Apostrophes!

Quote by Pete_sw
The following is the opinion of the author and in no way reflects the views of anyone else unless otherwise stated. The following comments are not directed at any individual living, dead or somewhere in between, but are meant as a point of reference only.
Here we go again
Sorry screwtape, not aimed at you personally, but this is a subject that used to come up ad nausium in the pre takeover days and quite frankly gets on my tits.
Punctuation / spelling / grammar:
Ok do I care?
No, not one bit.
Why?
Because life really is too short.
What’s important?
That the person, or persons typing get their message across in the exact manner / tone in which it is meant and that the information being shared is understood by the recipient. (I’ll come back to this)
I will apologise here and now to the purists among us, all I can say is that I really do begrudge you the time, and effort. Personally I have little of both so please humour me.
Ok to the point. Like it or loathe it, we live in a multi cultural / racial society. Not everyone has had the benefit of a private school education, and some have not had the benefit of any education what so ever, be it through their own fault, or someone else’s. add to that the myriad of medical conditions that help to confuse and confound the would be student in his / her endeavours and just maybe you might begin to form a glimmer of tolerance.
I give you my own situation as a case in point:- English is not my first language, I was subjected to a mediocre education at best and at the age of 47 was recently diagnosed with dyslexia. I was always told, and eventually believed that I was just thick
Now before we all jump to the defence of the great British education system, lets just bear a few points in mind
“The CBI said 42% of the employers it surveyed were unhappy with reading, writing and numeracy skills.” (source: )
ALMOST half of children are leaving primary school without the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic (source:
I could go on :roll:
I take my hat off to the bravery of people who are well aware of the fact that for whatever reason their written / language / social / conversational skills may not be quite as honed as others, but who decide to contribute to online forums / discussions regardless, it takes a certain kind of ‘guts’ to open yourself up to ridicule and then be able to swallow it without recourse to pettiness.
To return to the over / misuse of punctuation, phraseology, and emoticons:
One of the big problems with this media , i.e. forums, live chat, instant messaging etc. is that it is oh so easy for the reader to misconstrue the emotion / intent / mood of the poster. Therefore you will find that some people, especially those who perhaps have a little more / longer experience of the whole medium tend to sometimes use (what some would call) inappropriate punctuation to try and convey the intended emotion behind the post, normally so as to avoid misunderstanding and / or conflict. Alternatively of course it could also be used to signal displeasure / anger etc
For instance:
I’m sorry, but I really do not care for the tone of your last post. It seems that we have a problem with the subject and I must protest at your insinuations.
Sounds reasonable? I thought so.
I’m sorry, but I really do not care for the ‘tone’ of your last post. :taz: It seems that we have a “problem” with the subject and I “must” protest at your insinuations. :jagsatwork:
Hmmm, cruising for a bruising methinks? Alternatively……
I’m sorry, :dunno: but I really do not care for the tone of your last post. :cry: It seems that we have a problem with the subject hwoar: and I must protest at your insinuations. :inlove: :giggle:
So you see, although it may seem like some of us have absolutely no understanding of the literary concepts of this great language of ours, maybe some of us just feel that we are actually NOT the guardians appointed to keep it alive as there are far higher, more qualified, and much better placed individuals who can be trusted to do that for us in fact, it's what we pay them for :shock:
This is after all ’just another forum’ where we are allowed to express our opinions and hope in some small way to be understood :lol2:
Oh and BWM, when you have finished with tune’s ‘little’ quark, I have a lepton that will really put you in a spin :giggle:
And if you thought this was bad, you should have seen it without the benefit of a spell checker

Quote by
I'm still not sure about this, so far:
Freckledbird & jaymar say you never write: s's
and Screwtape says it depends whether they are names from the ancient world and saints' names but I would have to check.
Screwtape can you check for me please?
Now I agree that - Davies's - doesn't look right because of the double s, but how about - Dreyfus's - that doesn't look right either but when you say the name you do pronounce the extra 's', does this effect the rule?
And lastly John Davies is currently snowed in

This is about being appropriate too. If I receive a letter from my back I get irritated if it is not written correctly.

