Opinions please...

[Persepone]

I am more confused after [DeeBee's] post. The first half seems to extol the virtues of communicating well, the second seems to say it's no big deal. Which is it?

I agree with her. If you are writing the post, using good grammar, checking your spelling, and choosing the most effective vocabulary will add credibility to your posts.

However, correcting others is inappropriate. There are only a few on this board who write in "Fractured English." Some of these are members whose primary language is not English. And generally they write very well and do not make many spelling errors. They sometimes have problems with idiomatic English. Then again, how well would you do if you were posting on a Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese, German, Russian or Chinese board?

There are also a few disabled members on this board, I believe. I applaud them for participating and for posting on the board. I don't care if they make zillions of grammatical mistakes or spelling errors. I'm impressed that they post at all--and they usually have something very interesting to say.

My vote, then, is for posters to do the best they can to write clearly, and to use standard spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. But I also do not think we should criticize others who do not live up to our personal standards.

There are so many other more important things to worry about.

[coriolis]

I'll bring this to the attention of staff, but I'm sure that we don't want to go there.

If an individual takes it upon himself to start correcting people, that person will not be very popular.

I say, let it go. OK?

[joseph01]

This would tend to be self-correcting. If someone communicates that badly, no one will reply.

As I see it, we should not be correcting each other. I think that the board can withstand a few instances of fractured English.

Again, I don't think it has anything to do with whether the board can withstand it, of course it can, It's more whether the board members with knowledge, should tolerate it. Is there really something wrong with causing someone to articulate their thoughts better?

I see no reason to make anyone feel inferior or bad.

I'm tending to agree, after reading all the posts. I just wonder if that is truley the best thinjg to do. Perhaps that's best. I will refrian from doing otherwise.

[sunny]

We have a lot of good people on this board. Persepone put it best. If we start offending members by correcting them, we'll lose them. We don't want that!

[Lindaloo]

Okay, is there a point to this thread? We do not discriminate against people who can't spell correctly, for goodness sakes.

[joseph01]

We have a lot of good people on this board. Persepone put it best. If we start offending members by correcting them, we'll lose them. We don't want that!

I think in my original post, I talked about doing it in a subtle way, not an offensive way. Can someone's spelling, grammer, and puncuation improvement really be a detriment to their personal and professional career?

[sunny]

joseph, bottom line is it is not our place to correct anyone. This is a message board, not English and Grammar classes. I would never do that to anyone, and personally, I would be offended if it were done to me.

[joseph01]

joseph, bottom line is it is not our place to correct anyone. This is a message board, not English and Grammar classes. I would never do that to anyone, and personally, I would be offended if it were done to me.

I appreciate your candor. And you are probably correct. It was just something I was thinking about and wanted opinions.

[CajunMama]

I found a great mb....Grammar Snobs Message Board

http://mb.sparknotes.com/mb.epl?b=2437

but seriously, it is not our place or yours to correct someone who does not meet your standards in spelling and grammar.

[MomH]

joseph, bottom line is it is not our place to correct anyone. This is a message board, not English and Grammar classes. I would never do that to anyone, and personally, I would be offended if it were done to me.

I second that message.

[joseph01]

I found a great mb....Grammar Snobs Message Board

http://mb.sparknotes.com/mb.epl?b=2437

but seriously, it is not our place or yours to correct someone who does not meet your standards in spelling and grammar.

With your attempt at humor shoved aside. I was inquiring if there was ANY reason to approach a standard here, not mine. I was curious, if that when young people (members of Storm2K) arrive for job interviews, and their lack of skills is not appreciated, would I perhaps be guilty of not encouraging them to their potential That's all.

[joseph01]

It's getting late and I'm worn out for this week. I'll check back tomorrow morning and see what a further pounding I received. Thanks to those that responded. I asked for your input, and I truley appreciate it. Thanks again to those that troubled themselves to post.

Joe

[Lindaloo]

With your attempt at humor shoved aside. I was inquiring if there was ANY reason to approach a standard here, not mine. I was curious, if that when young people (members of Storm2K) arrive for job interviews, and their lack of skills is not appreciated, would I perhaps be guilty of not encouraging them to their potential That's all.

Our standard is a family atmosphere, not a correct grammar atmosphere. Our young posters are either in high school or college. I do believe they are taught proper grammar by certified English teachers. So, your request has been denied.

Cajunmama, I found your post rather humorous.

[joseph01]

So, your request has been denied.

I don't recall requesting anything, except for opinions, so, your post is moot.

[CajunMama]

Why do you have such a chip on your shoulder...the majority of those responding to this thread have said NO BIG DEAL...you need to get over this obsession. You asked for responses, we gave...but you don't seem to like the fact we disagree with you.

[Guest]

This Joseph guy is just as bad as the "do not use message boards at work" evangelist!

[Lindaloo]

So, your request has been denied.

I don't recall requesting anything, except for opinions, so, your post is moot.

ROFL!! Actually, you have that backwards... your point is moot.

[Radar]

Well, I believe if anyone feels warranted to correct another members spelling or grammar they should always do it in a private message and not on the forum board for everyone else to see. Especially if a person has a difficult time with a particular word and keeps misspelling it over and over sending them alittle PM might actually be helpful. Pointing out a spelling mistake on the forum just seems to embarrass the member and can lead to hard feelings but a PM is much more discreet and might lead the member to be thankful that you helped them out. Just send a PM like " I noticed on the message board that you kept spelling "Vortex" like this: Vortext, and I just wanted to help you out by letting you know what the proper spelling is." It is all in how you do it that makes the difference.

[GalvestonDuck]

I try hard to use correct grammar and spelling; however, I maek misteaks sometims!

Well, I was referring to posts not unlike the part of your sentence that follows the semicolon. Should that just be ignored? That's what I'm wondering. Should this be a non-issue, because this is a weather and tropics board, and not a spelling, puncuation and grammer board. I wonder.

I take it you didn't use SpelChek on this post?

Seriously, I tend to overlook the spelling errors because sometimes, it's not actually a spelling mistake, but merely a typo. As far as the other goes, I let it slide too. Some novels and screenplays have been successfully written with dialogue that incorporates less-than-standard English ("Huck Finn," "The Color Purple"). It's part of the character. And believe me, do we have some characters here.

But think of it another way -- You're with a group of people and someone says, "Where's Duckie at?" Are you going to answer the question or correct the grammatical error? Here, it's just like being in a room full of people and we're carrying on a conversation. In the OSC world, I rarely hear anyone stop another person in the midst of a flowing conversation in order to tell that person, "You're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition!"

Surely, you've heard the joke:
A Texas girl and a woman from New York meet at a party. The Texas gal says, "Hi! Where y'all from?" The New Yorker sticks her nose in the air like she's checking for rain, and replies, "Where I come from, we don't end our sentences with a preposition." Texas gal says, "Fine. Where y'all from...witch!"

Dee Bee -- *sigh* That's poetry.

[Swimdude]

My take... As long as I can read it, everything is fine. Besides, if you haven't noticed the trend, most of these horrible-grammer and spelling posts are made by those that don't know much about the topic in the first place.

I'll usually ignore it, unless it's especially bad, in which case I might make a light-hearted comment about it.

Let's not go crazy here. This is supposed to be a relaxing place.