Forum Spelling Correction Etiquette

I'll point out spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors for a couple of reasons .... sometimes for humour and sometimes to take a poke at someone.

Dave <-- obtuse and truculent, often at the same time
 
DaveK said:
I'll point out spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors for a couple of reasons .... sometimes for humour and sometimes to take a poke at someone.

Dave <-- obtuse and truculent, often at the same time
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Maybe if you are so good at this you should consider donating some of your time, and skill to become a tutor in disadvantage part of your city.
 
Tools

JAM said:
I used to just correct the quoted posts that I was quoting, but nobody seemed to notice when I did that, so I quit doing it. It was really more for my benefit than theirs anyway. :o

I correct my daughter's notes to me all the time. She used to have this thing about commas, not placing them in the correct place within the sentence structure. I'm also a strong advocate for serial commas, unlike the AP style that is used in most academic settings today. :angry:

I work on three computers at my workstation. My main desktop, I have my trusty keyboard, which I can fly on at 150-plus words per minute. :wink:

I hate typing on my laptop keyboard, and I stumble when I do. My other desktop has a sticky keyboard on it, and when I'm on that computer, I stumble. Some people may have fat digits which prohibits their typing capabilities. :(

I have a couple dozen keyboards in my office right now. Did you ever notice how keyboards today have different key configurations? Some have big Backspace keys, and others have small Backspace keys. The Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete, End, and Page Down keys also seem to have different placements on keyboards these days.

Some folks may make a mistake because of keyboard compatibilities; others may not realize they are not spelling a word correctly and don't care.

Here's a cool article about keyboard ratings: Eight Best Keyboards.

I've got my eye on the Optimus Maximum model which costs $1,600. Heck, they got keyboards that warm you fingers, and there's keyboards that light up the letters. There's egonomic keyboards, and there's even rubber keyboards. Keyboard makes a big different when banging posts.

I will usually correct someone's spelling if it someone's name, like Mike Sigel and not Mike Seegal or Mike Siegal or Mike Segel, as an example.

In my industry, if you spell a person's name wrong, that seems to be the only thing that people care about, if their name is not spelled correctly. :grin-square:

Anyone care for a game of Scrabble? :eek:
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Hi, jam I love this topic! I am always looking for tools to better my writing, spelling & punctuation. A better more ergonomic keyboard could only help! I use this tiny mobil laptop to wander around home with and it is not the most ergonomic! I would love assistance from you regarding gadgets, programs that you find beneficial in your writing. I am tired of looking bad with my mistakes!!

I am too lazy to use my word processing program to write/type in prior to publishing or hitting send. I wish this board had a spell check and grammar check more then all these useless smile faces! It would be nice if stuff like spell check/grammar check were built into programs like vbulletin!!!!!!! Maybe in years to come!!!!!

I was curious if you or others type in word and copy in your posts?????????

On a personal note, I also need stuff proof read from time to time and want to know if you would give things a once over for me on really important papers? Of course for a fee!!!

I also use tapatalk mobile and post via it and struggle since no grammar or spell check!

I also struggle reading online all the time. I start and stop so much I lose my place. I want a bookmark for your place in HTML web pages! Maybe even highlight whole words and/or sentences! Maybe magnify them! Tools like this I am certain would help me! Maybe others! Some programmer here can make a HTML place mark plug in??? let me know??????? I need one badly!!!!!!!

Kid Dynomite
 
um,

hi everyone!

to me, this thread is about manners -- with stylebook questions serving as the framework for discussion.

joey's original post mentioned propriety and etiquette, subjects not often broached in most forums of this type. it seems to me to be beside the point that many posts in here are a great deal more difficult to read than they were to write. instead i believe the concern might be more about our moral imagination, our understanding of the feelings of others.

strange fodder -- manners -- for a forum that delights in the poolroom ethos of woofing, sharking and blustering through life!

but on some level, manners regulate the quality of our digital discourse.

now i'm a fifth generation new york city girl and i know a bit about sharp elbows and cutting on line and that certain tone of voice and look of disdain and concupiscent walk that can barely qualify as street legal. however (brag brag), new yorkers are the greatest communicators on earth. part of our educational process (besides learning never to pay retail!) is to learn how to listen, if for no other reason than to gain an edge.

