Spelling

[Kaida]

I didn't really know where to put this, so I decided to make a new thread.

As I'm sure you've all noticed there's been quiet a few arguments over people's spelling and grammar lately. (From what I've seem mainly due to over-reacting to constructive criticism).
I don't really know why, but for some reason this is really bugging me, mainly because most of it stems to stem from people being grammar nazi's, and sometimes not being as nice as they could be.
But you know what, I like the grammar nazi's. I like the fact that I can come onto this forum and understand the posts because their either good grammar and spelling to begin with or by the time I get to it, someone's already corrected it. It's one of my reason's for liking this forum, apart from it's just plain Awesomeness.

Let me try and explain; First off, I'm Dyslexic. I naturally have trouble with spelling and grammar. One of the few reason's I'm a lot better then what I would be is because I read a lot. (And spellcheck, that helps too).
The grammar isn't so much of an issue. It's mainly the spelling that causes me grief. See I used to be a bit of a grammar nazi, (even though I had no right to be considering my spelling at the time) and I wasn't the nicest I could be about it. And I didn't see how much it was hurting one of my best friends. Her solution; not to let me read her stories anymore. She was upset not just because of the way I went about it, but because I was the only person to read it and not really read the story of the characters.

This is why; Not only am I dyslexic, but I had to go to speech therapy when I was 6/7 years old. And mixing those two don't really work so well. See when I went to speech therapy I was taught to pronounce and understand words through their correct spelling. So when I come across a big hunk of text or handwriting with lots of grammar and spelling mistakes I quiet literally cannot understand what someone's trying to say. Sometimes I can understand after multiple re-reads and in some cases copy and pasting into word for a spell check. And other times, not at all.

No, I am not telling you all this for your sympathy or anything like that. I'm telling you because there are a lot of people out there like me, and most likely most of them have it worse them me. (My dad for one, he's only dyslexic though.) And I'm sure some of them won't be so open about it. I say this because I got teased for both my speech and spelling issues in primary school (and pre-school) so I was very sensitive about it back then. Yes, I'm still a bit sensitive about it sometimes, but I've gotten over it and I've learned how to deal with my problem in my own ways.

So pretty much, stop and think before starting an argument, their only trying to help. And sometimes it helps more then just the person whose made the mistakes.

[Josiah]

Hate to do this but I can't resist due to the subject matter...

So pretty much, stop and think before starting an argument, they're only trying to help. And sometimes it helps more than just the person who made the mistakes.

Now that that's out of my system, I'd like to thank Kaida for her excellent and personal case for good spelling and grammar. To be honest, that's an angle I hadn't thought of before (though bad spelling can be confusing for non-dyslexic people as well). Thanks for sharing.

[Cheezdude]

I hate speech therapy. So much.

Cheez has had some bad times with speech therapy. R. How do I make that sound? It doesn't work.

Err, good post, Kaida!

[Stevenson]

Grammar Nazis should have no apostrophe.

Really, I'm sorry, but when somebody has typos in a post about good spelling, I really just can't help myself.

Anyway, I'm very glad you took the time to post this. It's meaningful, and will hopefully motivate the more...spelling challenged among us to try and learn some more spelling skills.

Just as a side note, I do hope that nobody gets indignant about this topic. I can assure all of you that this is not meant as an attack on those of you who make more spelling errors than others (and I'm not trying to mince words when I say that-everybody makes spelling mistakes; even the two biggest spelling freaks, namely Silver and myself, make typos from time to time. The word "necessary", for example, gives me particular trouble). It's a general concern on these forums that all posts are easy to read for all other members, and posts with a lot of mistakes are difficult to read, even for people without dyslexia.

If the issue with spelling is not an issue of carelessness, and merely an issue of knowledge, I would recommend downloading Google Chrome. Chrome has a spell checker built in to it, so you can see mistakes before you post. If you don't want to risk downloading Chrome, you can always copy and paste your posts in to Microsoft Word so you can use the spell checker there.

Honestly, there's no excuse for posts with numerous spelling mistakes, given the resources available. The occasional typo is perfectly understandable, and I'm not going to jump down anybody's throat for accidentally typing "youy" because their finger slipped.

However, posts with multiple errors that are easy to diagnose (to take an example from a topic where the spelling debate was rather heated, "Saterday") really shouldn't happen. There are only two explanations for posts like that: people who don't care, and people who don't know what resources are available to them. I like to think that everybody on this forum cares, at least to some degree, whether or not other members of the forum can read what they've posted, or at least care if they're going to be assaulted by the grammar police. I'd also like to think that members now know what they can do, aside from thumbing through a dictionary, to prevent error-filled posts.

Another good way to make sure you don't make too many mistakes is to read over your post after you post it. This paragraph was added as I edited my post to change the "to" in "to explanations" to a "two".

Ultimately, I just really hope that people read this topic. It's an important issue, in my opinion, and I think it needs to be discussed.

[Giga-Gar]

I absolutely agree with this.

When I first joined my spelling was atrocious but I always thought it was just fine. When Silver, Stevenson, and, to some extent, Poik corrected my spelling, I always thought they were being jerks to me, so I wouldn't listen to them because of that. Now, the longer I've stayed here, I realized that they were trying to help, and boy did I need it. Just look at my introduction thread for horrendous examples.

