Grammar Nazism?

I assume most writers are like this. Maybe due to self editing because when reading over your writing you need to make corrections, maybe our brain associates grammatical errors with editing it and as such we cannot stand to read something we cannot edit. And when another writer cannot even edit themselves maybe our brain says "they aren't good enough to yet".

I normally skip any posts written incorrectly or in chat speak. Sometimes I feel bad when I know it's not a native speaker, writing it, but still I just cannot bring myself to actually read the whole thing. It's just a "GAH GET IT AWAY" moment.

Basically we might just be in the same boat.

 

Yeah well... ya know... sometimes it is what it is.

But then again you have seen my postings and I am sure I drive you crazy too.

Not that I really care what others think mind you. Everyone has their own strengths and short comings, no one is perfect. There are worse things in life than a missing period or an extra apostrophe, or gasp, even misspelled words.

For some it is medical, for others it is lack of education, and others still it is a matter of learning a new language. In either case we should encourage growth.

 

In my opinion bad grammar is an unfortunate thing but not the end of the world in the forums. I try to keep in mind, that people may need help in this aspect of writing just as others might need help with dialogue or world building.

That being said I think if one person is particularly good at grammar/punctuation, and they see a post from a writer who is struggling with it, they should try to help them if possible. Most of us would appreciate constructive criticism, especially about the part of our writing that is particularly week. I also try to keep in mind that everyone is at a different stage in their writing career, and it is a shame not to encourage the newbie (rpg reference) to improve on their mistakes and keep writing.

By the way Xanados, I have noticed that all of your posts are very well written

 

If it makes no sense, or is very badly written, I just skip over it. It's like any other thing in life, if I pick up a book I don't like, I don't read it. If you want people to pay any attention to you, learn to write in a manner that others will be able to read easily, and has something of value to make it worth reading.

Don't like what I have to say, and you don't read it...I won't know, and I'm positive I won't care.

I do agree we should strive to write in sentences, and avoid the rash of internet acronyms that are fine for texting, but you would think people on a writing site would attempt to...I don't know...write in a semi coherent way.

 

I would say in a forum setting it is fairly abysmal. Consider that many people on here may not have the time to proof their sentences for certain errors. Not only that I bet some are using mobile devices, which are not as accurate as the traditional keyboard. Further one should consider that often times people get distracted midpost and forget what they were writing and would miss certain aspects of more precise grammar.

However in a published work that is allegedly professionaly done I say have at it!

 

It depends how bad and how consistent the mistakes are. It doesn't bother me if someone makes the occasional mistake, or if they neglect capital letters and such. But I remember on this one forum a number of people used the word "loose" when they meant "lose". And they made that mistake over and over again, even after I pointed it out. That really annoyed me.

I don't think it's worth the bother to "correct" people's posts though. Not unless they are posting up something specifically for a critique.

 

Mistakes have to be blatant and frequent to bother me, and that's not really a problem on this forum. I get on another non-writing forum sometimes and it's awful.

I was an English major for a little while in college. I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but here in the US it's more about analyzing literature than grammar. I didn't take an intensive grammar class until I switched my major to linguistics.

I suppose one copes by taking a deep breath and focusing on the content rather than the delivery. Besides, editors care a lot less about grammar (which they can fix) than story and voice.

 

My android keyboard has a tendency to auto correct its to it's. It has no contextual checking, so can't always tell.

 

Pfft your are preaching to the chior, try 2-3 hrs of sleep a night for 6 years. Loads of fun. But it is expected when you run an international business, or have multiple jobs as many these days do. Just one of the many trade offs. *sigh*

 

There are several grammatical errors which irk me more than they should. However, while certain things bother me on message boards, I am unlikely to care for more than a few seconds. After all, I make mistakes too and there are certain things that I don't know either.

However!

Please, please, if you are in marketing and advertising, get it right! I hate seeing official signs and posters outside shops or in stores (or whatever!) which have noticeable errors. It is wildly unprofessional. If the graphics designer who did the posters for our shop had made a noticeable mistake, I would have had her head.

 

ROFLMBO, did you see the tee shirts wthat were missing the ' in them? Way funny, my sister had 3 in different colors and did not notice it, until I pointed it out.

 

I make occasional mistakes, and I'm completely aware of it. I haven't been on Mythic Scribes for very long, so quite obviously I do not have a say in that, but on other forums I can not stand it. I usually lose a lot of respect for those who can't capitalize their sentences, refuses to learn the difference between there their or they're, or/and does it continuously. Its a different story if the person I'm talking to is in a hurry, or say doesn't know English very well, though.

I don't correct people, I never have, and I doubt I ever will unless I'm teasing a friend or someone close to me. I don't like correcting strangers.

 

("...ah now humans..." started the goblin, much enjoying these posts so far, but not really wishing to write in the way everyone else did, adding "...nah, the two drawbacks with writing correctly is that is looks so old on the one hand while between the gap, of how it should be written against how one writes it, is revealed too much about oneself to one's readers...", in fact, the goblin had often observed how educators with nanny blogs sporned those clones of perfectionism who then thought that they could actually write merely because what they wrote was without fault grammatically, whereas anyone with the slightest bit of experience of writing already knows that the author is little more than a go-between between some passing vision and its portrayal here, whereupon the goblin finally smiled, saying "...simply, I would never have had my readership if I had ever written as you humans do, so allow me then to set such a bad example for you MYAHAHAHAHA...")