The Importance of Good Spelling

I only have a few minutes before going somewhere, so I`ll go right to the point. And it WILL be harsh.

It appeared to me that some guild members do not use proper spelling/punctuation/syntax and all other aspects of a sentence that make English what it is (or any other language for that matter).

Although I`m not going to point you or name you, you know who you are. This post is to try and convince you that properly made sentences IS something important in life in general. For respect.

The vast majority of people I talk to about this agree with me on this; a post or message written like trash is treated as such. I`d go as far as to say that 80% of the population won`t even read the message. I sure am one of those. I have low to no respect for people that treat their main way of communication as unimportant, and I`m not the only one. Try to write your resume with those internet expressions for fun, tell me how much success you have.

When I read a sentence like "ya i no thez seats r nice luk at this a cup holder it goz up and down kool", I flip a switch, honestly. I feel I`m reading a message from someone that has never been to elementary school. Is that really the image you want to project ?

Some people may argue that they write like this only on the net, and to some extend, it`s true. But you`re taking real bad habits you`re not aware of. THAT`s the main danger. It`s not longer to type correctly, that`s a BS excuse. It sure doesn`t look cool. Like really, why are people voluntarily doing this ? You actually have to WANT to write like that, no ?

Not mastering your own language is a shame in my opinion. You won`t be able to convey your ideas precisely, and if you can, you won`t be taken seriously. There`s no point at all. Please, for your own sake, start writing correctly and show your intelligence...

You can flame me for this if you want. Just write it well !

I have Dyslexia so I have some issues. No I'm not kidding around like most other people do when they say they have it.

Well that's different and I can even understand common mistypes. We have to be human, we can't just write everything perfectly, mistakes are going to pop up here and there. That's not the issue. What I can't understand is people going out of their way to actually write like crap even though they know how to spell the words correctly and put the punctuation decently.

Even typing "your" instead of "you're" or "there" instead of "their" once in a while is common. I remember even editing the previous post because I wrote "right" instead of "write"....

But when those happen, we're smart enough to know it's not intentional.
"ya i no thez seats r nice luk at this a cup holder it goz up and down kool" HAS to be intentional.

Oh if only Eric was still with us...

Well Kami, I see you've taken something that bothers a lot of us and said what most of us want to say about it, but it was quite harsh. My concern is this may cause a guild rift because there are some who talk the way you described. They may think that it is cute or shows personality. I don't like it, but I leave them alone about it because it may be a way of expressing who they are. Albeit in a way you and I would never choose.

Then there are genuine cases of illiteracy. My father is as smart as a whip, but he can't spell to save his life. He is probably a 6th grade or lower reading/spelling/grammar level. When he types in the game he usually always types the word "first" as "frist". It is consistent. I think his mind just doesn't compute language properly when it is written.

So, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt (even though I completely agree with you).

Scott...ROFLMAO!

For those who don't know, Eric is an old friend of Scott's and mine. He used to play Guild Wars a lot, but has since abandoned it for World of Warcraft. He is super intelligent, but when it comes to spelling and grammar he is horrid. Kami, you would probably turn guild chat off indefinitely if he were in the guild. I would say that Eric is another one who doesn't do it intentionally, however. He seems to be a bit illiterate as well, and he knows it. It's just funny what Scott said because we used to rag on him for his spelling/grammar all the time. It was all in good fun. He knows we love him.

LMAO Kami! There used to be a guy in our old guild that typed JUST like that- and on purpose! For some reason he thought it made him look cool. To this day Kraig will say kewl instead of cool sometimes to make me laugh, because it drove me nuts! So now you are in on the joke!

I'm a bit of a grammar Nazi sometimes (by the way, you misspelled punctuation in your original post) but I've come to just accept the fact that not everyone types properly. It bothers me, but I'm not going to be anal about it in Guild Chat. I'll just cringe here alone lol.

by the way, you misspelled punctuation in your original post

Corrected. Thanks.
It`s "ponctuation" in French, so habit kicked in.

As for illiterate people, well there`s not much we can do about that except try to convince them to learn it properly.

If you have the guts to tell me you`re illiterate, I`ll assume you can`t read/write correctly and won`t bother you about it. After all, there ARE illiterate people out there.

But those are really exceptions.

