Why proper grammar is important.

[nyc81991]

Effective grammer is the difference between:

Helping your uncle jack off a horse

and

Helping your uncle, Jack, off a horse.

haha i gotta say that was pretty funny.

[procne]

well think of it this way, do you speak to your boss the same way you speak to your friends? no you don't. its the same here, why? because it requires my attention and energy to make well constructed sentences and words which i frankly don't care very much about.

Oh, its not exactly the same. With friends you just use different words, not different grammar. You may have your own rules / abbreviations ot other "shorties" which you use with your friends. But it's your (plural "your" here) code. People on random internet forum are not really your friends, and may not understand this "code" :S

For me it seems hardest to understand some americans, who for some reason don't care about spelling or punctuation, as long as words sound phonetically more or less correct. But since I don't often have contact with spoken english, and rely mostly on written english it's often pure gibberish :S

[Steavz]

I thought I should share this, as I immediately thought of this thread.

I just received an email from my insurance company. Now, this is a very reputable insurance company, one of the big guys, put it that way. As I read the email I found three uses of "pls", two instances of "inshurd"(?), four rolling dots (....) at the end of over half the sentences, two uses of "u", and three "thx", with many more general spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Now, this is an insurance company, and I think anyone would agree that this would be a 'formal' situation. This shows how laziness in regards to written communication could eventually seep into every facet of ones interaction with other people. Needless to say, I didn't take it quite as seriously as I should have, as I felt I was talking to a 13 year old. I'm probably going to switch companies when my policy expires.

[procne]

Are you sure it wasn't some phishing attempt? If I received mail like this I would just forward it to company's customer support or whatever, asking if it's real, saying why I think it's not. Possibly someone will get the point

[Steavz]

I'm sure it wasn't. It didn't look suspicious in any way, and they weren't asking for any information.

edit: Checked the source, it's legit.

[GeaMyaLor]

How about you all stop thinking the world rotates around the USA and figure out a lot of ppl (like myself) on these forums don't speak English as their first language. Actually the non-english speakers who come in here and post/read these forums have an upper hand on yourself. How many of you could go into a French or Spanish forum and contribute? Thats what I thought...

I don't think he is talking too much about the forums themselves, but about the games and the way people talk while playing the games. I would agree that l33t speak is not an "evolution" of the English language, but a de-evolution. My mom thinks it's "cool" to replace every digit with the numeric version (going 2 bed soon?) but imo, no one actually texts or types like that anymore, especially with the advent of full qwerty keyboards on cellphones and such. The ONLY time I ever do stuff like that is when I'm trying to limit a text to one page only.

Whenever someone in a dungeon or someplace says something like LOL U NUB L2PLAY U SUK SO BAD ITS LOLS, it makes me want to bash my face on the keyboard at this affront to maturity. Seriously, if you type or talk like this people think you are a 10 year old noob, end of story. And this is not an evolution of language secondly because if you EVER did any of these things while writing a cover letter to an employer or on your resume, they would probably blacklist you forever for being an idiot.

No, I do not care if you use the word who or whom, or if you miss some capitalization or punctuation every once in a while, or throw in some extra commas like I tend to do. But there is a fundamental difference between its and it's and two, to, and too!

[Deleted]

im not the one trying to play superior with grammar on a wow forum ROFL

using proper punctuation urself is 1 thing but acting laik u need to tiech the rest of the wojld becuz it bothers u is pathethic

That sort of typing gives me a headache and the feeling of that you are twelve years old, or younger...

[Sarcasm]

How about you all stop thinking the world rotates around the USA and figure out a lot of ppl (like myself) on these forums don't speak English as their first language. Actually the non-english speakers who come in here and post/read these forums have an upper hand on yourself. How many of you could go into a French or Spanish forum and contribute? Thats what I thought...

I have absolutely no issue with non-native English speakers making mistakes. The problem lies with the people who are fully capable of speaking/typing properly but choose not to out of laziness. This is especially problematic when non-native English speakers visit forums, because they adapt to the environment and think that the degenerated version of English that they're learning is how English is supposed to be written and spoken.

