grammar vs. opinions

[Emma Nordmeyer]

when i made a few comments on the thread here about drugs, some of my comments had grammatical and spelling errors (mostly typos), which had unintentionally started a thread on which matters more in forums(or even communication in general?): spelling and grammar or opinion?
personally, i believe spelling and grammar is necessary for a person to be understood, but when you get down to it, isn't your opinion that counts? the point of responding to such threads is to voice your opinion in a way that convinces others, so that you come across as a smart individual who is capable of forming a well-thought out opinion, right? to be honest, i'm a bit confused myself on which matters more.

[Migdala Vered]

I say spelling and grammar are more important. My school is done entirely on a forum; it is our classroom. Many of my classmates have horrid spelling and grammar. How am I supposed to respond to their posts if I have no idea what it is they're trying to say?

I can understand if there are one or two minor typos, but if your opinion can't even be salvaged from the jumble of characters in your post then we have a problem. Part of having a well thought out opinion, in typed/written form, is the ability to type/write it correctly. If you need to, open up Microsoft Word before you post and it will check your work.

In my opinion, the fact that someone can't take the time to read their work before they post (or to have it checked for typos) shows me that it isn't a smart individual capable of forming a well thought out opinion. If it had been so carefully constructed, it'd be legible.

My apologies if I came off as rude.

[sabelmouse]

i often mistype, misspell or leave letters out. often i don't notice untill the comment is posted or not at all. especially if i am emotionally involved or in a hurry.
i am also a visual speller, only when i see a word can i spell it, often i have to try different combinations to see which looks right and sometimes i can't see it at all.
i would asume that a half way intelligent person would be able to fill in the odd missing or misplaced letter.

text writing and words that are illegible are a different matter.

i still think even then it's nice to ask politely for the meaning rather than harrass, bully and put down.

bad spelling,grammar and punctuation are not on the same level as crime or torture or racism or any mumber of bad things people do.

[Kirsten]

Why don't you capitalize the word "I" or words at the beginning of the sentence? If it is too much trouble for you to do that, why do you expect your readers to take the trouble to muddle through your posts?

[sabelmouse]

yes it is too much trouble.

[Randi]

I think the expectation comes from the fact that the message is still understandable. If you get caught up over improper capitalization, then you have a personal problem that shouldn't be taken out on fellow posters (or, better yet, fellow nerdfighters!).

[sabelmouse]

i am not willing to incur more pain than i allready have.

[Kirsten]

Actually, I don't have a problem at all. I just skip over the rest of the garbage.

[Migdala Vered]

That's what I'm saying, though. Type your response in a place that will check your spelling and grammar for you, then copy and paste it where you want it posted. It isn't very difficult. And I don't mean do this for every little thing, either. If you're in a hurry, your post probably wouldn't be too long to begin with. But if you're going to do something longer and spend more time on making sure your opinion makes sense, you should also make sure it's typed correctly.

No one should ever be bullied for not typing well. But, I think everyone can agree that computer programs make it quite easy to fix. I use Mozilla Firefox and have it set up to where it underlines misspelled words, for Pete's sake.

I agree, writing/typing errors are no where near as bad as those things.

[james nash]

but words mispelt dont matter as long as you can read them.
the probel is that certain people fell that they have to make a point abut bad spelling.

i am dylexic and canot spell but people can easerly understand me when i wite things. so the probelem is whith peolpe making a fuss over it and not he bad spelling.

p.s i dilebrently made a pont of not correcting my spelling grammer too show that you can read it. also i will admit if the words are so bad that even that writer cant understanfd them there is a problem.

[sabelmouse]

exactly. i had no problem reading this. one of the first concepts you learn about children or adults learning to read is context.
most of us can piece a word together even if a letter is missing or is misspelt.
and if all else fails context usually does the trick.

[Kirsten]

"but words mispelt dont matter as long as you can read them."

Yes, they do if you want people to bother reading them. This is how far I got before I stopped bothering reading your post.

[Übereil]

Yeah. The problem isn't James poor spelling here though, because that post is perfectly understandable, it's your lazyness.