Apostrophe abuse!

[whatshisname]

Originally Posted by Drew

My somewhat, erm, erratic typing notwithstanding, I'm somewhat of a grammar nazi myself, although it's more internet slang (ur) or blatantly bad spellings of easy words (tripple rectifier, distortion peddle) that kill me.

-D

I'm with you, Drew. It used to not bother me at all, since when posting a message board, we're just BSing. BUT, the longer I've been online, the more it bothers me. It's become apparent that many of these people are just flat out illiterate. And, it's absolutely shocking how many of them there are out there.

[Algiman]

"You're and your" and "their, there and they're" being used the wrong way really irritates me.

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Originally Posted by Algiman

"You're and your" and "their, there and they're" being used the wrong way really irritates me.

Sometimes, this is not the result of ignorance, but the result of muscle memory. Sometimes my fingers will just type "their" when I know I mean "they're," and I go back and re-read what I wrote, and think to myself, "I know better than that. How'd that happen?"

[jono]

Originally Posted by hexa-db

Buy your Xmas tree's here! which should read Buy your Xmas trees here!

Does it strike anyone else as strange that they they've used Xmas instead of Christmas? And what would Xmas be classed as anyway? Is it a contraction... Or just an americanism?

[bpd111]

Originally Posted by Ferrous Lepidoptera

Bare with me, while I rant a bit. All this wining about poor spelling, it's really a mute point, and I could care less about this. Sure, alot of people could of used a spell checker, but what fun is that? Why should we tow the line, when for all intensive purposes, people still no what your talking about? Afterall, it's only a web sight. I await you're reply with baited breath.

(That was fun.)

Its won thing if u du it on perpose. Its somting ls interily if u dont no wat u'r duing.

[kennydoe]

I started a thread like this a few years ago. I got bashed a whole lot more than this.

Press on, Don Quixote. You'll never find a cure for bad spelling.

~K

[darren wilson]

I've been meaning to pick up "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" for ages now... i must go to the bookstore! I'm pretty particular about spelling and punctuation, and that was exacerbated even more by taking years of typography in my design program... not only do the apostrophes have to be in the correct places, but they also have to be proper typographic apostrophes, and not “typewriter” apostrophes:

[font=Georgia]’[/font] vs. [font=Georgia]'[/font]

[pawel]

Couldn't agree more. English isn't even my first language, but bad spelling and punctuation from native speakers just plain irritates me...

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by jono

Does it strike anyone else as strange that they they've used Xmas instead of Christmas? And what would Xmas be classed as anyway? Is it a contraction... Or just an americanism?

Most likely a contraction, as the abbreviation and usage of the "X" has been around long before America came to be. The "X" in X-mas is actually the Greek letter "chi," and it's a common abbreviation for "Christ." (chi is the first letter of "Christ" in Greek.) So the next time you see "X-Mas" don't say "eks-mas", say "kye-mas."

[jem7vwh]

While I'm not one to sit and grade posts for punctuation and grammar, some sense of order is helpful when trying to understand what someone is asking. My least favorite type of first post is when a newcomer clearly has an important question but cannot seem to find enough words to explain himself.

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Originally Posted by jem7vwh

My least favorite type of first post is when a newcomer clearly has an important question but cannot seem to find enough words to explain himself.

I wonder how much of this has to do with whether a person is a touch typist or not. I can imagine if I were a hunt-and-pecker I might tend to conserve keystrokes, but as a touch typist, I can let the words fly with relative ease.

[ibanezrg520kid]

Yes's that's really's annoying's isn't it's. LOL no i'm just kidding!!! It does get very annoying!!!

[Artist]

There was an advert for a Irish university I saw a couple of years ago that claimed

"We guarantee A's"

Anyone want to take an English course there?

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Most likely a contraction, as the abbreviation and usage of the "X" has been around long before America came to be. The "X" in X-mas is actually the Greek letter "chi," and it's a common abbreviation for "Christ." (chi is the first letter of "Christ" in Greek.) So the next time you see "X-Mas" don't say "eks-mas", say "kye-mas."

Interesting, although I always considered it a "Politically Correct-ism" myself (although when you get right down to it, there's a cross still implied in there, so who knows).

-D

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Ferrous Lepidoptera

Afterall, it's only a web sight.

Well, you raise an interesting point, so I'll pose a question - "At what point does a popular medium become accepted as an avenue of formal discourse?" I mean, it wasn't until the mid 1800's that writing fiction really became accepted as a "respectable" pursuit; prior to that it was regarded as something no true gentleman (to say nothing of gentlewoman) would indulge in, as it was somehow dishonest. The critical study of fiction is actually quite new, something that came as quite a shock to me (I majored in American Lit).

In this day and age of web journalism, online discussion forums, and blogs, can we really say that it's "only" the web, and thus we shouldn't be held to uphold gramatical standards?

I'll accept the argument that the internet is creating it's own grammatical rules - i don't agree, nor would I approve if I did - but I wouldn't accept that it's somehow "exempt."

Thoughts welcome.

-D

PS - "web site."