Now, my spelling is still horrible, but thanks to years of experience and Firefox Spellchecker, I'm doing much better. Now, I'm not sure if I'm doing well when it comes to grammar, but I certainly hope so(I made a grammatical mistake somewhere, haven't I?).

All I'm trying to say is that when someone tries to correct you, don't try to argue about it. Our resident Grammar Nazis might come off as jerks, but don't go flying of the handle and turn the flames up to 30 feet.

You see, I have really bad allergies. Drama is my biggest fear. You see, when I see, hear, or am part of anything dramatic, I get great big hives that make me loo-*brick'd*

So yes, please be nice, please follow advice, and please don't start or fan any flames.

[Siranae]

Good ol' innocent Kaida, helping to stop the fighting.

But yeah, just a little spell check couldn't hurt. I know that sometimes I need a reference for words I type sometimes, like "commitment" a few days back in the Introductions area. Another quick tip here: if there's just one word that's bothering you, and you have a google toolbar, type it in up there. Usually the drop down list will show you the correct spelling.

[Saber Knight]

I'm Saber Knight and I approve this message.

Being able to read a post easily definitely enchances the PV experience. Of course, everyone makes typos, it happens. It's okay if you use "their" instead of "there" every once and a while, but using there, their, and they're incorrectly all the time is very annoying. Same with to, too and two. Of course, that one I can understand a bit more, considering their (possessive) similar spellings.

Anywho, glad to see this thread. Makes me happy. Not much to add that hasn't already been said.

[Kaida]

Hate to do this but I can't resist due to the subject matter...

So pretty much, stop and think before starting an argument, they're only trying to help. And sometimes it helps more than just the person who made the mistakes.

Now that that's out of my system, I'd like to thank Kaida for her excellent and personal case for good spelling and grammar. To be honest, that's an angle I hadn't thought of before (though bad spelling can be confusing for non-dyslexic people as well). Thanks for sharing.

It's no problem and I always have trouble with the spelling of "there". I usually have to stop and go through the different spellings and meanings before typing/writing them. And then I still get it wrong anyway... sometimes.

Grammar Nazis should have no apostrophe.

Anyway, I'm very glad you took the time to post this. It's meaningful, and will hopefully motivate the more...spelling challenged among us to try and learn some more spelling skills.

Well I wouldn't know about Nazis, but with spell check it only told me that the 'n' should be a capital. It left the apostrophe there. I also re-read my post multiple times and spell checked it before re-reading it, and as Stevenson and Josiah pointed out it didn't get everything. And I still missed a few things when re-reading it.
Spell check is good for picking up the obvious misspellings, but it doesn't get everything so you shouldn't solely rely on it. Sometimes even one read through will pick up any mistakes the spell check didn't. Particularly if you've spelt "their" when it's supposed to be "they're", it's not going to tell you its wrong because it is the correct spelling.

Good ol' innocent Kaida, helping to stop the fighting.

That's me. ^_^ Come to think of it I was always the mediator in fights between my friends... That's how I got the nickname "Mum"...

[Metalheadz]

I'm a pretty good speller, myself, in fact I'm a master at it. The only problem I have when it comes to grammar is word usage.

[Silver]

...Kaida, please see here for my opinion on this message.

Seriously. I appreciate this kind of input. It's not like we do this to be mean. Proper grammar really does make a difference. As you can see. Kaida is not the only dyslexic member, so it's an inconvenience to more than just her. It can be hard to understand even if you're not dyslexic anyway, as Gar said.

Adding to what Stevenson suggested, Firefox also has a built in spell check, and is a little easier on slower computers. Not all of them work well with Chrome.

Also plural words don't need apostrophes, that's what separates them from possessive words and contractions. So "nazis" doesn't need one.

[Cheezdude]

I'm Saber Knight and I approve this message.

I'm Cheezdude and I approve of Saber approving this message.

[luquos]

I'm (the recently re-existing) Luquos, and I agree wholeheartedly with this message.

I don't like to name names, but the number 2 does not replace the words 'too' or 'to'. And they should both be used correctly as well. Whomsoever uses this wrong will know of it fairly quickly. If it isn't at the start of a thread, and as such, irrelevant for current events, and pointing it out would make me look stupid.

Sorry for the slight derail, there. But, yes, this is a rather good message. Now, if only the problem children would read it.

[Giga-Gar]

Yeah, It won't do any good. Horse and water and all that.

[NabMaster]

Honestly, I'm pretty picky with spelling. Grammar, no so much because I fail hard at not using run-on sentences. Anyways, learning spelling and grammar are important things to learn, especially for work.

[PoikSpirit]

Not to mention, all the practice you can get makes English classes easier. Look at me, I hate English class (to an very small extent, admittedly) and I still managed to get enough AP Credit to not take it my freshman year (although I took Shakespeare anyway).

Now, the apostrophe plurals... There ARE cases where the apostrophe is prefered for plurals. This is quickly becoming antiquated though. Letters for instance, "I received straight A's," and odd nouns based off of... shoot what was it. Well whatever. Nazis, though, I'm not sure if the apostrophe used to be used for it, but it is in common usage not to now.
Common usage, bah. I still think "till" should not replace "'til."