The English language

[Carl Hibbard]

"Can I lock a thread for being boring?"

It's a complete mystery why you have locked some other threads, so why not?

Harsh

[Kevin Thurlow]

Ok, a few, not some!

[Patrick McGovern]

YOU CANT

How did they know?

[David Lettington]

The one thing that really matters is the message not the method of delivery.

I agree wholeheartedly, but when the delivery is so poor that the message becomes entirely obscured, then it's a problem for the reader.

[IanDavis]

Sorry David, but if the message is completely obscured then you can't have a reader for it.

[Clive Blackburn]

Sorry David, but if the message is completely obscured then you can't have a reader for it.

I have to disagree with this, I regularly read messages on this forum and haven't the slightest clue what the author is talking about!

[IanDavis]

Quite right, I take it all back.

[John Moore]

There is a danger that this thread may become useful - some of it, at least at the moment, is unintelligible to me. I would suggest chopping it, Carl.

[Paul Douglass]

Fair play - forgot the quote - that's fine.

On two occasions, a sentence was started without a capital letter. (A dash performs the same function as a full stop in this type of usage)

But one missing quote out of a message isn't bad (there you go - I do know how to use quotes).

Capital letter missed again in bracketed sentence

But the quality of spelling and grammar in some posters is atrocious.

'In' should be replaced by 'by'

When you're putting arguments across and your message is littered with "..." and spelling mistakes it just takes that bit longer and its also rather annoying.

Some people find being corrected annoying.
Needs a comma after 'mistakes'

My five year old daughter is currently doing phonetics and how we form basic words.

As a general rule, it is much better to use more specific words to describe what is meant.
'doing' should be replaced by 'studying'

Perhaps some of the instigators could do no worse than go back to school!

'Instigators' doesn't sound right - 'Offenders' perhaps (?)

The point is, that we all have our own standards, and everyone is different in many ways.
Bad grammar or spelling doesn't usually bother me, but if it is widespread, I do notice it - but I generally wouldn't criticise it (!)
except as a joke, or to make a point!!

Perhaps the only mistake which irritates me, is using 'of' instead of 'have', which seems quite uneducated, as it is usually used by those who speak more than they write.

I also wanted to point out that there are other areas where you might encounter people with inferior standards -
E.g. If you came across beginners analysing a chess game, would you become impatient with them??
We all have our areas of expertise, but the expertise is different for each person.
I do find it amazing that there are many, who don't seem to know the difference between 'there' and 'their', which can't really be checked on a spell checker!
I have to admit that I don't always use a spell checker - Sometimes I can't be bothered! - and this should really be respected!!
In my opinion, you are projecting your own impatience on to others by blaming them - but might I suggest that the main cause is your own impatience -
My Father used to be the same with photography - With most people, they just look at pictures, but he criticised every one of them, all the time!! - and his expertise was not that great! -
which leads me to another general rule - Those who are quick to criticise others in a specific area, are usually not tremendously adept in that area.
One example - I have been using logic for my whole life - I have always looked at things deeply and cognitively - but sometimes, after explaining an idea to some whippersnapper who has just completed a month's course in logic, they start quoting logical fallacies which they've just learned!!
They think they know everything, just because they have completed one course!!
Similarly, often, those who have not been particularly adept at grammar, but have completed a course, think they know everything - They beginto notice mistakes in others!! But those who have been grammatically adept for a long time, just get used to others' lower standard.

I just thought of another possibility - Perhaps it is an 'age' thing (?) - Young(er) people get used to using spellcheckers, and perhaps they don't fully realise how it used to be.
Youngsters seem much more dependent upon technology (e.g. calculators) these days, and forget that those who were born earlier, try to be more self sufficient

Thanks for your observations. However, as stated previously I'm not perfect myself. Also I don't use a spell checker or any software to check my sentences. However, if I was aware that I am not particularly great in writing anything remotely intelligent, I would take advantage of the tools out there. I'm a great advocate in learning the classical ways of learning (and teaching) so prefer to use my brain for thinking, rather than using something else to do this.

I'm not really termed as a youngster, being 36 on Christmas Day this year!

In regards to the terming this topic boring - I would be discouraged by that as its quite relevant to discuss the English language on a forum when plenty of posts are wirrten.

Why lock this? Its in the "Not Chess" section and if you find it boring then simply don't read it. There's no abuse and nothing slanderous or anything remotely controversial (unlike a lot of threads in this forum!) .

Leave it alone!!

[Brian Whitaker]

Can't comment at the moment - Gone phishing!