Posting on gun boards... Spelling and Grammer count!

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Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
 
I correct those who want to learn in private, or by email, or by pointing them to useful resources). Others I just let do as they wish, mainly because they aren't willing to learn and would waste my time.
 
I shoot better than I type , spell, or my use of grammar. It used to be the other way around. :p

I'm guilty as well. I made straight A's in spelling , vocabulary and pensmanship growing up. Grammar - well - besides the fact I was born and raised in the south, the "method of teaching Grammar" I was exposed to was a "new method". Which means I really became fouled up - still am. It is akin to me learning to read using Phonics. For me, I still think this is great way to learn to read. My nephew was taught a "new way to read", ( not Phonics) problems with this "new method: showed up with he and other students...later the Method of Phonics was resumed, played catch -up and he is fine now.

What hurt me was classes using so many symbols, abbreviations and acronyms. Fast talking lectureres. I don't believe I actually wrote the word "change" for two years, I still catch myself using the Delta.

I'm guilty, I use the Southern slang in fun and most persons usually understand. I do realize we have persons from around the world, and English is difficult enough without the mistakes and slang.

"Pare", "Pair", or "Pear" is one thing, "tumped"- well ...

He tumped over the suger bowl while trying to pare the pair of pears when he slipped with the paring knife.

Yes I became "dependent" on spell-check and grammar -check as well. I actually hate that, just try to use it as a learning tool and not a "fix all". I make myself look things up so to be less dependent.

So yes please do correct and inform me, make sugggestions if you will. I don't know everything, I make mistakes, I'm still learning.

Oleg I bookmarked the sites - thanks!
 
Sisco, thank's for the link!

M67, I saw that in the local paper recently. Very interesting.

My last name ends with an "s". My sister in law thinks that you are supposed to pluralize words that end in "s" thusly: 's. ie: Lewis's :rolleyes:
The correct punctuation is a simple apostraphe after the "s" thusly: Lewis'.
 
Unfortunately if a non- word is used often enough it becomes a word . One pet peave of mine is co-conspirator .The proper word is conspirator of course but so many have misused it , it is now in the dictionary !!
 
Irregardless? I thought that was some land without water.

Hmmmm... learn something every day, they say. Now if I can only find out what a lert is.

-Andy
 
Unfortunately if a non- word is used often enough it becomes a word .
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It's called a living language. Any language that is being used constantly is going to change over time. These changes will include spelling and usage.
 
Boats:

So right.

The American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.

3. Word Choice: New Uses, Common Confusion, and Constraints

§ 184. irregardless :barf:

Irregardless is a word that many people mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. The word was coined in the United States in the early 20th century, probably from a blend of irrespective and regardless. Perhaps this is why some critics insist that there is “no such word†as irregardless, a charge they would not think of leveling at a nonstandard word with a longer history, such as ain’t. Since people use irregardless, it is undoubtedly a word. But it has never been accepted in Standard English and is usually changed by editors to regardless before getting into print.

The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/0184.html
 
I type about 100 words a minute.

I'm a technical writer/editor by profession.

I'm a pretty decent speller, but I'm not perfect, especially given the fact that I type so rapidly. I don't always catch my errors, and I'm trained to do just that.

It's also my job to catch and correct grammar errors made by others. I don't always catch all of those, either.

No one is perfect.

If you're a miserable speller, or your grammar isn't the best, copy your replies into Word or WordPerfect and use the spelling and grammar checker.

But don't sweat over it.

The concepts are the most important thing.
 
Speaking strictly as a guy who's made his living as a writer and editor since 1966: there are levels of written English: unintelligible, average, and finely polished.

I tend to skip posts written by people who clearly haven't mastered the rudiments of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage. I overlook the occasional "it's" for "its," run-on sentences and fragments, and "irregardless," but people who don't care enough about their messages to convey them halfway intelligently rarely have anything of value to say. I've never hired anyone for a professional position who didn't dress up for the interview, show up on time, and comport himself or herself in a professional manner.

Most people write reasonably intelligibly most of the time. The vast majority of American college graduates couldn't articulate the differences among prepositions, split infinitives, comma splices, and tense shifts—and very few are the worse for it. English always has been and doubtless always will be a much more democratic language than others.

The rampaging perfectionists at the far end of the bell curve, myself included, eventually learn to tolerate minor imperfections, or make life miserable for themselves and those around them. I'm currently in the throes of the Great American Novel. The first draught is done. I'm putting off the second. I can't bear to think about the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and... Even when you know what you're doing, writing very well is hard work.
 
My favorite is stumbling upon misspelled words in auction titles. I have found a couple good deals because most people missed the auction by spelling their query correctly. There is currently a very rare revolver for auction on line that is not spelled correctly.:D Unfortunately, I have red flags flying because they gave a very brief description of the gun, posted no picture and have not returned my email yet.:scrutiny:
 
"Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach To Punctuation" by Lynn Truss is a recent bestselling book here which carries the fight for good English into the enemy's territory.
The title refers to a conumdrum: a panda bear goes into a bar, eats shoots and leaves. What did he just do?
 
There are usually indications in a writers correspondence that indicate whether or not he is using English as his primary language, and to those individuals I say keep posting. We understand what you mean and appreciate the effort put forth. If I were attempting to post in any language other than English, my post would be unreadable.

What frustrates me,and others, is not the occasional misplaced comma, incorrectly spelled word, or multistrikes caused by fat fingers (Guilty on all counts). The point Techbrute was making is that there are readers of these posts, who for whatever reason are interested in what we have to say on the subject of Firearms. It does our cause no good when what these folks read is a jumble of incorrect grammar and spelling that leads them to believe we are all inbred rednecks, incapable of carrying on an intelligent conversation, and that most probably shouldn't be entrusted with firearms in the first place.

I'm as guilty as anyone of not proof reading my posts thoroughly before I submit, and I apologize for rambling on at times, but what I'm saying is, lets take a little time eyeballing what we type for correctness before punching the send key.
 
GIMME A BREAK.....!!

""Spelling counts. So does grammar. We’re all human and subject to typos, but when you can’t write at a third grade level, it looks bad to the antis that read this board.""

how many of you go to the antis bbs & check their spelling ?? do you think they "LOOK" bad for their horrendous spelling & punctuation , to you ??

also do any of you realy care what those liarberals think of us ?? good or bad spelling, it don't matter, they hate us either way..., so F**K'm...!!!
 
Given that some of us may not have english as a first or even second language,
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Many of our most articulate posters do not have English as their milk tongue. In this thread, for example, it does not appear to be hampering Mssrs. Kloos or Volk.
 
I've finally trained myself to remember how to spell separate and along comes BluesBear with the 'a rat' method of remembering. :banghead:

Re: being taken serious by the antis. We need to try as best we can for ourselves, not for any antis in the audience. If we wanted to be taken serious by the antis we could start by getting rid of all of these. :cuss: :neener: :what: :evil: . Now do we really want to go that far? I sure as heck don't.

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way." - Mark Twain

"Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination." - Samual Clements

I'm afraid that when it comes to spelling I've got LOTS of imagination.
 
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I'm MUCH worse than I use to be

Before I started spending so much time on forums and answering e-mails at work, I could actually do a decent job of spelling and grammar. Seeing so many words spelled wrong and sentences composed incorrectly has rubbed off on me. :(
 
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