Spelling 101 [Archive] - Pro-Touring.com

Bill Howell

03-14-2005, 02:29 PM

:help: I do not want to embarrass anyone so I thought I would start a new thread rather than reply at the one I was just reading.
When we communicate in a medium such as the internet, our spelling ability shows very quickly. Since spelling has never been one of my strong points, I had to find ways to overcome that issue.I never get on the computer without either a dictionary or my wife nearby. She paid attention in spelling class alot better than I did and I rely on her tremendously to get it right. If all else fails, there is a "Spellcheck" I can click on at the bottom of my posting before I submit it to find and correct errors.
It is hard to respect the opinion of the smartest guy here if you can not decode his spelling.
We try to promote proper forum etiquette on this site and I feel that at least trying to spell is part of that. As I said before, I am not the world spelling bee champion either. All I ask is that you please proof read your post before you submit it. :rtfm:
Thanx

dennis68

03-14-2005, 02:48 PM

Wow, Bill is pulling the old CC.com out of his hat. Before you know it he'll be calling the illiterate fools a %$& &*&^ *^&% $$%$% and a *^%& &^& %$^5!!!

rocketrod

03-14-2005, 02:57 PM

Me no undrstnd wat u'r trien two say. LOL
Seriously though a lot of posts get ignored when you can't even begin figure out what they are trying to say.

Steve1968LS2

03-14-2005, 03:07 PM

I spell like crap.. well actually I spell terrible online since I am usually just trying to type fast.

Spell checker is my bestest friend :D

It is one reason why I NEVER pic on someones grammer or spelling... It's just wronge!!

Steve1968LS2

03-14-2005, 03:08 PM

Me no undrstnd wat u'r trien two say. LOL
Seriously though a lot of posts get ignored when you can't even begin figure out what they are trying to say.

True.. It is helpfull to be cohearent (sp?).. lol

But nobody should care about the occasional dangling participle..

Bill Howell

03-14-2005, 03:11 PM

Before you know it he'll be calling the illiterate fools a %$& &*&^ *^&% $$%$% and a *^%& &^& %$^5!!!

You know I can not do that cause I am in that illiterate category myself :lol:

Steve, I remember laughing at a post you made about your new job back when you first got it and you talked about spacing after commas and periods. I never will get all that right.

WS6

03-14-2005, 05:00 PM

oh man. im horrible about it online, period. notice i dont use caps or punctuation really? well i figure so long as you can read it and understand it spelling doesnt count.

TonyL

03-14-2005, 05:04 PM

Its not so much the spelling for me, heck, I barely eek by myself.

Its the lack of punctuation that drives me mad. you know the guys.
the ones who type like this and never use a period or anything and keep rambling on and on jumping from one subject to another without ever breaking or doublespacing or anything.

maddening.

pdq67

03-14-2005, 06:10 PM

Years ago I remember a guy from, (I think), S. Carolina or some such place that came in over at Team Camaro.

He could barely read and write and was asking/begging for help.

Anyway, some of the guy's got off on the wrong foot and made some pretty bad fun of him and the guy later came back and said, he was pretty much illiterate, but thought a bunch of car guys would help him anyway and then he commenced to pretty much bowing out by saying that he was sorry he bothered us.

I reminded them that he was asking us for help AND was sincere about it AND that he knew his station in life! And after it was all said and done, several of the guys involved in it felt kinda small and they came back, got started on the right foot so to say, and the post ended up being one of the better, longer threads there was!!

Heck, when I finally found P-T, both T-C's and SGCOG, I could barely use a computer, much less turn it on and off so I knew just how the guy felt.. And I was a hands-on, Field Engineer!

Cap's, yes! Raise cane about them.. But spelling and punctuation, as long as it can be deciphered, go with it, imho.. And in passing mention the "Spell-Check" function.

AND I am guilty of writing stuff in WORD, "spell-checking/grammering" it and then cut and paste posting!! imho...

pdq67

nancejd

03-14-2005, 06:46 PM

Forgive me if I'm not understanding the point of this post Bill, but I think the emphasis is on effort, not on results. Everyone makes mistakes in their spelling and grammer, and as long as it is within reason, I don't think we should be uptight about it, but it does display a measure of respect to the other members of our little on line community to at least make the effort to spell and use good grammer. In my opinion this ought to be a self policing policy though, you know, re-read your post before you post it kind of thing.

