It's OK to Forget English Class on the Internet

Willow Rosenberg

Willow Rosenberg

I might be just like you!
Joined
Feb 10, 2002
Messages
3,163
Age
55
Location
Staffs, UK
Why is it that people think it's OK to forget all about their spelling and grammatical lessons when posting and/or sending emails, etc?

I've seriously seen job postings with so many misspellings, it makes me not want to apply. Even at work, I see people within my company and those who I deal with outside, sending things that would have appalled my English teachers.

Why have we generally accepted this as OK?
 
Personally I don't accept it. If I make mistakes its because my spelling has gone downhill due to relying on spellcheck. And don't even get me started on kewl talk, its not like it takes an hour to type something out!
 
OK, I just took a look over at HotJobs and someone was looking for an "Experianced Administrative Assistant."
 
Cordelia said:
OK, I just took a look over at HotJobs and someone was looking for an "Experianced Administrative Assistant."
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Ooog. Makes me cringe too. The worst is the public signage, like "We're you're place to go..." or "Repair's done here..." I could go on, and on, and on...I've started to carry a sharpie marker and I do surreptitious corrections to signs in the plant where I work...I need help...right Counsellor Cordy? 😉 (thanks!)
 
I don't think you need help. There's nothing shameful about spelling words correctly and using correct grammar. 😀
 
Cordelia said:
I don't think you need help. There's nothing shameful about spelling words correctly and using correct grammar. 😀
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I concur fully, but I think my inner Grissom/OCD is showing...and maybe someone else's too...😉
 
Perhaps not always a good excuse, but mainly I think it's because the Internet is world wide. There are so many people from so many countries and we all relay on spellcheck and the fact that most humans are quite good at understanding what you're trying to say without you having to spell it all out.

I think that the fact that so many people use English without it being their native language makes those who's mother tongue is English to relax and don't care as much. Besides it's so easy to just press the wrong key or an extra and since you know that they'll understand anyway you just don't care.

See how nice my spelling is, for once. It's like when someone points out the fact that something's buzzing and before you couldn't hear it, but now it's all you hear.

The only thing that sometimes bothers me is when people who are supposed to know English mess up things like your and you're. but I guess I shouldn't be throwing bricks in the glass house.

hey what's happened to the spellcheck?
 
Oh no, Jollyape, I didn't mean that all non-English speaking people should be perfect in terms of their spelling and grammar. I meant that a lot of people that I communicate with via email that are English-speaking do this. Also, some of the sites I visit, especially job search sites, are for jobs obviously within my region that is English-speaking.

I think it's wonderful that all of you on the board who don't speak English have learned to communicate so well. I mean I can speak/write/understand a bit of general conversation phrases in Spanish. My ex boyfriend's parents were from Columbia and I always tried to communicate with them in Spanish in order to make them feel more comfortable.

English Lesson of the Day:

Your = Belonging to You

You're = You are

There = A place that is not near you.

Their = belonging to them

They're = They are
 
Internet, I think that there's evolved an entirely new type of internet English that is fat full of slang and abbreviations and bad spelling. On the net I can take it as long as it's words (exluding 4, l8, u, r etc) and people at least use block letters in the beginning of a sentence and use paragraphs and .,?

But when there is spellcheck, as in Word and other wordformation programs and email, can't see why people can't use them. It's a simple click away and voila perfect grammar and spelling.

Cordelia said:
English Lesson of the Day:

Your = Belonging to You

You're = You are

There = A place that is not near you.

Their = belonging to them

They're = They are
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I can see how non native English speakers have problems with them, but when you're talking to an American or Brit and they mess them up, then I can understand what you're talking about.
 
Yeah I was gonna post pretty much what you just posted Ape.. (But I'm guessing that if people kept writing in really bad Swedish all over the internet, it would bother me more.)

But, this is also a reason why people should try to spell things correctly, because when you're not from a country in which you speak English all day, it's a lot easier to understand correctly spelled English (at least for me, being not so good at English), not that that is a problem at this board or anything.
 
Because it's the internet....who cares. English class is done. It's not as if people can't write properly but why should they have to? The HotJobs thing was amusing though.
 
I couldn't agree more Cordelia. I won't pretend that either my spelling or grammar are absolutely perfect, and the less said about my typing ability the better, but the fact is that most people don't even try to get it write ... erm, right! 😉

And as far as using text speak on the internet is concerned, it annoys the hell out of me. I can accept it in a text message where you are limited to the amount of characters you can use per text, it makes sense to use abbreviations in that case. There is no such excuse on here though. It is just absolute laziness to type "2" instead of too, or "U" instead of you.

Basically if i see a post that is made up of grammatical and/or spelling errors, or is done almost entirely using text speak, i just ignore it and move on to something more legible

ProphecyGirl said:
Because it's the internet....who cares. English class is done. It's not as if people can't write properly but why should they have to? The HotJobs thing was amusing though.
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Why should they have to? A better question would be why would they not want to?
 
C
Cordelia
[No message]
E
eponinethen
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There's also the point eponinthen brought up about those who do not speak/write English as their first language. If you use all those weird abbreviations and don't pay attention to word usage, it's bound to confuse someone who isn't as familiar with the language.

I mean if I went into the Spanish forum and tried to understand a post made with errors, I'd probably have a very difficult time.
 
E
eponinethen
[No message]
Honestly, people should try. On the internet, often our words are the only things that people see and the sole characteristic we are judged on.

Would you send an email to a prospective employer without first proofreading it? I doubt it.

I think proper English and spelling makes one's argument a bit more reliable as well, since they're more likely to be taken seriously.
 
ProphecyGirl, using good grammar shouldn't just be about getting good grades in school. It should be something you try do all the time just because you can.

People born with Dyslexia have to struggle all their lives to comprehend the written word. If you don't have that problem why would you ever choose to not try to present yourself properly on here? To me it's just something you do naturally out of respect for yourself.
 
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