I do hope TigerDan realizes I was kidding with him! I guess I am picky about clarity of thought because I had the job of writing hundreds of technical procedures. Believe me when I say virtually every procedure I wrote was picked on, over, and corrected many times before it was given final approval.

Right or wrong, people DO judge you on how well you communicate. Many times it is their first impression of you. Should they form a negatively biased impression, it is very hard to break.

 

i am in no way mr. perfect. infact i was and am someone who had problems with english.
i will never turn down any person who says i can't read or spell. would you help me. in fact i would go out of my way to help that person just as i was done for. it bothers me that the language of our country is so poorly used and taught.

 

As a printer and typesetter, I find myself doing this, too. (Also putting in additional, sometimes quite un-necessary, punctuation.)

I did well in English Class(es) in school, but, I am FAR from being good at it.

In closing, this forum is the best forum I have had the pleasure of being associated with. Always enjoyable, informative and full of GREAT information.

Thanks FTE!!!

Keith

 

it bothers me that the language of our country is so poorly used and taught.

captchas- That's fact. I went to the old school of grammar (Sister Mary Terrible, followed by four years of Franciscan monks). They literally pounded it into my head- but we learned by doing, not by filling out pre-printed forms.

Another thing to remember, though- everyone has a different set of skills. My son's grammar is terrible (it pains me), but he has skill sets in things I couldn't even begin to attempt. He couldn't write instructions on how to do it, but I've watched him fell a 100 ft tree within inches of where he wanted it to fall. I'd probably land the thing on top of the house.

 

Wow! A lot of good points being raised here, thanks y'all! (Yup, I'm a country boy too!)
Personally, I take no offence at anything that anyone has said, and I hope I have not offered any. My whole point with this thread was to offer a little advice on common grammatical errors, and to have a little fun doing it. As polarbear said, there are quite a few kids who read these posts, wouldn't you rather have yours reading posts that are grammatically correct, especially if they are going to learn from what they read? They will learn the mistakes just as easily as the correct usage. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not perfect and make plenty of mistakes. I try to proofread my posts and make corrections, but I'm probably the world's worst (and slowest) typist.
Another point raised that had a lot to do with my conceiving this thread was that of readability of posts. There are times when I have a lot of difficulty trying to figure out what the poster is trying to say, and sometimes I give up and skip over to the next post when I might have had some valuable insight to offer, if had only known what the point was...(what was MY point?) For those who feel differently about it, that's okay too. As Tom Lehrer said, "Life is like a sewer...what you get out of it depends on what you put into it!" Am I rambling now? I'm afraid so, I guess I'd better shut up now! -TD

 

Don't forget these words too


... grammaticam, grammaticsl, grammaticql, grammaticel, grammatixal, grammatival,
grammatucal, grammatocal, grammarical, grammayical, grammstical ...

 

Grammaticam? Is that a camera that watches your grammar for you? -TD

 

Personally, I think my mouth runs on a 2.4Gz processor, my typing fingers on a 1.5Gz, and my brain on an old Pentium II.

 

Wow, your brain is running on a PII? I still need to upgrade mine from the 286 that it's been running on for years! -TD

 

My personal problem is the spelling of lose is when it is repeatedly spelled loose. And is done in more than one post. As in "I may lose the race" not "I may loose the race."

 

Friend of mine does that, and he has a Doctorate. Go figure- loose screw...or lose screw?

 

IMHO, sometimes people just get "screen blind" and can't see mistakes. By the term "screen blind" I mean there is so much on a computer screen that fights for your attention, it sometimes overloads your brain. I've always had a problem catching spelling and/or grammar mistakes on a computer screen. Whatever I type can look just fine to my eye on the screen, but if I print it out, then mistakes jump right off the page. Spell check and grammar check are great timesavers, but they are not a substitute for old fashioned proof reading.

I think that in the context of an online forum it is more important to get the gist of the message rather than dwell on whether or not the person is a great spelling champion or grammarian.

 

dan
thank you for starting it. from it and a pm from dennis i now have a word helper in my computer that works big time. i am one who always had problems with english and most likely always will. but i try and over come it. live near me and need help my doors open and i'll even buy a copy of websters for you.

 

I've been **** about my grammar and spelling all my life...so much so that I finished 3rd in the 8th grade county spelling bee (way back in 1975). whoo-hoo!!!

Do I make grammatical/spelling mistakes??? Sure! I didn't say my grammar/spelling were perfect...just that I pay a great deal of attention to them.

My wife is the math genius in my house...and I'm the "go-to guy" when it comes to english, grammar, writing papers for school, etc..

Math comes easy for some...english always came easy for me...

Some people just don't care...as long as they get their point across.

BTW, for those of you who aren't sure...it's: Don't lose your mind...or that screw is loose.

Scott

 

" Don't lose your mind...or that screw is loose."

I was surprised to see how many times these words were mixed up, then I thought: "oo" sound, as in "school", "pool", "loop", "loon", "soon", "lose" ???.
(Of course, my neices* say "schoo-ul" and "poo-ul". They also say "di-dint" and "cou-dint" ( I know... what the 'l' happened to the 'l' in couldn't? ) I even heard one of them correcting the other for saying "school" as one syllable!)

*Here's another of those 'i' before 'e' exceptions!

In addition to Gen/Pres Grant, George Washington was reputed to be a bad speller. He did a lot of surveying in Western Virginia (now WV). Maybe that's why we have the Monongahela River and Monongalia County.

Another story about Washington: There is a town in Western Maryland called "Accident". I met someone from there while I was skiing and asked him where the name came from. He said, by accident, two surveying parties accidently surveyed the same area. The accident was that they started at the same, large oak tree. (I would probably have called it "coincidence".) Brady