Bill Howell

03-14-2005, 06:52 PM

lt4malibu

03-14-2005, 06:58 PM

this site isn't nearly as bad as some of the other forums i read. pretty much you are judged as person by your grammar when you post, i try to do my best at fooling people into thinking im not a derelict. dictionary.com does wonders too :doh:

DarkBuddha

03-14-2005, 07:42 PM

www.m-w.com Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus, it's your friend.

boodlefoof

03-14-2005, 07:56 PM

When reading posts, poor spelling doesn't frustrate me nearly as much as bad grammer and syntax. I can figure out what one is trying to say with poor spelling... but when somebody starts confusing tenses and subject-verb agreement I find it very hard to follow what they are trying to say.

MrQuick

03-14-2005, 11:28 PM

wait the spell checker is working?? Damn

Roadrage David

03-14-2005, 11:40 PM

Im Dutch and Dislectic myself its like beeing word blind kinda the same as somebody who stotters and is constandly consetrating only trying to use the words from who he knows he dussend stotter with at the end of the day your energy is totaly upsorbt and you feel very tired . i leurnd to cope with the childis behavier of people who imidiatly atack you on your handicap. it shows me they have a handycap themselfs witch is a lack of maturety........

Martin71RS

03-15-2005, 12:51 AM

And trust me... David's posts are the same in Dutch (his native language).

All the guys is the Dutch forum are used to it... and we all know exactly what he is on about.......

I think everyone will write to his or her best ability, and I hope no-one will be judged on their writing, as it doesn't say a thing about the enthousiasm (sp?) or technical knowledge.

Also please do not forget there are a lot of members on this board who do not have English as their native language!

As long as we are not all using SMS / MSN sort of language I think we all know what is being said.....

Martin

Bill Howell

03-15-2005, 07:07 AM

David,
Maybe your deal is in the translation not the spelling.I simply quoted your post, hit spellcheck and it corrected most of the translation. It did not recognize "immediately" or "childish" for some reason but I knew want you meant. I guess this is another use for spellcheck-translating.
To steal what someone else said about you in another thread- I am positive that your English is much better than my Dutch!
BTW in my case , I do not think it is maturity, I am just anal :hammer:

I'm Dutch and Dyslectic myself its like being word blind kinda the same as somebody who stutters and is constantly concentrating only trying to use the words from who he knows he doesn't stutter with at the end of the day your energy is totaly absorbed and you feel very tired . i learned to cope with the childish behavior of people who immediately attack you on your handicap. it shows me they have a handicap themselves which is a lack of maturity........

Roadrage David

03-15-2005, 07:21 AM

LOLOL BILL for some rezen spellcheck is not working when i klick on it !!!!!

Bill Howell

03-15-2005, 07:35 AM

LOLOL BILL for some rezen spellcheck is not working when i klick on it !!!!!

Sorry, I can not help you there. One of my handicaps in life is that I am computer challenged. I do good to turn it on, please don't anything go wrong or not work or I will simply :throw:
:lmao: :lmao:

baz67

03-15-2005, 09:21 AM

If the boards spell check does not work for you, try writing your post in a word program then spell check it and then cut and paste to the board.

Spelling is not the only thing that should be addressed.

Capitalize as well. The shift key is not that far to reach.

Two spaces after a period and one space after a comma.

Use real english. By that I mean do not use: da(the), cuz(because), ur(your), u(you), 2(to or too), 4(for), kewl(cool) or dat(that) and the many others that I do not want to waste my time thinking of. If someone does not respect my time enough to word something in a way that I do not need to read a dozen times to understand, why should I spend my time helping them? Sup foo don like dat cuz m 2 kewl 4u. It is not that bad on this board, yet. As this board grows it will become worse unless we address it. We are adults and we should converse as such.

