Great question, bad grammar or spelling. How do you react?

If a question is poorly put together, it is often difficult to understand exactly what is being asked.

That has to color the level of interest and response.

One error or even a couple don’t bother me if the question is understandable. A disregard for the site’s memes, which include making an effort with grammar and spelling do bother me.

I’m a horrible speller. I don’t know why I just can’t keep the right letter to-geth-er. My grammar has improved since I found the internet, but spelling has only improved ”on” the internet thankfully to spellchecker on firefox. I don’t think I’m not dumb, I and many people that know me actually think quite the opposite, but yes, I do tend to have bad penmanship skills, which I wish were improved and do in certain ways when people do correct me. So, with that being said. No, I try not to judge someone by their lack of English knowledge.

I collect the misspellings of “definitely” and thus love the writings of, say, pathfinder (who, I swear, does it to annoy).

I love mixed metaphors also; they show creativity even though I never met a preposition that sat on, around, under, beneath, next to or inside my face.

For the most part, if the question is interesting and marginally understandable, I’ll try. If the genre is “my pathetic love life,” “my fascination with my genitals,” “my overwhelming need to drink and drug,” or “what is God, the secret of life, the mystery of the universe or the location of Shroedinger’s cat,” I generally move on.

If the querent or answerer is using ESL, I am usually filled with admiration and envy.

@gailcalled I never did get back to that excellent question about fascination with genitals. Who was it again?

If it bothers anyone that much, they should flag the question. There is an option for a mod to remove it for poor spelling or grammar. Once the asker corrects their question, it goes back up. No harm, no foul… and everyone can read it.

If I turned my back on every question that had poor spelling and grammar, I’d have answered far less questions than I already have here on Fluther. It’s more important to me to compose a decent answer or comment on something I like rather than be distracted by a few spelling and grammatical errors here and there. If the problem is egregious and I can’t comprehend what is being asked, naturally I’m going to refrain from participating.

Not everyone writes on the same level or types as good as everyone else and I’m in no position to be judging someone else’s mistakes especially when I’m guilty of spelling, grammar, and typing mistakes many times here on Fluther.

I don’t let it influence my choice to answer or not to answer, but GOD it bugs the poop out of me.

On another site, I once bantered with a person I thought was misspelling on purpose in order to throw me off but it turned out they were just a bad speller and not so good typist. That person has over time become very dear to me for their wisdom, insight and reach of heart. Since then I try not to jump so quick to dismiss or stir it up.

@hungryhungryhortence That’s a nice story.

Do mean like your question, where you have a problem with tense?

I guess not as I responded to it.

Constant poor grammar, misspelling of common words, (not typos) clumsy sentence structure all create impression, and in many cases it is a poor impression. I feel that if people are careless and lazy in their written communication they are likely to be careless and lazy in other areas of their lives. I have less respect for them unless I get to know them better and find them to be more than my initial impression indicated.

I am of the opinion that there are things that we all excel at. There are things that we all struggle with. This happens to be a venue that calls out my spelling weakness. Some would cite the many options at my disposal for checking my spelling. I do my best while still allowing myself to enjoy the site.

I believe that someone who forms opinions about people based on their spelling and sentence structure and how much they respect them is saying more about themselves than the spelling and grammar of that individual ever could.

We all need to lighten up in the world. Given the number of things out there that we have thrust upon us that we must deal with, it would be nice to get a little understanding for something like spelling on a recreational site like this.

Taking it that serious is not unlike that one intramural softball team full of ringers who all played ball in college and have those special stirrup socks and tight pants with cleats and take the game WAY to seriously.

@Bri_L I believe that someone who forms opinions about people based on their spelling and sentence structure and how much they respect them is saying more about themselves than the spelling and grammar of that individual ever could.

We form opinions based on all information at our disposal. The way someone dresses, their manner of speech, their attitude to others etc. If someone is scruffily dressed and wearing un-ironed or dirty clothes and shoes that are not clean and shined they will give a very different first impression to a person who is neat, clean, well mannered and polite. When your only impression is their written communication, it also creates an impression, it doesn’t matter how much you try to pretend that it doesn’t.

You don’t find carelessness in spelling to be of import – I do. And it is just carelessness, as anyone (unless the person has genuine learning difficulties) can spell if they make the effort. To me, those who don’t make the effort are lazy. I don’t respect lazy, although you can admire it if you wish. I do not expect or want you to be like me, I have no need to impress or make changes to others.

For your information, I also form opinions based on a person’s car – is it clean and well looked after (not is new or how expensive) or dirty, unwashed and full of junk. Also a big one for me is how their family treats them, you can learn a lot about someone from the attitudes of those close to them. I don’t like everyone – I DO not think that everyone is equal, and I prefer the company of people who I can respect.

