I have to point out that I have no business being the spelling/grammar police for anyone for the most part. I have my foes...commas and that whole who/whom thing being the big ones. I always forget which words you are supposed to not end your sentences with, too. I even start sentences with "but" and "and" knowing that I shouldn't. (Though, really, that is more in spoken conversation than written.) Still, despite all that, even I know that there are some things that are just better being avoided.
If you are going to be on a forum posting your opinion all over, please, for the love of all things chocolate, understand that you DO NOT have absolute, unfettered freedom of speech. Typing "in my opinion" or "just my opinion" doesn't automatically grant you open season to post any stupid thing you want with freedom from consequences. Look at it like visiting a house. The owner of the house can kick you out at any time, right? So, if you start running your yap and offend the homeowner, said homeowner can tell you to take a hike. (Unless you are in California and have to abide by the "Pruneyard doctrine", then you actually do have to put up with trespassers on your own property if they start talking political speech it looks like.) You go ahead and call the cops and say that you got kicked out for stating "just my opinion" and they'll tell you "Too bad, the person who owns the house can kick out any unwanted persons that they choose to kick out." You don't have to like it, you just have to accept it.
Forums are the same concept. You are there at the generosity of the person paying the bills and they get to make the rules. Obviously there are laws and court cases and fun stuff like that which could change the specifics, depending on the location, but in general, you are only at a private forum by the good will of the owner. So typing out "But I have freedom of speech" in all caps and screaming about your right to it when it comes to privately owned forums is just not completely true.
This goes for libel, too. You can say that something is "just my opinion" and in general, it is a pretty good CYA statement. Libel also has court cases that say that "JMO" has limits, so some thought before you type is always wise. While there is currently debate in regard to forum posting and some internet related content and definition, in general, if it is spoken it is slander and if it is written (typed, posted...) it is libel. These words are not interchangeable at your whim. On top of that, I did spell it correctly. LIBEL. Not liable, as I so often see, but libel. Really.
My next peeve is one that I am a culprit of myself. Punctuation and paragraphs and looooong sentences. Look, I can craft a run on sentence that goes for damn near forever, makes sense, and is spelled correctly. The problem is, it gets hard to keep your focus on them if they run too long. I have to remind myself of this. A lot. I do it because I know how hard it can be to follow along with someone who is on word 275 of a single sentence and I try to not be that someone writing 300 word sentences. Anyone reading your thoughts will appreciate your sentences staying shorter. I know. They've told me.
The next part of that is punctuation. It is vital. A lack of punctuation is almost physically painful to try to read. It makes figuring out what you are trying to say a lot harder, too. I swear, if you go ahead an give it a try, you might get some in the wrong places sometimes, but it will sure be better than just not using any at all. I can't even be bothered with reading someone's words if they can't be bothered enough to toss in the random comma or period to help me out.
Paragraphs are the third part of this. They, like punctuation, are your friends. Nobody wants to read an unbroken wall of text. My paragraphs can get long, especially with my penchant for long sentences, but I mean that big 8 x 10 notebook page size block. It usually doesn't contain much punctuation, either. I can't get past a few lines before I am forced to give up trying or I find myself with a headache and frustrated. Hitting the enter key and throwing a bit of spacing into your posts won't kill you. The wall of text is bad and nearly guarantees that not many will read your words.
Not a single button on your keyboard will bite you if you use it. Though, in some cases, they probably should.
A lot of the rest of the peeves are more spelling things that I see frequently. Things that are maybe not as common as the last words I wrote about, but common enough that I see them a lot. People using big words that they don't know how to spell correctly (or even what they mean, for that matter) to try to be better than the next poster just confuse me. Why do that? Is Dictionary.com really that hard to find? If you don't know how to spell a word, look it up! Heck, most browsers will even tell you that your spelling is off and offer suggestions to fix it. If you don't know what the big word means that you are using, please don't use it. Or, again, look it up first.
