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Do you use correct grammar/spelling on the Internet? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 59 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday September 30 2014, @04:24PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday September 30 2014, @04:24PM (#100048) Homepage Journal

    The content of your link is probably good, but the presentation is abysmal. Is there a transcript anywhere where I can just READ it? Christ, that was worse than a talking head! The talking distracts me from the text and the text distracts me from the talking. Horrible presentation.

    Text is far better for communication than speech. Did the Beatles sing "that was a hit before your mother was born, though she was born a long time ago" or "that was a hippie four. Your mother was born, though she was born a long time ago"?

    Once after the economic meltdown someone on the green site said "the banks should loose their money." I agreed in my response, saying yes, it was far harder to get a loan than before and they should indeed free some money up.

    Written communication is only hard for the dyslexic and the aliterate. When I see the "there/they're/their" errors, I can only assume that either English is their second language or they're uneducated and possibly have a reading disability.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
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  • (Score: 1) by harmless on Monday October 06 2014, @06:47PM

    by harmless (1048) on Monday October 06 2014, @06:47PM (#102561) Homepage

    When I see the "there/they're/their" errors, I can only assume that either English is their second language or they're uneducated and possibly have a reading disability.

    Actually, English is my second language and I have no problems with "there/they're/their". I also have no problems with German equivalents like "das/dass".

    It seems to me that orthography is somewhat independent from language. Sure, you need a certain amount of knowledge of the language you use, but above that point you are either good at orthography or you are not.

    • (Score: 1) by stingraz on Tuesday October 07 2014, @06:23PM

      by stingraz (3453) on Tuesday October 07 2014, @06:23PM (#103242)

      Actually (as a non-native speaker myself), I can usually tell by the errors that people make whether they're native speakers or not... Native speakers' errors are often brought about by phonetic guesswork when someone doesn't know the correct spelling, but roughly the way it should sound. The there/their/they're category is a good example of this; another would be "definately" or "existance", which would not happen to e.g. a French speaker. A non-native speaker is more likely to have learned a word or phrase consciously, including the right spelling.
      On the other hand, non-native speakers are prone to bring syntax or vocabulary over from their own native language... Apparently, it is perfectly possible to write German sentences with English words, which is completely unreadable for English speakers :-)