Quote by blueandpink
Warmer, I saw that before you edited it, wait for Bristol
pink x

This is about being appropriate too. If I receive a letter from my back I get irritated if it is not written correctly.

Quote by Screwtape
Pete_sw,
I have made the point, more than once now, that I only objected to the dreadful grammar in a post that referred to others as 'morons' without even being able to spell the word correctly.

Quote by de_sade

I am sure I was not alone to be amused when I saw members beings described as "morron's".

Not everyone has a natural grasp of the English language and I don't think it should be seen as a personal slight if somebody contacts you and has trouble stringing a sentence together, it's their problem not yours.

The written word is really not my forte and I probably make lots of spelling and grammatical mistakes quite regularly (thank God for Microsoft Word!). It doesn't help being dyslexic either.
However I do make an effort and do get really irritated by 'text-speak'.
I'm not a pedant when it comes to subjects such as this as it seems I'm not educated enough to be one.
Not everyone has a natural grasp of the English language and I don't think it should be seen as a personal slight if somebody contacts you and has trouble stringing a sentence together, it's their problem not yours.

Quote by blueandpink
The written word is really not my forte and I probably make lots of spelling and grammatical mistakes quite regularly (thank God for Microsoft Word!). It doesn't help being dyslexic either.
However I do make an effort and do get really irritated by 'text-speak'.
I'm not a pedant when it comes to subjects such as this as it seems I'm not educated enough to be one.
Not everyone has a natural grasp of the English language and I don't think it should be seen as a personal slight if somebody contacts you and has trouble stringing a sentence together, it's their problem not yours.

I wanted to post this in the "Photo's" thread but it was understandably locked for going off-topic; so maybe I can start a new one.
I am sure I was not alone to be amused when I saw members beings described as "morron's". Previously, I had been mildly irritated by the use of the apostrophe where none belonged but I am aware I can be terribly pedantic over such things, and, well, annoying; so I said nothing.
But does that kind of thing bother you as much as it does me? I think it's the willful ignorance that irritates me so. There really is no excuse these days. We all write emails and posts and whatever else pretty much every day. We all make typos and genuine mistakes but to me peppering your correspondence with child-like errors is just laziness and lacking in respect for the person doing the reading.
And don't even get me started on the '8 Items or less' sign! I am sure they do it to on purpose!
Richard (being pedantic).

Quote by jaymar
Would you like some gas and air Pete??

Quote by Screwtape
Pete_sw,
I have made the point, more than once now, that I only objected to the dreadful grammar in a post that referred to others as 'morons' without even being able to spell the word correctly.
The rest of my post was not directed at anyone else here but was a more general point which I thought might make for an interesting discussion.
I thought all the talk about the benefits of an education were over the top. Information is free and, with the Web, readily available to anyone who can be bothered. As Polo pointed out, there is a huge difference between a lack of education and basic laziness. If people want to be lazy then that is fine with me. If they expect me to be the one to pick through their meaning when it is unclear then they might be disappointed.
And, once more in case it was missed yet again, I was objecting only to he who called others 'morons' when he couldn't even spell the word. Had he not done that I'd have said absolutely nothing.
Richard

Quote by keeno
I have been often accused of being a pedant. But not when it comes to grammer. I struggle. I try to get it right but sadly fail. I'm sure this post will be littered with errors. I like good grammer and good spelling but I am not a 'grammer facist'.
The most important thing with writing is the passing of information. Everything else are just arbitary rules. Here's a good example.
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe and the biran fguiers it out aynawy.

Quote by keeno
I have been often accused of being a pedant. But not when it comes to grammer. I struggle. I try to get it right but sadly fail. I'm sure this post will be littered with errors. I like good grammer and good spelling but I am not a 'grammer facist'.

If I have misread your intentions then please accept my apologies, I would though go back and read some of your posts before issuing too strongly worded denials

Quote by Kiss
I have been often accused of being a pedant. But not when it comes to grammer. I struggle. I try to get it right but sadly fail. I'm sure this post will be littered with errors. I like good grammer and good spelling but I am not a 'grammer facist'.