I have seen this "word" used frequently, by people claiming to be adults, and I can only shake my fist and wonder at how public education is failing so badly. Tooken. It got tooken. Come on!! This is pretty basic, right? How do you not know that it is taken that you are looking for?
Another that is similar is seeing people use "it's a mute point" all over the place. No, it isn't. It might be a moot point, but it isn't a mute one.
This isn't a spelling thing, but it bothers me. If you "could care less" you still care too much. You are trying to say that you could not care less, because you already care as little as it is possible to care.
The last one (for now) is one that is in dispute. It has gotten so widely used that the meaning is changing and the original meaning seems to be falling by the wayside. To decimate something. Sure, NOW it is understood to mean that the thing was annihilated completely. I know what is meant when I hear it, but I know that it used to mean to destroy a tenth of something, not the entire thing. Not a huge peeve, but one of those things that I notice, even if no one else does.
I have a whole list of logical fallacies that I am working on next.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Dun u no wat i meen?
Why is there such a big problem with homophones? This is such a pet peeve of mine. I really try to avoid being the spelling/grammar police because I have my own bits of grammar that I always seem to trip over and get wrong. My biggest nemesis is figuring out when to use "who" as opposed to "whom". I mess this one up a lot. I'm bad with commas sometimes, too. I throw them in where it sounds right to me. Obviously this isn't the best way to figure out the proper placements for them. I even end my sentences badly sometimes. Knowing this, though, means that I usually try to be more forgiving of the mistakes of others. The homophones won't ever not bother me, though.
Really, how basic is it to differentiate between to/too/two or your/you're? Their/there/they're is another common irritant. I also see do/due, are/our, fare/fair, site/sight, through/threw, and here/hear. How about won/one, no/know, or wood/would for mixed up uses? I see all of these on such a regular basis and I wonder if this just wasn't covered in school for some people or if it is an issue of being too lazy (see, correct usage) to bother. WHY?! Holy Christ on a cracker! These are REALLY simple words. How is it so easy for some people to abuse them and either not notice or not care?
Once upon a time, many moons ago, I had my own forum. It amused me to go back over the rules that I had written up (with bits and pieces that had been adopted and adapted from another forum, the owner of which was wonderful enough to give me his permission to use) and so I decided to share bits of them and show you how absolutely anal I could be as a forum owner!
Rules:
"We have intelligent members. We will not allow posting habits that lower the collective IQ of our forums. For example, if you start a new thread, make sure that you put some thought into it.
Use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. We don't require perfection, but give it a try. Your fellow members will thank you for it. And AOL/l337 speak is NOT proper or acceptable diction. We are adults here. do not tyep like this kthx? u talk like ths lol no1 understaends what ur saying and ur not liekd. lol interwebz."
I have seen some others recently that are starting to bother me just as much as the homophones and homonyms. The almost constant usage of "wat/wot" for "what" and "dun" for "don't", "sum" for "some" and "U" for "you". In one particular paragraph that I read I think I actually whimpered out loud. I don't remember the sentiment of the post, but it looked like this: "plzz ppl sum wons stupid i no wat u r talkin about their dum hear well give u are stuff too look at". Honest to God, it was this bad. For the love of all things chocolate! Would it really kill you to use a little bit of punctuation and spellcheck there? Some of these posts come from people claiming to be in college. I want to know just what college is admitting people with writing skills like the above shown example. That was one that came from a person claiming to be a college student.
Like I said, I have my own shortcomings when it comes to writing, so I try to avoid policing other people, but if your posts are causing other people physical pain, you're doing it wrong. My moron threshold gets lower and lower every day.
Take care,
Cindi
Really, how basic is it to differentiate between to/too/two or your/you're? Their/there/they're is another common irritant. I also see do/due, are/our, fare/fair, site/sight, through/threw, and here/hear. How about won/one, no/know, or wood/would for mixed up uses? I see all of these on such a regular basis and I wonder if this just wasn't covered in school for some people or if it is an issue of being too lazy (see, correct usage) to bother. WHY?! Holy Christ on a cracker! These are REALLY simple words. How is it so easy for some people to abuse them and either not notice or not care?
