General abuse of the English languge

[fuzzyoctopus]

Since I'm in a good ranting mood tonight...

I know that I have a relatively low tolerance for idiots, but I can't stand it when people use phrases online that they can't spell.

For example, I just saw a post on another board, in an otherwise fine post, where a fellow was talking about this girl he met and how he "peaked her interest".

Or a while back when someone on my livejournal talked about a person having their hair "nicely quaffed."

/me twitches.

I guess what bugs me about it is that they know what it means, contextually, but it's fairly obvious they don't see it in print on a regular basis.  And how can you not know the difference between 'piqued' and 'peaked' and between 'quaffed' and 'coiffed'.

Gah, read a book, people.

[42]

I don't know which I should be more concerned about, the people who didn't use correct spelling or grammer, or Fuzzy for losing her sanity about it.

Since the mistakes were made on a message board and not a professional publication, I think my concerns lies with Fuzzy. I think you need something better to do than to play spelling dictator. If the people you refer to were professed professional writer or editor, I could sympathize. However, you obviously don't work enough with people to realize that people make A LOT of mistakes regularly. And that includes you Fuzzyoctopus. So we forgive you for your indescretions and you can forgive others for not being able to spell.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I think you have some "deep-seeded" problems.

[Entsuropi]

Coiffed sounds like an obscure torture.

[stacer]

I don't know, 42. There are times when I have to just scream in frustration because it's so hard to read some people's posts on another board I'm on. People on here (Sprig included) actually make *so* fewer mistakes than over there. At least over here you usually can get the idea of the post.

You've got people doing things like using three commas,,, instead of ellipses or periods. Or ending every sentence with exclamation points!!!!!!  Using quotes "instead of parentheses". People spelling EVERY OTHER WORD wrong, and at the same time leaving out words, so that a post that's a paragraph long takes 20 minutes to decipher, if you're willing to put in the time (which I'm not). And when people can't spell common words:

nothing to do persay with the topic

people comming back

Okay, those aren't terribly good examples, but you get the idea. When a post has ALL those problems, it gets really annoying. I'm cursed with this editing bug. I can't turn it off. I edit billboards, for goodness' sake! So when I try to read something for fun, it does get it the way to have to edit every other element of a post of perfect strangers.

So Fuzzy, I feel your pain.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

using quotes as an attention getter instead of as indicating a quotation is a personal pet-peeve of mind.

Now, I'm in the middle. Mis-spelling something as "comming" is only forgiveable when I think, this person is in a hurry. (Which, generally, *I* am, so I forgive easily).

But really, "per se," "coiffed," and "piqued" are hardly your usual words. It's hardly strange to see them spelled incorrectly unless the person is using a dictionary. Maybe I have a dim view of humanity, but it occurs to me that if the people are even using those terms in the right context, regardless of spelling, they're in pretty good shape.

[Spriggan]

wow quaffed meand to drink deaply or to chug?  wow who da thunk.  I thought it ment to crush/stop.  Eh, still dosen't mean I'm going to be useing it "correctly" any time soon.

"I shall quaff you like a bug!"

See that sounds cool, which is all that realy matters.

[JP Dogberry]

Well, you could do it to a really, really small water elemental I suppose.

[fuzzyoctopus]

I don't know which I should be more concerned about, the people who didn't use correct spelling or grammer, or Fuzzy for losing her sanity about it.

Since the mistakes were made on a message board and not a professional publication, I think my concerns lies with Fuzzy. I think you need something better to do than to play spelling dictator. If the people you refer to were professed professional writer or editor, I could sympathize. However, you obviously don't work enough with people to realize that people make A LOT of mistakes regularly. And that includes you Fuzzyoctopus. So we forgive you for your indescretions and you can forgive others for not being able to spell.

You should definitely be worried about me.

And it's not the spelling that bothers me, it's the homophone ignorance.  Doesn't anyone read anymore?  Do they all have the vocabulary of a 12-year-old?

I just think that if you're trying to use a new phrase, you should look it up if you don't know how to spell it.  I looked up coiffed, to make sure I was spelling it right. On the internet it takes all of about 30 seconds.

But this, coming from you, the art critic?  What hypocrisy!

[42]

It's because I realized how abnormal it was of me to get frustrated that most  people can't coordinate colors or fonts or styles. It just really isn't that important for most people, and I'm afraid good spelling and grammer are in the same boat.

You can also think that it is because of all those people several hundred years ago that didn't want to use proper German (Latin, French, Gaelic, or whatever) that we now have the English language.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

oddly enough I remember seeing something in the news that said more people read now in the US than ever before.

Wish I knew where to find it to prove it.

Still, I think a big factor in poor writing skills is the desire to do things in the least amount of time. It's unusual for todays writer to consider the audience that they are targeting.  If you correct those people, or mention that you don't know what they mean they get upset. They don't realize that they have failed at the first purpose of writing, communication. A lot gets sacrificed to make sure replies, posts and emails get out in an expedient manner. Homophones, homonyms, basic spelling and punctuation are usually the most common mistakes, and that shows a lack of forethought and courtesy. I think you should be angry, and try to demand more from the things you read.  

[Entsuropi]

As anyone who has spoken to me on IM, I do make quite a few spelling mistakes. The difference is that on the forum I take the time to correct them. On IM I judge it to be less important.

[stacer]

I agree. On IM I barely ever bother with capitalization, though I'm still anal about my own spelling. I only ask for clarification on others' spelling when I can't understand what they mean at all.

[Lieutenant Kije]

Yes, I think the medium plays an important role in determining grammar.  I guess most people, myself included, don't think message boards or chatrooms, like ordinary conversations, are very formal situations.   You'd be surprised at how "ungrammatical" perfectly normal conversation can be.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think anger is counter-productive in this case. If they annoy you, don't read what they have to say. If you really want to know what they have to say, anger will only be in your way.