without stumbling down some m. c. escher staircase of rhetoric, i find that the thoughtful posters in here -- i won't embarrass you by calling you out! -- are the ones who not only make sense, but actually win over converts. (some of the other posters ... well, the thought comes to mind: 'breeders, ew.')

successful posters have about them a certain gentility that, as someone said, 'is both the bedrock and quicksand of all social endeavors.'

other posters just big foot through forum life, leaving their spoor in the land of was. they are not overburdened with the truth, or at least they do not make extensive use of a fact-checker! they may as well start throwing goat bones and analyzing chicken intestines to arrive at some of their conclusions. how's that for a mannerly put-down!

to the indigenous question ... i would not change anything in replicating someone else's post. i guess the exception could be when a correction is necessary to be able to understand the original subject.

joey ... i think it is very sensitive of you to show such concern for the feelings of others. on an unrelated subject -- is it true that you plan to supplement your pool income by standing at stud?

decorum is my life,

sunny
 
Many of those with por spelin, and gramr, are products of under funded pubic edukation systms. People hate payin taxzes , especallie scrol taxrs.
 
sfleinen said:
Joey:

Like you, part of what I do in that "day job thing" involves lots of writing (technical publications, proofing, Request for Comments [RFCs], Request for Proposals [RFPs], Statements of Work [SOWs], customer-facing deliverables [findings from an ethical hacking / vulnerability assessment / perimeter penetration test], etc.)

The answer lie in the original poster you're quoting -- is he/she the same type of person that you and I are, in that you don't mind if someone innocuously corrects typos in the post they're quoting? Or even like me -- if I outright misspelled something, or committed a grand grammar faux pas that someone like me should know not to do but I had a brain fart, I don't mind someone saying "Hey Sean, did you perhaps mean 'whose' here, instead of 'who's'?" (Doing it as a postscript, of course, and not the sole "meat" of the reply -- because that's obvious spelling/grammar police.)

Me personally? I like to quote the original post, warts and all, and not touch anything in it. Then, what I'll do is editorialize a bit, repeating parts of the original poster's question, but "silently" spelling the words correctly without overtly pointing the typos out. This way, it's subtle -- if the person *cares* about his/her appearance on these boards, and wants to always put his/her best foot forward, believe-you-me, they'll notice the subtle hints and make adjustments. If they're the type of person like you and me, the corrected words in your reply (as compared to the post you quoted and later editorialized in your reply) will jump out at them. If they're NOT the type of person who cares about his/her appearance on these boards, they won't notice, and that's also a good thing -- because no matter how you do it overtly, correction of spelling/grammar will always be viewed as pedantic. "You understood what I was trying to say, right? Then why are you correcting my spelling and grammar? That's not why I'm here -- are you?" will be the reply.

The other option is PM/offline communiques. Ask yourself, do you *really* have to point out their typos in the open? The fact that you yourself don't like it when the grammar police overtly point something out -- and I mean they openly tell you they corrected something -- should say something about how others might portray the same effort.

Anyway, that's my thoughts from a fellow veteran who'd learned through the school of hard-knocks when, and when not to, engage in these types of battles. For those that take it the right way -- constructively -- it's worth it. But those folks are few and far between.

Hope this is helpful!
-Sean
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Boy,
I just got back from the pool room and saw 64 replies to my thread. That might be a record as far as time is concerned.

I had to stop and reply to your post.

As always, your posts are always so well written and clear, making great points all the way.

You are one of this forum bestest posters. :wink: Now, I've got to reep what I sew.


JoeyA
 
GetMeThere said:
Spelling doesn't matter, as long as it's possible to get the meaning intended. Fixing a quote is...sticking your thumb in the original poster's eye. If it was good enough for him to write, then it's good enough for you to quote.

btw, I use the Google Chrome browser, and it automatically spell checks--and apparently has a huge dictionary, too: only very rarely does it incorrectly flag a word that's actually correct.

