This is a topic guaranteed to bring out my innate Victor Meldrew. I can't get too excited about individuals' shortcomings vis a vis grammar and punctuation and spelling (though I agree it would be a courtesy to get it right) but I bloody resent the failings of professional communicators who make a mess of it. I can always find clangers even in the Times these days, and my local paper is full of howlers every week.
We can't all be perfect and this subject has been raised many times on AB.Spare a thought for the people who maybe don't have English as their first language and those who may have other problems ..dyslexia for example .Also computer dunces like me who were brought up with pen and paper.
It's a website ..not a lesson in grammar,punctuation and spelling.I admit to getting slightly annoyed with those individuals who write in text speak or gangsta rap or whatever it is called but these are the times we live in. The days of copperplate are long gone .I have a brother who is 76 ..he is losing his eyesight due to macular degeneration but loves the fact that he can communicate with people around the world......do forgive him his odd typo . :)
The whole point of using correct grammar, spelling and punctuation is so that everybody can understand your message. There are hundreds of answers on this site that are so badly written that they require the reader to spend ages trying to work out what is meant. I don't usually bother. I find it incredibly arrogant and thoughtless of the poster to expect this.
And i find it incredibly arrogant and thoughtless that you expect everyone else to be so pedantic over their spelling!
As long as it's legible and it's obviously a genuine typing mistake, does it matter? honestly???
The only thing guaranteed to make me stop reading a post or not bother with it at all is text speak- that to me shows laziness. Bad spelling and grammar I can live with- no one's perfect after all, but not that.
I think you can either spell or you can't, I can spell (if anyone asks me how to spell something I just seem to see the word in my head) but I am useless at maths or anything else for that matter !! At least I can do something right ...
But, how do we spend a second spell checking our answers?
If you didn't know how to spell it in the first place, you're not going to by reading through it again.
Some spelling mistakes are made because people are rushing on the keyboard. It is also easier to make mistakes on a keyboard because you are not writing. There is memory in the physical movement of your hand when writing. I am an excellent speller but when I check my work there may be an odd spelling mistake which would not have occurred had I been writing.