing on MSN. Seriously, if I make so much as one small mistake a day, they will tell me I should go back to kindergarten and learn how to spell. Now, I could understand that if I did what some people do, using too much shorthand, and not enough real words, then I could easily understand the reason behind that comment, but seriously...
Damn! Yeh, that's a little much.
That's a bit overboard. I never even correct people most of the time when they talk to me using shorthand, although it does annoy me. Unless it is totally unreadable, I will put up with it.
Um! That's really overboard.
I don't usually correct people. Most of the time, typoes are minimal and easy to figure out. But some people, I just can't help it! I mean, why do they use shorthand when talking to people? It's not like you're taking extensive notes for some class. Good grapes!
I will correct some one if they have tried about three times to spell the word and still haven't gotten it, but I'll usually put a question mark after it. If I screw up, and realize it, I'll retype in the word and put a star after it.
I do the same thing. And sometimes if someone spells something incorrectly I will correct them on it, but I won't get on their case about every little misspelling. I wonder why so many people put the * character after or before a correction. On the old irc chats I used to go on, nobody did that, but that started to show up a lot when i started using messenger more. if anyone knows where this came from, let me know.
What I love is when people spell something phonetically. Two examples of topic titles from these boards stand out. There's one where somebody spells the word artist with a D. What the hell is an ardist? Then there's the recent game where you go around banding people. Um, hello? There's no D in the word ban, if that is your intention. Sheesh!
There are just some people who often misspell words because they always hear them pronounced incorrectly or mispronounce them and no one has corrected them, or they choose to remain ignorant. I too, find this droll.
In all fairness, English isn't the most pheonetic language in the world. It causes problems, particularly where regional speech is involved. My mother is from New Hampshire, and my father spoke the really old time Baltimorese as we in Baltimore like to call it. As an example, there's a section of our city called Highlandtown. All the locals call it Hollandtown. I had no idea how it was spelled till I was in college.
Lou
I agree with Lindsay. I too judge people's intelligence by their spelling, whether or not this judgement is justified. Being an editor, this comes second nature to me. The biggest pity on this site is that so many blind people these days, having little exposure to Braille, can't spell because they almost always go by audio sources. This, in my opinion, needs to be reversed. If ever I have a blind child, he or she will read Braille every bit as much as I did and do, if for no other reason than to give the child the chance to learn correct spelling.
I aggree. A lack of exposure to braille also contributes to one's bad spelling. But sometimes, reading braille contributes to it too. Because there are so many contractions in braille such as nec for necessary, people forget how to spell some words.
Hmmm, I wonder if a profound amount of exposure to irritation by bad spelling makes one prone to use phrases like "good grapes," and " rotten grapes?"
ha ha ha, Alex. You're funny.
Peachy grapes!
In grade 4, one of my friends told me she did not kno how to spell said, simply because there was a braille contraction for it. So if we really want to teach people how to spell, let's go back to uncontracted braille.
Interesting point in the last post. When I was learning contracted braille as a child, the teachers told us that there was the long way and the short way to write. Well, being a lazy child, I wasn't about to really learn to do anything the long way. As a result, I never really learned to spell well until I started playing scrabble.
Lou
When I first started learning Braille at the age of three, there was no choice between learning Grade 1 or Grade 2. My teachers made me learn Grade 1 first, if for anything, it was to learn proper spelling. I'm glad that they did. I don't agree with teaching someone Grade 2 from the beginning. I've never really heard of this happening, though. It seems that for the most part, Grade 1 is taught first, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the best way.
I agree with the previous post. Grade one braille should always be taught first. Sighted children learn print before they learn cursive.
It's like having a person run before they crawl.
When I was in grade school, I had to use grade one braille on spelling tests. And I've always been in spelling bees and won them, so my spelling is exceptional.
Oh, and by the way, Alex, pickled grapes!
Pickled grapes? i'm lost ...