How much attention/intention do we assign to the spelling, grammar and syntax/phrasing of the messages we post on forums? Or anywhere else, for that matter?
To what extent are we able to put ourselves in the 'shoes' of those who are reading our posts/messages?
How much does it matter to us to write intelligibly and to get our points across in a clear and coherent manner?
I pay a lot of attention to it in Spanish, whilst in English I know I am often stretching the limits of grammar and I have a tendency to be repetitive as to make things more clear.
Other than that, I often have an excessive use of some words (i.e, "mostly")... whilst some other English words, I always write them with a typo unconsciously (i.e, "avoind" instead of "avoid".. I don't know why I subconsciously keep on adding the "n" there... though it's an issue that it certainly not related to a confusion with my own language -Spanish).
Some days ago I talked to Dev because of his podcasts (we did a Podcast, mostly about art and the Occult)... and then we talked about this famous lingua franca (English) and how in many cases we see a situation in which two persons who don't speak English as their first language are using it to communicate (i.e, Dev and I in that podcast, but you are neither a "natural" English speaker).
Sooooo... I have different standards depending on the situation. If I am reading Spanish from a natural Spanish speaker and I see an attempt to write something that tries to sound very philosophical, but it's a nightmare of typos... I often take it less seriously.
But when I see someone using a second language and making a lot of mistakes, I do not judge them at all because of that (i.e, Salazius doesn't have many typos, but often has an incredibly strange choice of words... but I pay a lot of attention to his posts and I have a lot of respect for him.... and he's one of the most coherent posters, even if his English is not incredibly perfect.... and I don't have any problems with "broken English", which is also the same language I use here on this forum).
The language of the birds manages to survive when we write or read in broken English.
Personally, I'm 'perfectly' OK with 'less than perfect' grammar/syntax/orthography, especially as I am not a 'native' English speaker myself.
However, some messaging or posting 'styles' just don't 'cut it' for me, because they often tempt the barrier of intelligibility: Words 'glued' together, lack of periods/differentiation between sentences, no paragraphs at all, overuse of texting style abbreviations, vague one-liners --- almost like the person writing doesn't really care if he/she is understood or not.
imean when ppl wriet lk this i. shoudof nown lol BTW.whatsyur point??????!!??
(i.e, Salazius doesn't have many typos, but often has an incredibly strange choice of words... and he's one of the most coherent posters, even if his English is not incredibly perfect....).
LOL ... "incredibly strange choice of words", really ? What is so strange ?
LOL... We are all quite blind to our own strangeness, but often able to see it in others who are similar. We both speak Latin-based languages (French and Spanish)... so I sometimes see in your posts a "strange" use of the nouns and verbs which doesn't destroy the sense (I never have problems understanding you), but they are often not the nouns or verbs that a native English speaker would have used.
I.e, in the thread created by the person who was having problems "calcinating the honey", you suddenly said "cook the syrup"... which made me think of une crêpe avec un sirop délicieux... and yet your *tips* in that thread were the best ones that the person who was asking received.
Probably it is because we both speak languages that come from the Latin family of languages that I can see in your posts the typical "strange" use of nouns and verbs that we, the "Latin-based language speakers", often use when we write English (I do not see it in my own posts, but that's because I am unconscious of my own "strangeness"... but our writing styles are probably very similar for an English speaker when we write in this modern lingua franca).
Last edited by Andro; 03-22-2016 at 09:21 PM. Reason: Thread topic management.
I don't see a problem, I'm a native English speaker and you lot have far better grammar than I.
Please respect yourselves and other readers by paying just a little more attention to your spelling and syntax.
I don't think I'm being unnecessarily 'picky', but some posts are SO filled with typos and lack or punctuation (or over-punctuation), that it often makes them (at least for me) quite challenging to read and comprehend the intended line of thought.
-Double-check your spelling before submitting a post.
-Capitalize the first letter of every sentence and finish sentences with a period/dot.
-Insert a space between the period finishing one sentence and the first letter of the following sentence.
-Don't be shy to use apostrophes where required. It improves intelligibility.
Last edited by Andro; 06-02-2016 at 07:58 PM.
No, you're quite right. Spelling, grammar, etc, shows off your intelligence.
We're artists; not only of matter, but of language. The two are one and the same.