Punctuation

[abilicious]

Call me an old git, but I do like to see correct punctuation and spelling. Do people get taught this in schools anymore? While I'm on the rant, do people use their indicators anymore, or are we all expected to mind-read? Answers on a postage stamp, please ...

[pugwash52]

I wouldn't dream of calling you an old git, abilicious, and I do agree with you about punctuation, but I'm afraid it's going the same way as correct spelling. I blame all the text messaging, don't you?

[DaSwede]

And there are forrinners here.

And dyslexics.

[bluejonjo]

must b bcos of txt spk. I agree. Its infuriating.

[dot.hawkes]

You would die laughing at some of the application forms I have been sent this week for the 14 hour vacancy, better than the tele! Did you know that 4 out of 5 Wiganers think their Country of birth is Billinge Hospital?

[glenis]

i saw a cheap birthday card ,on sale in the market that said " for you're birthday"

[DaSwede]

Still, if you are a foreigner or a dyslexic or a person with a received minor brain damage, what would you have us do, other than our best?

I worked professionally with brain damaged patients for many years, and I feel compelled to speak on their behalf here, knowing that many of them are shamed from doing it themselves, or indeed from entering a site like this one in the first place.

As for me, I chose my alias to signal my imperfection and thus be 'forgiven', as it were. Is it really necessary that everybody else who's aware of messing it up goes and does the same: DaStrokeSurvivor. DaDyslexicThroughNoFaultOfMyOwn.

Or is it more important that we understand what the other person is trying to say.

[THECORBYLOON]

DaSwede, if I walked up to you, swore at you and then walked away, what would be your reaction?

[DaSwede]

Hi THECORBYLOON, I think you must have seriously missed the point I was trying to make. Either that, or I'm missing yours. If you misunderstood what I was trying to say, do please read again. All the best, DaSwede (foreigner.)

[Litchick]

abilicious, I agree with you 100% -- I hate it when people (foreigners and brain damaged excluded) don't use correct punctuation and spelling!!!

[I_love_Ken]

I very much agree with you Abilicious, I'm at high school at the moment, and it's awful, I don't even understand what some of my friends say sometimes, a lot of people do not make any sense at all, I'd hate to see myself turning into one of these people who use this language, it's so annoying, but there are so many people use this, that others think it's stylish to use it too, it's not, it just shows how stupid you are, most of the people in our school who use this language are in the bottom sets for everything, especially english, it doesn't get you any marks at all!

[THECORBYLOON]

DaSwede if I swore at you unprovoked would you wonder if I had Tourette's Syndrome or just assume I was an ignorant lout ? The point is we all have to make assumptions and it is not possible to make allowances for all circumstances. I have no doubt there are members on here who have dyslexia but does that mean that EVERYONE who can't differentiate between there, their and they're is also dyslexic? The words "its" and "it's" have different meanings but many confuse the two. It is not unreasonable to assume a member has received a full education and would have been telt the differences.

[DaSwede]

Ok, THECORBYLOON, I see your point. You are right, we do all have to make assumptions, that's the way our brains are wired. Throughout the centuries it has probably been extremely beneficial for the survival of our species to be able to quickly categorize in terms of poisonous/non-poisonous, dangerous/non-dangerous, etcetera, and I guess we just can't help performing that kind of quick judgement, whether we want to or not. God knows I'm guilty of it myself. By my two replies I really just meant to stimulate other AB:ers as well as myself not to stop at our gut reaction but rather to make it an incitement for further thinking about what may lie behind that which meets the eye. I have in the past been an aggressive person with so many chips on my shoulder, and this is pretty much the way I've dealt with it: Not denying myself the purge of a gut reaction, but certainly not stopping at it either. You know, not to make it the grand finale but rather the starting point of something else. And in thinking about this, I still don't know why people would opt to make linguistical mistakes if they had the chance not to? Unless of course it's to signal some kind of cultural status, in which case it isn't a mistake but a choice. (In Sweden we have something called suburbian Swedish, which many 'old gits' (said jokingly, abilicious) consider to be faulty, but really it isn't, it's more of a language within the language - and using it is an informed choice amongst the greater part of those who do.)

Having said that, I do enjoy a funny linguistical mistake myself... I'd quote you all one, but my 'darlings' are all Swedish, so... Take care, all.

[DaSwede]

...and I'm back. To say that I'm not pointing anybody here out as being aggressive. I'm speaking of myself, in the past.