My spelling sucks. If I cannot remember how to spell something I either look it up or change the way I am writing the sentance. I am not saying we need english PhD level writing here. Just make an effort. Damn you Bill for stealing my idea. :crying:

Brian

jeffandre

03-15-2005, 10:35 AM

I consider myself in the top 5% of spelling/grammar capabilities, however my typing sucks and therefore some of my spelling suffers as time is of the essence for me and I proofread what I can. I do edit mistakes as time allows, but for whatever reason the spellcheck option on this board has never worked for me.

nancejd

03-15-2005, 12:16 PM

I think all anybody here is really asking for is SOME effort, not a lot of effort, not perfection, but SOME. Maybe it's just me, but I would imagine that the people who would have the hardest time with reading mispelled phrases would be non native english speakers. I love that we are an international community able to discuss our mutual interest in a very friendly way. I think if we approach this subject with a little bit of mutual respect and understanding, it can't help but improve the way we all interact.

boodlefoof

03-15-2005, 08:06 PM

You Dutch guys are doing great! Your English is easier to understand than many people I run into around town here!

Pro-touring towncar

03-15-2005, 08:14 PM

I will be the first to admit I can not spell to save my life. But I am getting better, so my wife says. It has only taken 20 years

Tim

ZZ430

03-15-2005, 08:28 PM

Webster's is on my tool bar and I use it all the time, basically because spelling does create an image of the typist in the mind of the reader.

If we're talking about certain words that I see often get mixed up it's "to/too", "there/their", "then/than".

But then again, as long as the message is understood, it should be good enough for internet communication.

Stu Seitz

03-16-2005, 09:47 AM

As long as they get their point across does it really matter how well they spell? I thought this board was a medium to share ideas and opinions, and not to see how good our grammar/spelling skills are?

Jagarang

03-23-2005, 05:30 AM

Wow, Bill is pulling the old CC.com out of his hat. Before you know it he'll be calling the illiterate fools a %$& &*&^ *^&% $$%$% and a *^%& &^& %$^5!!!
Are you sure you spelled everthing right here Dennis???

ProdigyCustoms

03-23-2005, 05:56 AM

:help: I do not want to embarrass anyone so I thought I would start a new thread rather than reply at the one I was just reading.

It is hard to respect the opinion of the smartest guy here if you can not decode his spelling.

All I ask is that you please proof read your post before you submit it. :rtfm:
Thanx

Oh Sheot, what did I forget to spell check, LOL! Couldn't help myself. I have the same problem as Steve sometimes writing to fast and pushing the send button.
Funny enough, these boards have made me a much better speller as I never wrote often before, now I am writing daily. The sad part is I still suck.
BTW, my spell check feature has never worked, I have to do the copy paste thing if I am worried about it, or care.

dennis68

03-23-2005, 06:33 AM

Are you sure you spelled everthing right here Dennis???
Yep, as always I ran it through MS Word. Funny, it didn't recognize some the words towards the end.

MrQuick

03-23-2005, 09:04 PM

wait the spell checker is working?? Damn. Wats rong wit mi speling...pigeon is gud rite?

Larry Callahan

03-23-2005, 09:18 PM

I must admit the spell checker I am using now stinks. I will swap it out soon.

zbugger

03-23-2005, 09:23 PM

Ya'll needs to be sittin wit a dikshonaree lik meee.

David Pozzi

03-23-2005, 09:26 PM

Check your browser settings and make sure the language is set to English. That may help the spellcheck work for our overseas frends.

I agree we don't want to get too picky about it, just put a little effort into your posts.

parsonsj

03-23-2005, 09:42 PM

Good thread, Bill.

I agree: please make an effort to write in English. The excuse that it doesn't matter doesn't cut it. It matters, because clear writing makes for better idea sharing. I know many people don't have the background to write perfect little posts, but a little effort isn't too much to ask. Make an effort to write in sentences, and make an effort to group your sentences in paragraphs. I consider that more important than good spelling.

I usually just pass on the no-caps, no punctuation, run on posts. I don't read them and I don't respond to them. My take is if the poster can't be bothered to try and write clearly, I'm not going to bother to figure out their message or question is.