There, now you have more ammunition. ;)

I often word my answer by repeating the question, with the correct grammar and spelling and say nothing about the mistake.

OnC3 Th3y $t@rt t@lkn lik3 Di$...It pisses me off!!!!

@cyndihugs OnC3 Th3y $t@rt t@lkn lik3 Di$...It pisses me off!!!!

I use voice dictation software and I get something like that if I sneeze with the mike turned on.

@Bluefreedom : You mean, far fewer questions?

hehehe, jk

It doesn’t bother me too much. If it’s indecipherable, then it bothers me. Or, if it’s coupled with a low quality question, then I will just pass.

@DarkScribe – You make a valid point. We form opinions based on what we have available. Based on what we observe. But much of that is very superficial

The point I was trying to make is that there is to much of that.

My best friend in the world, one of the kindest, smartest, most caring man I have ever known dressed like a punk with a mullet. A complete slob. Some of the neatest dressed people I knew in college were the biggest pricks. My housemates car was pristine. My car was a mess. He treated people like garbage and thought the world owed him a living. I did and do not.

Looking at your icon I would say screw ammunition I wanna grab a bite to eat with that guy! He looks happy! :-)

I’m fine with language barriers and even age/maturity barriers, but wHeN yOu sTaRT tYpiNg liKe tHiS… I want to murder you.

I find the artistic apostrophe interesting. There i’s some innate nee’d to hit th’at key at random, witho’ut rhyme ‘or reason’. Isn’t there?

I h8 txt spk.

So lng as its nt in txt spk, I’m good.

@ubersiren. You’re exactly right. Thanks for setting me straight on that error of mine. =)

@DarkScribe Tense?

Depends.

Someone who uses awkward wording might be an English language learner, so I cut them slack and ask for clarification.
Someone who’s writing makes it clear they’re lazy or who think this is myspace or a text message is disregarded.

I have been known to retype questions to make them clearer. This is a pretty mean way of being helpful to the asker.

In general I think language is fluid and holding fast to grammar and spelling rules is a losing battle. If I can understand the great question well enough to answer it, chances are I will anyway.

@Likeradar Loved the myspace or texting reference. I smiled.

@Zen You are full of good questions lately! Hmmm… I guess if someone uses broken English, I give them a lot of grace and try to understand what they mean. If someone has bad grammar/spelling but I think English is their first language- even though this is not a true way to determine someone’s overall intelligence- I kind of dismiss whatever they say as if they are uneducated or illogical. It’s wrong, and I’m guilty. Everyone makes typing errors when their mind works faster than their fingers, me included.

This is a wonderful discussion about the question of spelling and grammar. Although I have spent many years grading papers, I have no desires to correct anyone’s writing here. In fact, it feels like a holiday, albeit a busman’s holiday, to know that it is not necessary, not required, and most likely not appreciated that I edit any of what I read.

In my role as the college instructor, I teach students how to write academic papers according to the APA Style Manual. They pay a great deal of money to be enrolled in the courses and as their instructor, I am obligated to correct mechanics of writing and ensure that students successfully master the course content.

A few things about student’s writing bother me greatly and some of this comes from the newest technologies for electronic communication. Many students type with Caps Lock on all of the time and others avoid the use of capital letters all together. I have grown weary of written work that requires a decoder and uses emoticons for punctuation or there is no punctuation at all. It is a sad commentary, but my first clue that something is plagiarized is that there are no misspelled words, no grammar errors, and complete sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation marks.

@BBSDTfamily Thanks. Secondly, just as there are problems, but if you call them challenges, you not only feel better about the problem, you might more easily and readily overcome it.

Same with education. Rather than “look down” at someone (my words) who is uneducated (your words), I’d call the person, maybe, and this is a huge maybe… under-educated.

Now if the person never had the time, inclination, money or vision to get an education, he is simply under-educated. If he realizes this, and admits it, then you take his musings in stride. Like we over-look so many other misgivings; such is life, n’est pas?

If he is a moron, behaves like a moron, never studied and frowns at the thought of higher education, then shit – the guy’s a moron.

Under-education. Challenge.

Moron. Fuck it.

Next Question?

I’ve been following this question since I responded to it & now that I’m looking at it on my phone, I think that fluther should put from mobile or iPhone on responses too and not only questions. I actually discovered fluther through my iPhone, but as I type right now is the only time I’ve ever done it from my iPhone. It’s worth a thought. I just imagine a lot of errors and people judging those errors all because an auto-correct feature or their fingers are too fat & didn’t see the typo on their tiny screens. Lol

You are what you read.

@mattbrowne Isn’t it you are what you eat?

