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
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