Well, it's all a matter of how badly it bothers you and if you can function properly when people speak like that or not. As much as it bugs me I can't just ignore someone who talks like that if they ask for help with something because my job as officer means I've got a bigger responsibility.

*hugs* Laura! Right on, girl! I knew you were a great choice for officer!

Thanks V. Means a lot since I wasn't a member long before moving up. I wanna do my best to make Moon proud.

Of course I don`t ignore people in guild chat because of that. It bothers me and I roll eyes, but I still answer.

I can`t hide the fact I don`t reply in local chat though. But I do sometimes when someone asks something nicely spelled.

I sometimes shorten things because sometimes I'm holding Adam's hand and it takes to long for me to type lol. So I say stuff like "ya" and "u".

Awwww!! So are you holding his hand out of love or because he's too scared to play by himself. >.>

I'm dyslexic too and I also hate seeing others use improper grammar and spelling (and when it's obvious to me then it must be bad). That's why it takes me forever to respond in Guild chat or sometimes seem really quiet. It's not that I'm a loner, I just can't keep up with the conversation at times. By the time I've written something to say, the topic has changed and my ultra, super, witty remark is now remiss ='(

No Laura its the other way around. I have Adam hold MY hand when I am Playing

I agree with Kami/Laura/other people. I don't like when people type things like "u" and "r". I text message a lot too, and I honestly can't have good conversations with people who text like that, it's annoying >.>

Also, Kami your apostrophes look different then mine lulz. The bottom of them slant to the side, whereas mine look like they're going straight down...maybe it's just my computer?

Well it may drive me nuts when everyone else does it, but from now on when Allison does it I'll think, "awwwww how sweet!"

Depends on the computer I'm using Axel. This is my home comp, apostrophes are straight.

If I'm using a Japanese computer, then they aren't straight because I think it's not officially an apostrophe lol... It's what I found to be the closest to it.

He's afraid of me

I know this is an old thread, but having a bad day at work and I figured I'd relax by doing something non work-related for a bit.

I'm a bit of a paradox in that I am a bit of a grammar/spelling nazi, yet I am the worse typist in the world. I am dyslexic when typing (but not writing or reading) and will very commonly swap the order of 2 letters. My brain goes faster than my fingers so sometimes I skip typing an entire word! I'm also really bad about accidentally typing a semicolon ; instead of an apostrophe '
To give you an idea of how bad I type, I was not always able to keep up with the emotes for the Dead King game at Halloween, I kept mistyping them.

It does get old editing what you just wrote, so I just let it go. Especially if it's in the middle of an intense play session, or maybe the Halloween party trivia I know it's laziness, but hopefully not taken as a sign of lack of respect.


With regard to "phonetic" writing as in the example you give, I absolutely hate it. It's not something you will see from me. Research shows that there are 2 kinds of readers: visual readers and phonetic readers. I happen to be part of the former group: I don't sound out words, I "see" them. In fact I've been known to read an entire novel but couldn't tell you at the end of it what the name of that Russian spy was. I "saw" his name but never thought about sounding it out. I would however pick it out of a list of 10 names (true story, I actually participated as a test subject on a study of reading mechanisms in college).

A misspelling can really throw me off. In fact I get very annoyed at "it's" vs "its" for example, because to me they are very different meanings, even though they sound the same. (Or dual and duel for those of you that were online last night )

Not that I'm a perfect speller or anything. In fact I'm not even a native English speaker. Annoys the heck out of my wife when she keeps loosing at Scrabble

In fact the same applies to French, my native language, I was playing quite late one night and a few people on my team were speaking to each other in a language I did not recognize. The mission was almost over when I realized it was actually French, just "phonetic" style for:, similar to the example above in English.

Chris wrote:

Not that I'm a perfect speller or anything. In fact I'm not even a native English speaker. Annoys the heck out of my wife when she keeps loosing at Scrabble

In fact the same applies to French, my native language, I was playing quite late one night and a few people on my team were speaking to each other in a language I did not recognize. The mission was almost over when I realized it was actually French, just "phonetic" style for:, similar to the example above in English.

I <3 scrabble.

Also, that second part made me laugh. I agree with you on how annoying it is.

Yop, I'm glad you agree.

And I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with French as my native language. XD

Although if you're from France, you might find my Quebec way of speaking.. humm... archaic. lol

Kami, my Gramere was from Lorraine France, but she still loved the French Canadians.