@Axemusica I’ve never even held an iphone. How is it different from the PC when you are online and in fluther, exactly, besides the fat fingers and spellcheck functions? I ‘m just curious.

It’s actually an app (the links are screen shots. Yea, you can take screen shots on an iPhone ;). It’s just like the site, except not as big. This is what the answer box looks like. When you go to type something, It’s only displayed like this. Me being a semi big guy, doesn’t help that I can’t do it very well. I think I mentioned something about the fluther app not having landscape mode before, this is what I’m talking about. It’s much easier for me since I have giant hands. I know it’s different seeing pictures of the screen but the actual iPhone is about the size of your mouse, just flatter, lol. Actually a better example would be… The whole iPhone is smaller than the pictures I posted by about ½ an inch on each side.

@Axemusica Thank you. You are seriously my favourite person in the world right now. That was the best and most illuminating answer to anything I’ve ever asked. Cheers.

@Zen, lol thanks. Just me, being me. :)

@Axemusica Seriously. When the pop-ups on my PC with all the little pics you added showed me visually what you were experiencing on your iphone, I was a bit cynical at first (do you work for Apple?) and then, when I eralized how beautifully crafted and visually entertaining your answer was, I practically fluthergasmed.

I tend to do over-indulgent descriptions. It’s great for the internet, in fact it’s how I used to write my blogs with plenty of funny/descriptive/example pictures. Although, I tend to be overly descriptive in day to day life as well; some people just can’t handle it. I usually can tell when I’m telling a story. I’m quite good at reading body language so my stories usually start out very descriptive and then about half way through I just throw out the rest of if, because I noticed their boredom, lol.

Hey, @Axemusica: please do that to me again in another question. Still shuddering from the fluthergasm.

@Zen the screen shot from the iPhone? or just general? Screen shots are a rare thing to use. I saw the option open to use the visual explanation and I took advantage. I usually only use it to show people things, like what you asked. It’s an app and so I gave you the experience. I guess I’d have to find a question that I could find a neat way to utilize the screen shot descriptive answer, lol. Otherwise I’d just look it up on my lappy, and link. If I could, I would’ve posted the pictures right here in the discussion, but I don’t know if fluther allows HTML, so I didn’t bother.

@Axemusica Hit me baby one more time.

@Zen ok. Lets see if I can figure something out.

@Zen after reviewing some of your questions, I really don’t have anything I use my screen shot technique for, but the interwebs has pictures, lol. I could do that, but I think you’re looking for the screenies.

What a lovely Fluther friendship. =]

(Whaty’s a “lappy” and “screenies”?)

I…can’t… help… falling in love with @Axemusica.

Bye the way: did you read all 100 plus questions I’ve asked?

@Zen it is done. Not my best work, but it went with the subject, haha.

@Axemusica Thank you. Where?

@Zen lol you’re not following your own question? silly Picard. :P

OH! One other thing. I am grateful to those who are patient and do not judge but even help when it comes to spelling because thanks to Fluther my spelling has improved more than any other time in my life.

@Bri_L More than at any other time.

I have to agree with @Bri_L. My grammar is much better thanks to @Fluther.

@Zen – Get bent.

KIDDING! Thanks! Now how do I recognize that in the future? I might even achieve a level of quality where @DarkScribe doesn’t doesn’t look down his nose at me.

@Bri_L KIDDING! Thanks! Now how do I recognize that in the future? I might even achieve a level of quality where @DarkScribe doesn’t doesn’t look down his nose at me.

How do you know that I’m not a little short guy who has to look up his nose at everyone?

I don’t look down my nose at anyone, I either walk away (ignore them) or accept them as they are. The fact that I work in an area where English has a great deal more import than in most ears of endeavour probably colours my judgment. It is only those who make no effort that I hold in disdain, not those who make occasional mistakes. You should hear the gales of laughter that I can sometimes create when becoming deeply involved in French conversation. My French is very old fashioned – a lot of modern idiomatic usage goes over my head.

@DarkScribe – I should have clarified that I was playing around. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was merely back referencing our earlier conversation.

I would like to understand the mistake and how to avoid it.

@DarkScribe: I love it; “ears of endeavour.” That does conjure up an image.

Bisoux, Gail

@gailcalled I love it; “ears of endeavour.” That does conjure up an image.

Oops. Missed one. Areas of endeavour probably doesn’t create quite the same image. I love voice dictation software – there is no better adjunct for doing three things at once – but it does tend to make it easy for an occasional whoops. (Not many get past me.)

@DarkScribe @gailcalled Reminded me of (the late) Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris.

@Darkscribe: (Not many get past me.) I await those few, those precious few, those that need band-aids, with hope.

@Zen: I haven’t a clue about MJ’s daughter. Paris. Would you clarify?