Forums → WEPR → [necro offtopic]Have you noticed that most people are too lazy to spell correctly?

I will be the first to admit that I am a stickler for grammar and the proper use of the language. I think it is sad that many of the people here choose to express themselves so poorly. All we have here is our words to show ourselves to each other, and when you spell things incorrectly or have horrid, rambling, run-on sentences, it reflects poorly upon you. I do judge people based on their ability to write, as snarky as that may seem. It really just shows the amount of effort you put into your appearance, as well as your intelligence. Even if you misspell something, knowing how to spell it, no one else knows that, and it just makes you look ignorant.

As you can tell, this is a topic that really agitates me. Not only do poor grammar and misspellings make communication all that harder, it makes you look uneducated.

Well I hate it when people use this "howw doo u mak gammes ples tel" I don't do that but thats the way some people are amd I might leave out a letter in a word only because my computer keybord is really bad.

Im a spanish girl but i speak English easily and i dont need a spell checker =)
And they are not lazy to learn , its because many just speak other languages and its too hard to learn.
My first time on a english site was when me were young(7 years) and thats because i know English.

Anyways sometimes i use my spellchecker as i use Firefox.

I get where you're coming from, and yes I myself have noticed, but I don't mind it all too much, so long as I am able to understand most of it all. Most of the time, it is just people being too lazy to type things out, spelt correctly.

Ummm, shouldn't this belong in the tavern? But, so I don't spoil the fun, here is what i have to say.

You can sometimes tell alot about a person just by the way they talk. If someone says, "Hayy watz ^?" then he/she is probably a kid who is just playing around and just wants points. If someone says something that brings up an interesting conversation, and uses proper grammar, capitalization, spelling etc, then he/she might be someone that is mature enough to use a couple more seconds to make sure everything is okay.

Of course, this isn't true for EVERYONE....

I dont think this belongs in world politics

Idk if it lzness , prbly jst too much txting.

Hmmm, well, if texting is the problem, I often use short-cuts there, but I don't seem to have a problem with typing. And besides, it's not just laziness, some people who type fast are sure to mispell a word, anyway, it's not our business, just get use to them making errors or short-cuts.

Using AIM-speak, chatspeak, l33t-speak, txt-spk, etc. is all acceptable within certain contexts: where assumed knowledge of abbreviations can be taken for granted. However if you want to be understood by everybody, it's best to refer to the world standard English. Simple as that. Well, not quite so simple, because not everybody has a perfect grasp of English, but seeing as standardisation is the central requirement to communication, that's what you get!

Aside from my usage of UK (Australian) English, I take care to spell everything as correctly as possible, typos included. I estimate that a typo gets away from me about once every...3000-5000 words or so, less now that later versions of Firefox come with auto-spellcheck. However part of this comes from the fact I've memorised the location of every key on a standard QWERTY keyboard so I actually type by feel, not sight. I don't even have to look at the screen to know when I've made a typo! That just came with practice, and typing looooots of essays.

Also, with the development of T9 auto-complete dictionaries, common txt abbreviations are now less efficient than spelling out the word!

While I'm at it, a neat little anecdote:

When I was very young, late at night I would sometimes wake up to hear the tapping of the keyboard- that would be my father coding something (he was an IT consultant). Being such a long time ago, it was one of those heavy lead-based keyboards you could probably kill somebody with, so it was like listening to a machinegun going (no wonder I couldn't go back to sleep!)

But the neat part was that I could tell not exactly what my father was typing, but definitely certain characters, including the spacebar, the modifier keys (ctrl, alt, tab, enter/return) and especially backspace.

Very often, with 10-finger/touch typists, detecting a typo comes from reflexes. Our fingers are on autopilot such that we aren't even mindful of the patterns- the process of reading and reviewing what we've typed is an independent one from the process of typing, and that's why we can do speeds like 100, even 200wpm in some cases. However this means that when we do make a typo, we end up typing some more until we realise "oops, typo". Usually at this point, we hammer the backspace until the typo goes. It's just faster.

I noticed this by hearing my father type, not watching it, and eventually adopted that behavior myself. For me, the sound of typing is very important- not only that but the character of the sound also tells me about the build-quality of the keyboard, as well as its state, which is why I always judge a keyboard on its sound.

In rapidfire communication and brief messages such as txting and IM, however, slapping the backspace repeatedly is dreadfully inefficient unless you are really set in your ways. Which is why in IM, typos are so much more common. This in itself has given rise to a set of commonly recognised typos which has been commentated on by its adoption into 'teh internetz' lexicon, generally as 'lulz' speak. 'Teh' is in fact the most common of these. 'Freudian slip' typos are also highly popular.

I'm putting this comment in bold because it's a really big pet peeve of mine, and it also happens to be a major issue today:

Please learn when to use contractions properly. Paying a little attention won't kill you

If I see any more posts that mix up your and you're, I swear I'm going to start flagging each and every one of them for deletion.

I only appreciate misspelling in lolcat images, and it's understandable. Cats have large paws that make it hard to type correctly.

^That is so true. The way they spell meh, zomg, lawl, and other shenanigans is quite funny.

this is ridiculous and i think this should be enforced by the mods.

The forums there were much better because of the features and the spelling that you could read.

Yea same I couldn't be bothered typing full words but on another forum they banned me for not spelling any word correctly so I started to spell complete words

Yes a lot of people don't spell right because they are to lazy.

But even those that do spell right, often most of them do not use there conventions right.

Another comment: If you are having trouble typing, GET FIREFOX. iT [i]REALLY, REALLY, REALLLLLY, will help.

Yeah but it would be cool if they could do a synonym check like on word. You know, encase you want really smart words

but seeing as standardisation is the central requirement to communication, that's what you get!

Innit bruv!

That just came with practice, and typing looooots of essays.

Very often, with 10-finger/touch typists,

If I see any more posts that mix up your and you're, I swear I'm going to start flagging each and every one of them for deletion.

i would understand if it was a big topic and a couple months old...but come on!!!!! There are many other topics that are active instead of an 08 one.....and 6 words aren't really worth it. If you did not see the date it said than I apologize. But Highfire really went all out didn't he.