As David said: we don't want to get picky and high-falutin' about it; we just want to emphasize that (like everything in life) a little time spent toward quality usually produces better results.

jp

Paddington

03-23-2005, 11:50 PM

I am from Norway trying my best with my English skills here hehe.

I also have that problem of typing and hitting send to fast, I guess I cant be bothered to do the spellcheck most of the times. And I dont even understand how to use that spellcheck function.
Also my English-Norway book is a technical book so cant find all the words.
You will just have to live with my bad typing and I know I forget comma from time to time aswell.

myclone

03-24-2005, 03:26 AM

I agree: please make an effort to write in English. The excuse that it doesn't matter doesn't cut it. It matters, because clear writing makes for better idea sharing. I know many people don't have the background to write perfect little posts, but a little effort isn't too much to ask. Make an effort to write in sentences, and make an effort to group your sentences in paragraphs. I consider that more important than good spelling.

I usually just pass on the no-caps, no punctuation, run on posts. I don't read them and I don't respond to them. My take is if the poster can't be bothered to try and write clearly, I'm not going to bother to figure out their message or question is.

we just want to emphasize that (like everything in life) a little time spent toward quality usually produces better results.

jp

I agree 100%.

While Im not a grammar expert myself I do try to punctuate as best I know how and always use caps, commas, periods, etc when they are needed. My personal gripes were mentioned previously about abbreviating you with "u", are with "r" or the like. If the poster will not take the time to spell it out so I dont have to decipher it then its not worth my time to answer. My other one is the invention of the word "grinded" instead of using ground (past tense) or grind (present tense). Ughh, I hate that.

I dont expect everyone to have post structures like an english proffessor but please, pleeeease try to put a little effort into grammar so my head doesnt hurt trying to read it.

Bill Howell

03-24-2005, 05:11 AM

Paddington,
Your post proves my original point. You live in Norway,yet your posts are easier to read than some of the ones written by us that were born and live here. The differance is you put forth the effort to do it right where I think sometimes the majority of us are guilty of rushing a post and not proof reading it.

The reason I started the thread was to just put it out there and see if it was just me or if others felt the same way. Since it keeps on drawing response, it must be universal how we all feel. Like several had said in their posts here, when I start reading a post that is too bad, I tend to overlook it even when sometimes there is good infomation there. It is just not worth the time and effort to me to try and deciper it.
Like Frank has said, my typing and spelling skills have really improved since I started visiting the net. Maybe a little of this :enguard: about our spelling once in a while helps everyone and the forums too.

BTW Larry, my spellcheck seems to work fine. I know some have said it did not work for them but I have had no problems with it. Could it be a setting thing?

myclone

03-24-2005, 05:38 AM

FWIW Ive never gotten the spell check to work on this forum either (I get an error message). Seems some forums I visit spell check works while on others it doesnt but then again Im not a computer whiz so it may just be me and/or my settings.

dennis68

03-24-2005, 06:44 AM

Paddington,
The differance is you put forth the effort to do it right where I think sometimes the majority of us are guilty of rushing a post and not proof reading it.

Hey Bill......this is just too funny. You are smacking yourself in the head right now :hand: realizing that in the "Spelling 101" thread that you started there is a spelling error. I beleive it should read "The difference is you put forth....."

elcamino80

03-24-2005, 07:45 AM

and "deciper" instead of decipher :rtfm: :)

But thats not the point, as long as its easy to read its ok for me...

Bill Howell

03-24-2005, 09:05 AM

Hey Bill......this is just too funny. You are smacking yourself in the head right now :hand: realizing that in the "Spelling 101" thread that you started there is a spelling error. I beleive it should read "The difference is you put forth....."
You and me both Denny. I believe it is "i" before "e" except after "c", so you have "believe" incorrect-right? The real sad thing is when I originally wrote the post, I had spelled the word "differeance". Then when I "corrected" it, I did that wrong! :hand:
What????????? deciper is wrong too???????? Who started this thread anyway? :comp3:
I thinks I jest go backs to werk. Theres aint no school teachers on no construksion sites.