Once upon a time, many moons ago, I had my own forum. It amused me to go back over the rules that I had written up (with bits and pieces that had been adopted and adapted from another forum, the owner of which was wonderful enough to give me his permission to use) and so I decided to share bits of them and show you how absolutely anal I could be as a forum owner!
Rules:
"We have intelligent members. We will not allow posting habits that lower the collective IQ of our forums. For example, if you start a new thread, make sure that you put some thought into it.
Use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. We don't require perfection, but give it a try. Your fellow members will thank you for it. And AOL/l337 speak is NOT proper or acceptable diction. We are adults here. do not tyep like this kthx? u talk like ths lol no1 understaends what ur saying and ur not liekd. lol interwebz."
I have seen some others recently that are starting to bother me just as much as the homophones and homonyms. The almost constant usage of "wat/wot" for "what" and "dun" for "don't", "sum" for "some" and "U" for "you". In one particular paragraph that I read I think I actually whimpered out loud. I don't remember the sentiment of the post, but it looked like this: "plzz ppl sum wons stupid i no wat u r talkin about their dum hear well give u are stuff too look at". Honest to God, it was this bad. For the love of all things chocolate! Would it really kill you to use a little bit of punctuation and spellcheck there? Some of these posts come from people claiming to be in college. I want to know just what college is admitting people with writing skills like the above shown example. That was one that came from a person claiming to be a college student.
Like I said, I have my own shortcomings when it comes to writing, so I try to avoid policing other people, but if your posts are causing other people physical pain, you're doing it wrong. My moron threshold gets lower and lower every day.
Take care,
Cindi
4 Ounces, Really?
I have to wonder who decides what quantity constitutes "one serving" sometimes. In this case, Edy's Dibs Ice Cream Bites. The size of the container is listed as 4 fl. oz. (118 ml). I have no idea how many individual bites that works out to because it didn't occur to me to count as I was eating. I ate the whole little container and decided that the person in charge of making the quantity decisions is a Very Bad Person. I wanted more.
Admittedly, I tend to eat much more than the average person, but 4 ounces? That isn't very much. Then again, I need to eat more just to maintain my weight. I like looking like I'm not anorexic, and if I don't eat enough, it happens quickly. So, maybe I could choose healthier foods to eat to maintain my weight, but really, when your choices are to fix something from scratch (and I HATE cooking) or just open the freezer and get a container of Dibs, I'm going for the Dibs every single time. I just wish that there were more of them in each single serving container to go for. I'm still hungry, I still have no intention of making something from scratch, and I'm down to my last container of Dibs.
Honestly! What were they thinking when they decided that 4 ounces would make a good choice for "single serving" containers? 4? Really? I think I'll just have to look to see if I can find some sort of "full size" serving container next time I hit the freezer aisle at the grocery store because this 4 oz business just isn't cutting it. Damn stingy serving size decision makers!
Take care,
Cindi
Admittedly, I tend to eat much more than the average person, but 4 ounces? That isn't very much. Then again, I need to eat more just to maintain my weight. I like looking like I'm not anorexic, and if I don't eat enough, it happens quickly. So, maybe I could choose healthier foods to eat to maintain my weight, but really, when your choices are to fix something from scratch (and I HATE cooking) or just open the freezer and get a container of Dibs, I'm going for the Dibs every single time. I just wish that there were more of them in each single serving container to go for. I'm still hungry, I still have no intention of making something from scratch, and I'm down to my last container of Dibs.
Honestly! What were they thinking when they decided that 4 ounces would make a good choice for "single serving" containers? 4? Really? I think I'll just have to look to see if I can find some sort of "full size" serving container next time I hit the freezer aisle at the grocery store because this 4 oz business just isn't cutting it. Damn stingy serving size decision makers!
Take care,
Cindi
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