As I look at this post now, only the "btw" has a wavy red underline.
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Google Chrome browser? I didn't know about that. Well, I finally have to give you some credit for something very positive. Not only the spell fixer but a nice perspective. :smile:
 
LAMas said:
Sometimes I cut and paste to MS Word and compose my post with spell and grammar check that is in there before I paste back into AZB Forums.

Mostly, I don't care and I don't.

There are fewer spelling Nazis as of late....where's hondo?:wink::thumbup:
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I thought Word changed some of the punctuation or added different punctuation marks where they're not wanted (when copied and pasted back into the forum.
 
JAM said:
There is a strong debate about the usage of serial commas in my industry.

Example with serial comma: The flag is red, white, and blue.
Example without serial comma: The flag is red, white and blue.

I am a strong advocate for serial commas.

Another thing they're doing in school these days is instructing their students to only place one space after the ending punctuation mark. I will always, always, always use two spaces, unless I am getting paid by somebody not to. :wink:

This forum's software only allows one space after the period, even though I always type two spaces.

About the ellipsis, that is another bone of contention. I never use an ellipsis or ellipses (plural) unless it is in quoted material.

Example: Lincoln said, "Four score...our fathers brought forth...."

Some people insert an ellipsis at the end of a broken thought, showing a person was trailing off and did not complete their sentence. Bulldingy on that. You use a double hyphen for those instances.

And don't even get me started on the en and em dashes. :grin-square:
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I grew up being taught not to use serial commas but I guess the use of them is taught to the younger crowd these days. :wink:
 
JoeyA said:
I thought Word changed some of the punctuation or added different punctuation marks where they're not wanted (when copied and pasted back into the forum.
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Not the best but it does catch incomplete sentences and most mis hit keys.

"By default, Microsoft Word checks spelling and grammar automatically as you type, using wavy red underlines to indicate possible spelling problems and wavy green underlines to indicate possible grammatical problems.

You can also check spelling and grammar all at once.

Check spelling and grammar automatically as you type
Make sure automatic spelling and grammar checking are turned on. How?
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab.Select the Check spelling as you type and Check grammar as you type check boxes.Type in the document.Right-click a word with a wavy red or green underline, and then select the command or the spelling alternative you want.Tips
You can use AutoCorrect to automatically correct spelling as you type, without having to confirm each correction. For example, if you type definately and then type a space or other punctuation, AutoCorrect automatically replaces it with "definitely." If Word finds a lowercase word, for example "london," that is listed in the main dictionary only with a different capitalization ("London"), the capitalization may be flagged or corrected automatically as you type. You can specify that Word not flag this capitalization by adding the lowercase form to a custom dictionary.
Check spelling and grammar all at once
This method is useful if you want to postpone proofing a document until after you finish editing it. You can check for possible spelling and grammatical problems, and then confirm each correction.
Note By default, Word checks both spelling and grammar. If you want to check spelling only, click Options on the Tools menu, click the Spelling & Grammar tab, clear the Check grammar with spelling check box, and then click OK.
On the Standard toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.), click Spelling and Grammar .When Word finds a possible spelling or grammatical problem, make your changes in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.Tips
You can correct spelling and grammar directly in the document while the Spelling and Grammar dialog box is open. Type your correction in the document, and then click Resume in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.For a detailed explanation of a grammar flag, click Explain in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.
Note If you mistype a word but the result is not a misspelling (for example, "from" instead of "form" or "there" instead of "their"), the spelling checker will not flag the word."

:thumbup:
 
CocoboloCowboy said:
Many of those with por spelin, and gramr, are products of under funded pubic edukation systms. People hate payin taxzes , especallie scrol taxrs.
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Perhaps, but anyone who wishes to improve themselves should do so. Blaming ones shortcomings on "under funded public" systems is the easy way out. I think you will find that most learned people become that way through their own efforts.

