Disappointment with the grammar and spelling of some TA users
I've noticed that many of the forum discussions that TA has tweeted lately have contained glaring grammatical and spelling errors. I find this disappointing and even personally embarrassing as it inevitably reflects not only on the original poster but on the forum as a whole and, by extension, the larger atheist community. I know written communication isn't everything, and it certainly isn't a high priority among the public generally, but we should try to meet a higher standard. Given the unlikelihood that individual posters will suddenly take more care when writing, I think the operators of the site's Twitter feed should consider not tweeting discussion titles with serious errors.
That's one poster's opinion, for whatever it's worth.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nate Lundgren on -
My two cents on all of this is that the purpose of this website is to "think atheist" and so the purpose is not to show off one's "perfect" grammar, spelling or diction and prose abilities. If this website's intent was to be educating people in English then it would make sense to critique other people's English usage. The real intent as far as I have discerned is for those of us that are atheists to express our thoughts and feelings, "perfect" English is far from necessary to accomplish these tasks. Communication takes many more forms than just one language/set of rules that are evolving even as we speak/write. So those that cling to set rules about English are conservative in this regard and I can respect that position and feeling about English or other things but I don't appreciate when conservatives of any kind impose their preferences by using harsh and inhumane attitudes/actions with their fellow human beings. How secure are you in your correctness if you feel the need to force others to agree with you? I just enjoy when people express true, fun, crazy, happy, sad, complicated and simple thoughts as well as feelings especially those expressions that are atheistic in nature. Why limit humanity with strict arbitrary boundaries? Embrace the changes/evolution and life becomes a whole lot better, in my silly human opinion. :) Can I haz an amen and a god-damn?
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on -
You've got my vote!
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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on -
I'm only half with you, so I'll give an 'am' and a 'damn'.
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Permalink Reply by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on -
Amen, and god-damn!
(But I do find paragraphs easier to read when they're broken up a bit.)
(: <--- smiley faces, in good humor, despite of poor gramma ---> :)
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Permalink Reply by peggy on -
Amen,,,,,,,,,,, its all about the Topic!!!!! not about the gawd-damn punctuation and spelling!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on -
All that bad stuff creates a distraction from the point the person wants to make and can lead to confusion as well.
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Permalink Reply by Jens Schwaiger on -
First off, i am not a native english speaker. But i do think that spelling and sentence structure is important, If you talked to someone previously unknown to you and they talked the way some people write, you would probably think they are slightly superficial and, let´s face it, slightly stupid.
If someone is talking in a foreign language it is of course different, Now, i don´t know when it was decided that one has to speak properly but can write however they want but i know i wasn´t informed.
It is hard for me to take someone seriously who cannot write a proper text in their own language, call me superficial.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on
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You write very well in a second language. What excuse is there for an American or Englishman who can't write as well. Setting aside for a moment people with learning disabilities, why can't we write? Distracted by dope? Dropping out in order to have more time for video games?
It says something about someone who had an education dropped in their lap and they had something that appealed to them more.
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Permalink Reply by Gregg R Thomas on -
You must have a tall ladder to get on your horse every morning.
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Permalink Reply by Gregg R Thomas on
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You're superficial.
You're welcome, no charge.
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Permalink Reply by Strega on -
I spell words the English way, despite my spellchecker trying to Americanise me (Americanize) - yes I am certain that there's a way to change that but I can't be arsed to look for it. Consequently, every time I see the word 'Colour' typed as 'Color" or one of the other myriad of parallel words Americanised, it gives me a micro-pause in the flow of reading. As a result, typos and similar mistakes fall in the same miniscule irritation category and can be ignored.It's harder to gloss over the obvious switches, like reign for rein, or vane for vain, or all the 'their, there, they're' substitutions, but it's hardly cause over which to break out in a sweat.
I do take great delight in reading well worded and artistically gratifying prose, but it's a personal pleasure thing, and its absence is pretty much expected.
Communication is just that - a way of communicating. As long as I understand what you wrote, it's all good.
As far as the OP comment goes, however, why on earth should TA members hold themselves to a higher standard of written perfection than any other group? If a post hurts your eyes, don't bloody read it. How hard can this be?
The 'u' for 'you' text-speak I believe was in response to the initial restriction on cellphone texting characters, rather like tweets nowadays. Also, in the UK at least, many cellphone plans charged users by the number of characters in any given text. I find it jarring, the 'u' plays in my head as a kind of monkey grunt, but that's MY problem, and I will learn to get over it eventually.
I do know a pure American word...... drum-roll..... Discombobulate. Just look at that word! Makes it as clear as day that Americans can't be trusted to invent their own language!
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