Basic writing tools

nycindie

Active member
Why is it that so many people post on message boards without any respect for proper nouns, capitalization, or punctuation these days? I won't even get into grammar. If I see one more 10-paragraph post without a single capital letter or even a comma, I think I will scream. I just can't read that shit and not wonder whether the writer is just sloppy or dumb. It totally obscures the content.
 
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Me too. I don't read those. I have enough to keep me busy without trying to decipher a wall o text.

Sometimes I get lazy when I'm on my ipod and don't capitalize or punctuate perfectly, but i know you're talking about when people make it their default style and don't seem to care if they come across as illiterate.
 
I apologize if I am irritating in any of these things. I text a good amount of the time, so the shortening of words and lack of commas is a habit. I consider myself quite intelligent.
 
Been happening a lot lately

Okay, I'm venting, but I'd also like to make a plea.

Please, please, please, people -- use punctuation and capitalization in your posts!

Just a period or comma would help immensely to make posts readable. That is the bare minimum for written communication, after all! This is a forum, not your cell phone.

I just cannot bear to slog through another long, run-on sentence trying to figure out its meaning because the writer was too lazy to put a period at the end of one sentence and capitalize the start of the next. Some consideration, please!

/rant
 
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Not quite as jarring as the wall of un-punctuated text, but:

There ≠ their ≠ they're,
Your ≠ you're,
Then ≠ than,
Loose ≠ lose.

They are different words because they have different meanings. Use the one that means what you are trying to say, not one that just looks or sounds similar to what you are trying to say.
 
I have some experience with non-native English speakers, so I can overlook incorrect word usage if I can understand the point being made (I'm occasionally guilty of affect/effect and its/it's), but the wall o' text just strikes me as such teenager-ish behavior. It's selfish, really, to want us to slog through a mess of words which are not put together well. If they don't respect the reader enough to give their best effort, why should we put effort into responding?

I'm not a naturally good writer. I have to put a lot of time into a post to be sure it makes some sort of sense outside my head, and I know I still have mistakes or miss things. But having said that, here's a pet peeve of mine about written English:

It's not "could OF". It's "could HAVE". One should HAVE written "could HAVE" instead of "could OF", and I would HAVE! :p
 
Oh, all of these are good ones.

...here's a pet peeve of mine about written English:

It's not "could OF". It's "could HAVE". One should HAVE written "could HAVE" instead of "could OF", and I would HAVE! :p

Hell yeah, that's another pet peeve of mine, too!

When someone does that, I think they mean the contraction. I can see how the words "should've," "could've," and "would've" sounds like "should of," "could of," and "would of," in their heads. When I first started seeing that in various places, it annoyed me to no end, but I can forgive it a little more than a lack of punctuation.
 
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While I agree that lack of punctuation makes it hard to read a post (and I can almost always tell when someone is posting from a phone) I would like to ask for some consideration for all posters who are not native speakers (in English)..

My English is pretty good but not perfect, and I have seen a number of new members lately who I suspect are not from the US or England. Especially when people first come here they are often emotional when writing about their issues and that doesn't always make for the most perfectly constructed sentences :) It would be sad if someone would not have the courage to post because they worry their English isn't good enough.

Also: I have been reading these boards for a very long time before I joined and some of the posters I respect the most for their wisdom and experience and insight are 'guilty' of the could of / could have mistake. It doesn't bother me at all because I can see they put so much effort into replying to people and giving advice.
 
That's a good point; the amount of effort in general put into a post is usually pretty apparent.
 
I have some experience with non-native English speakers, so I can overlook incorrect word usage if I can understand the point being made

I am a non-native English speaker. I can also write English. :)

I know exactly what it takes to learn it and it annoys me when people don't make that effort. Seriously, it's not that hard. There are languages way more complex than English out there.
 
I wonder if you have an affinity for languages that other people don't. :) You can definitely write English- I would never have guessed you weren't a native speaker of English!

I've tried to learn other languages and have not been that successful with any of them (and these were Romance languages- not something like Japanese!). And I know people who have lived and worked in a predominantly English-speaking area for years and still are not what I would consider fluent, so maybe what isn't that hard for you is considerably more difficult for others. I think the errors that jar me the most are when it's someone who otherwise is a very good writer and it happens repeatedly so it's unlikely to be a typo. It's the dissonance that gets me, I think, not necessarily the mistake itself.
 
I'm an editor... watch me twitch LOL

Obvious typos don't really bother me. Everyone hits a wrong key every now and then. The mistakes mentioned previously are what drive me insane (their,there, they're, etc). If you are a native English speaker there is NO reason for you to not be able to use the language correctly!
 
There are a few really annoying (to me) errors that can be taken care of with just a tiny but of work. Affect/effect, for one.

What drives me up the wall is stuff that is wrong on it's face. Like "decapitated head". Did that head have another head growing out of it? Or "I could care less". If you could, why didn't you?
 
I'm so uptight about these things I even use full sentences and punctuation when I text! I'll often edit my posts to correct the smallest error.
 
What drives me up the wall is stuff that is wrong on it's face.

How about it's/its? :p I'm just teasing you, but lately for me it has been helpful to remember that I don't catch all my mistakes either. I JUST typed "there" instead of "their" in an email. I know the difference, but was typing too quickly and my fingers went on autopilot! *facepalm*
 
I'm so uptight about these things I even use full sentences and punctuation when I text! I'll often edit my posts to correct the smallest error.
I do this as well! I very rarely abbreviate anything and my phone doesn't have a QWERTY keyboard, so it takes a long time to write, Still, it makes me feel like an idiot to write things like "u r 2" instead of "you are too." I would rather see the messages broken up for length and sent in pieces rather than full of texting shorthand.
 
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