Dave
 
JAM said:
Everybody has their toughies. For me, it's immanent, eminent, and imminent. I have to look up the meaning of those words each and every time. I just cannot remember their meanings and get them mixed up. :o

On this forum, some common errors are these:

lose/loose
our/are
to/too
rediculous when it should be ridiculous

Texting has hurt our youth today when it comes to using proper spellings. The text champions are always under the age of 12 at the national championships. At a championship held in Arizona, when a 16-year-old came to compete, the other competitors laughed at him for even trying. He didn't have a prayer to win. :eek:

In the old days, we used to do math from scratch. Today's youth use calculators. :grin-square:
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What about?
your/you're
there/they're/their

I guess you can't count these as spelling errors as much as just plain mistakes. I see these two errors every day in this forum but I've never mentioned them to anyone.

I guess I would find it humorous for someone to correct my typing error or mistake in a reply where they were quoting me and I would most likely see the correction and laugh inside (and appreciate the subtleness) but wouldn't say anything, except MAYBE in the form of a PM.

Jenny, people probably did notice your "subtle" corrections but were too shy to say thank you or too embarassed to mention it, OR MAYBE THEY THOUGHT YOU HAD THE WRONG SPELLING and didn't want to embarass you. :D:D:D

I guess because of my occupation, I would never take offense at someone correcting my quote. I might take offense if you set it off in CAPS and use BOLD FACING and LARGE FONT SIZES with COLOR THROWN IN FOR GOOD MEASURE, as some of these yokels are apt to do. :D
 
DaveK said:
Perhaps, but anyone who wishes to improve themselves should do so. Blaming ones shortcomings on "under funded public" systems is the easy way out. I think you will find that most learned people become that way through their own efforts.

Dave
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I would rather spend time, and energy on POOL, I am RETIRED!
 
sfleinen said:
Of course, Petey; no offense taken. Yup, if that's the case -- that I care about how I present myself on these forums (remember, a rag-tag mixture of people from all walks of life) -- I'm guilty as charged. I'm a diva. :D

Now, how many balls did you say I have to spot you in a race to 150? :p

-Sean
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That there is a MACHO, DIVA RESPONSE, Petey. What are you going to do now, swing your CTE purse at him. Ooops, there goes the thread.
 
One of the ones that gets to me is "bacote"! I see cuemakers, wood dealers and all sorts of people describing something, most often a cue, as made from "bacote". The correct spelling is "BOCOTE" !
 
JoeW said:
The issue, for me, is why would I correct someone’s grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

In general, I suggest alternatives for those who might be interested. Most people have little interest in such matters. Like many areas of life it is best not to tell all that you know. Most people simply do not care.

Though my daughter, a professor of English, disagrees, I encourage people to write like they talk. This encourages people to write and think in words. Learning to express one’s self ithrough the written word is a formidable task for some and one that should be encouraged, not discouraged with corrections.

Finally, most anything I have written professionally has been through at least two, usually several proofreaders and they often disagree with each other. The time for correction is after I have created my communication and the extent of corrections depends upon the venue where it will be displayed. I would suggest that an internet forum is not the place to worry about the correctness of one’s presentation.

In academia I found that I learned much about students from the quality of their written word. The same evaluations of content are often valuable here as in other areas of life.

BTW -- how many mistakes can you find?
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I especially like your perspective that I bold face above. That's a kind, generous, and highly productive perspective.

As to correcting any of your mistakes; I wouldn't dare try.

I hope no one tried to say that you should have capitalized the word Internet.

I'm still reading one post and responding at a time so if I duplicate someone's thoughts, I apologize in advance.
 
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cuesmith said:
One of the ones that gets to me is "bacote"! I see cuemakers, wood dealers and all sorts of people describing something, most often a cue, as made from "bacote". The correct spelling is "BOCOTE" !
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Gettem Sherm!:wink:
 
JoeyA said:
I especially like your perspective that I bold face above. That's a kind, generous, and highly productive perspective.

As to correcting any of your mistakes; I wouldn't dare try.

I hope no one tried to say that you should have capitalized the word Internet.

I'm still reading one post and responding at a time so if I duplicate someone's thoughts, I apologize in advance.
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Oh but I intentionally included a few, just for the fun of it.

I don't know if others look for mistakes in expensive texts. I do and it is "fun" to realize that after all of the fact checkers, content checkers, peer reviews and proof readers we are human and errors get through all of the time.

Vindicates our humanity in some strange way.
 
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