[Nexxia]

It sound ridiculous trying to enforce entirely human made rules in a system that exists in the persons own mind. If information is communicated, language has served its purpose. Some people get off on the power kick of telling other people they are wrong, often without realizing they are slaves to someone else rules. Grammar is as important as humans, the rotting fly on the sidewalk, all the people at the local cemetery arent concerned with grammar, or at least they have the decency to not insult others.

[pucGG]

I thought I should share this, as I immediately thought of this thread.

I just received an email from my insurance company. Now, this is a very reputable insurance company, one of the big guys, put it that way. As I read the email I found three uses of "pls", two instances of "inshurd"(?), four rolling dots (....) at the end of over half the sentences, two uses of "u", and three "thx", with many more general spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Now, this is an insurance company, and I think anyone would agree that this would be a 'formal' situation. This shows how laziness in regards to written communication could eventually seep into every facet of ones interaction with other people. Needless to say, I didn't take it quite as seriously as I should have, as I felt I was talking to a 13 year old. I'm probably going to switch companies when my policy expires.

That proves that even though you try this hard they are still richer and more intelligent than you are. I'm glad you brought this up. K.O.

[Freshouttajail]

I feel as tho people who need to correct grammar always need to feel as they are better than everyone else. If it is understandable what is the problem?

It's not about "needing to feel better" at all.
Typing with proper grammar is exactly like being good at something, anything. If you have proper grammar you ARE better than someone who doesn't. Correcting others is often seen as an insult but if people took it the right way, they would understand that all they need to do is type correctly and use what they learned in school, basically. That way they wouldn't look so retarded, and no one could "insult" them because of poor grammar.
Not to mention that crying about the "grammar police" wastes more of your time than it takes to type correctly with proper grammar in the first place.


Edit: I understand english is not everyone's native language, I'm french canadian.


This poped as I was typing:

That proves that even though you try this hard they are still richer and more intelligent than you are. I'm glad you brought this up. K.O.

I'd like to see you elaborate on what makes you believe they are "more intelligent" than him.

[Nexxia]

"If you have proper grammar you ARE better than someone who doesn't." LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Better make sure you dont screw it up. We have places for your type.

---------- Post added 2011-01-20 at 04:57 PM ----------

Wow, so many different examples of brainwashing and conditioning in this thread you could write a paper.

[pucGG]

I'd like to see you elaborate on what makes you believe they are "more intelligent" than him.

Hahahaha. Get over yourself.

[Hugitout]

First of all, I don't believe that a person that uses proper grammar is any better than someone who doesn't.

HOWEVER, it is always easier for me to take someone seriously when they use proper grammar and spelling.

[AlamarAtMMOC]

Words have one purpose... communication. If I convey the same message by typing 'u' instead of 'you' and I did it in a more efficient manner, then what's the difference? There is none. As long as the sentiment/message was properly conveyed then it is correct.

I so couldn't agree more with this. If the message was properly conveyed, it would be correct...

Bummer, that...

Personally, I don't care if people can't/won't spell/grammartize (heh) correctly, but it does have the effect of lowering my opinion of them. Ironically, perhaps, when I was a kid, I used to purposefully spell things wrong, because I enjoyed it. Now that I'm a grumpy old curmudgeon, I just like to understand what people are saying instead ; )

-Alamar

[Dvaldin]

Grammar is a tool used to communicate a message from the writer to the reader. The better the tool is used, the more effective the message is conveyed. Used poorly, grammar serves to make the writer look like the tool.

[pucGG]

Grammar is a tool used to communicate a message from the writer to the reader. The better the tool is used, the more effective the message is conveyed. Used poorly, grammar serves to make the writer look like the tool.

I can make a drawer work just a well with a normal screwdriver as with an electric screwdriver. I chose electric because it is faster. Do you understand what I am driving at?

[Dvaldin]

Yet you choose to write well to communicate your message more effectively.

[Theotormon]

Effective grammer is the difference between:

Helping your uncle jack off a horse

and

Helping your uncle, Jack, off a horse.

Technically, the commas are not necessary, just the capitalization. Journalism school FTW. Sure, I get paid for shit, but I can correct people on game forums.... FML.
Also: grammar, not grammer

[pucGG]

Yet you choose to write well to communicate your message more effectively.

My writing properly is a habit. Why would you try to derail my message by besmearing me, just to cover the fact that you can't make a good metaphor?