Grammar and spelling

I'm Joe Nobody, from Nowhere. I'm a high school graduate, no college.
I get so tired of carelessness.
I've decided to rant about carelessness in print. If you don't like what I have to say, and you think it's perfectly acceptable to litter posts with misspelled words, horribly improper grammar, lack of punctuation, start your own thread. This is my personal appeal to clean things up.
I get a headache from trying to figure out what someone means, when "there" is used instead of, "they're", or, "their". Maybe it's a minor point to you, but I have to stop and decipher what's been printed. The problem is only getting worse, as it seems that no one cares.

Spellcheck is your friend. Please, use it.
Please, learn the differences between "your" and, "you're", "there", "their" and "they're".
"Two", "to" and, "too": please learn the use of each.
"Etc." is the abbreviation for, "et cetera", which means, "and so forth". It's Latin. I don't know what, "ect" is.
It's, "used to", as in, "I used to have no trouble reading the printed word."
The apostrophe has its uses, but please learn where it's used and where it's not.
It's properly used to denote possession, such as, "Gary's" or, "Pat's". It's not necessary in words that already denote possession, such as, "hers", "ours", "his" or "theirs".
It's unnecessary, and even confusing, when used in words that are plural, but are not possessive, such as, "truck's", or "pike pole's". I don't know who started that.
It's also used in contractions, such as, "it's" which is the contraction of, "it is".

It's, "definitely", not , "definately". Think of the word, "finite", if it helps.

Typographical errors are one thing. Blatant spelling errors that have become far too common have just become a sign that we've become lazy, and that bothers me.

I'll be blunt. When I read a post that is full of common errors, I form an impression that it was written by a dummy, or someone who is just too lazy and careless to take the time to learn the language we use every day. Some posts are so bad that I skip past them. I'd be willing to bet that there are others who have the same reaction.

C'mon folks, let's clean it up, please.
Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by carl hockett on January 27, 2011 at 4:54pm

I half to agree...I went to skul nad i must admet that HUKED ON FONIX WURKED FUR MI.

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Permalink Reply by joemac on January 28, 2011 at 7:41am

Just as a reminder, the first two sentences in my initial post should suggest a sense of humility on my part. There is no condescension or elitist attitude here.

Grammar and spelling are taught in grade school/primary school. The extent of one's education is no excuse for improper spelling or grammar. It all comes down to whether you care, or you don't. If you care, you use Spellchecker and proofread your post before hitting the send button. Some don't need to, as they're proficient at writing from practice. Maybe they write for a living.

Personally, I simply become annoyed at the direction we seem to be going, as a society.
I see patterns. "Definately" is more common than the proper spelling of the word, and it irritates me.
"Than" and, "then", are interchanged, as though there is no difference. The list goes on and on, and no one seems to do anything about it, so I felt compelled to say something.

I hold the door for someone at the store, and I'm ignored. I don't expect, or want, a big ta-do, but what happened to manners? I'm so tired of the counter person continuing their conversation with a coworker and ignoring me, only to take my debit card and hand me a receipt without ever making eye contact. I might get a, "Thanks. Have a nice day". I can't really do anything about that, but I can speak up about the atrocious, blatant, repeated errors I see here.

To Hell in a hand basket, indeed.

Thanks, everyone, for allowing me to rant. It's been a bit refreshing to see that I'm not so alone.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Yarborough on January 28, 2011 at 8:30am

I understand what you are saying Firewriter. But think of it like this: When grammar mistakes lead to us being sued, cast a negative shadow over our department and written reports go to other agencies (federal and local) looking like a first grader wrote it, then, yes, it is a problem. And when our Chiefs get on camera and can't convey a positive image, what does that say to the citizens who pay our salary?

The real deal is that regardless of background, everyone has the responsiblity in this profession to invest in their skills. Heck, I am from the South, so there are times when I have to work on my accent. It is always there, but when I am in meetings with local leaders, representing my department, I want to sound professional. And any written report that I send up is going to sound like I know proper English.

Long story short, grammar and spelling affects our money!