Posts Should Be Legible!!

Pathless · 12-19-2007, 07:27 PM

One of my pet peeves has been cropping up more and more on these forums. I have a hard time reading posts that are not legible. Often I will want to read a thread, but be frustrated when I come across a post that is not formatted cleanly, has many mispellings, run-on sentences, missing punctuation and the like. Part of me wants to just skip those posts, but I also want to know what people are thinking and writing. I will put in the extra effort to read a scraggly post, but there are times when I decide that it's not worth the trouble and just skip a particularly indecipherable one.

I know that not everyone is a grammar fiend, but some basic steps can be taken to enhance the readability of a post:

Clear paragraph breaks
Spell-checking
Proper capitalization
Reviewing the post after it has been posted to clean up mistakes and typos

Another minor thing that sometimes makes a post difficult for me is the overuse of internet shorthand, like u r and 2 instead of too. I think this is mostly a personal problem on my end, but since I am posting this, I figured, what the hey, I'd let everyone know.

Not that people should be real concerned if I am not reading every one of their posts (and probably there are some here who would prefer that I don't read their posts

), but I imagine that I'm not the only one who has issues reading poorly formatted posts.

Thanks,
P.

greymare · 12-19-2007, 10:46 PM

sorry Pathless. Im probably one of those people who peeve you off. Ill try to be better. honest. You remind me of a school teacher I had. I was about 8 or so and I gave her a christmas card, which she returned to me with the spelling errors cirlcled and lack of punctuation highlighted in red biro. ...... argh...... Im sorry Sister Bernice.

bob x · 12-20-2007, 06:13 AM

Who thayth oul pothtth thourd be regibre?

17th Angel · 12-20-2007, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pathless

One of my pet peeves has been cropping up more and more on these forums. I have a hard time reading posts that are not legible. Often I will want to read a thread, but be frustrated when I come across a post that is not formatted cleanly, has many mispellings, run-on sentences, missing punctuation and the like. Part of me wants to just skip those posts, but I also want to know what people are thinking and writing. I will put in the extra effort to read a scraggly post, but there are times when I decide that it's not worth the trouble and just skip a particularly indecipherable one.

I know that not everyone is a grammar fiend, but some basic steps can be taken to enhance the readability of a post:

Clear paragraph breaks
Spell-checking
Proper capitalization
Reviewing the post after it has been posted to clean up mistakes and typos

Another minor thing that sometimes makes a post difficult for me is the overuse of internet shorthand, like u r and 2 instead of too. I think this is mostly a personal problem on my end, but since I am posting this, I figured, what the hey, I'd let everyone know.

Not that people should be real concerned if I am not reading every one of their posts (and probably there are some here who would prefer that I don't read their posts

), but I imagine that I'm not the only one who has issues reading poorly formatted posts.

Thanks,
P.

Excuse us for not being as perfect as you.... And those people that do not speak English as their primary language... Shame on them... Learn our language better......

*walks off mumbling to himself.*

wil · 12-20-2007, 02:07 PM

Namaste Pathless,

I also am at fault here, my punctuation, spelling, and general wordsmithery used to be atrocious, but "I got better."

I've still a long way to go, but due to my just learning the English language (my native tongue) at the age of 50 and just learning to type 10 years ago, I empathize with those that are not used to their little fingers reaching over to hit caps, or not having a complete grasp of the language.

So what I am saying, is that while I have the same issues with those who don't use caps, who use text language, who have issues with spelling, and love to use obnoxious fonts. If one is patently certain it is intentional, by all means a pleasant pm indicating that you'd love to read their posts but that color and font is prohibitive, could they consider changing. For those that are just learning this realm of communication we should consider being a little patient as they grow, as others were with us.

Oh, I have also sent notes to those who don't use paragraph breaks, I really don't care where the breaks are, as long as they are there.

17th Angel · 12-20-2007, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wil

Oh, I have also sent notes to those who don't use paragraph breaks, I really don't care where the breaks are, as long as they are there.

If I get a message in my PM about paragraphs, I will end you.

lol.... Just messing...

Pathless · 12-20-2007, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

Excuse us for not being as perfect as you.... And those people that do not speak English as their primary language... Shame on them... Learn our language better......

*walks off mumbling to himself.*

Seriously now. Was my original post that offensive?

Wil, the pm is a good idea, but the reason that I did post some general guidelines here is that it is not just one or two people and I didn't want to single any one person out. I understand that English is not everyone's native language and I also understand that not everyone is as anal as me when it comes to this stuff.

I have simply posted a few guidelines to make posts more readable and recognize that this is a personal issue for me and that not everyone cares about it the way I do. Ultimately people should fee free to take them or leave them.

greymare · 12-21-2007, 08:58 AM

yes, pathless you are anal. a healthy kind of anal. ( I cant believe I just said that) LOL. we still love ya.

17th Angel · 12-21-2007, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pathless

Seriously now. Was my original post that offensive?

No, I am pretty certain, it is just a personal fault/flaw of my own, I felt attacked.... And... Nevermind, lol.... Hard to understand, my bad...

flowperson · 12-21-2007, 05:35 PM

Pathless...No you're not a neatnick or Englishy anal writer ( is that an old boarding school term ? ). You are merely one of those people, like some of the rest of us, who believe that thinking and writing clearly is required for the clear communication of ideas. That is the object of any language system.

I also find the ongoing degradation of written English to be unfortunate and to be a primary contributing factor to the confusion that seems to be reigning in many post-modern societies. "Sound bite" television programming, text messaging, symbolic communication systems, and subliminal encoded signaling are all contributing to this trend.

IMHO, the English language, spoken and written, is going to be very different in 100 years or so. The fact is that time frames rule the progress of humanity, and there is less and less time available to most people these days to adhere to traditionally rule bound forms of English writing and speaking. It, of course, has always been that way in the world on a local basis, but this globalization thingy is accelerating and spreading this set of changes beyond anybody's ability to slow it down or change it.

Some OF's out here are mighty glad that there are some youngsters like you who believe that traditional ways of communicating are still the best and most effective in the long run. I have to laugh at the ironic name of one of our newer members who's screen name implies dialogue, but who seems woefully unable to put a declaritive sentence together in black and white.

flow....

wil · 12-21-2007, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flowperson

IMHO, the English language, spoken and written, is going to be very different in 100 years or so. The fact is that time frames rule the progress of humanity, and there is less and less time available to most people these days to adhere to traditionally rule bound forms of English writing and speaking. It, of course, has always been that way in the world on a local basis, but this globalization thingy is accelerating and spreading this set of changes beyond anybody's ability to slow it down or change it.

Yes just look at the old letters that folks sent to one another. They called it penmanship, I call it caligraphy, amazing the time one took when you had to dip the quill in ink and place it onto parchment. Didn't look good to have it scratched out, and spell check wasn't an option.

IC dat we'll B lukin @ txt based msgs n d fucha. der r alrdy bux bn ritN n txt, hu nos whr itl go frm der.

flowperson · 12-21-2007, 08:07 PM

Hi Wil.

My Mom, who'll be 91 next month, still handwrites letters to friends and family across the nation and to different parts of the world. And her hand and English are still very legible and understandable. She spends more money on stamps than I do on food per month. She just sent off a humongous stack of cards last week.

The times they have a'changed, eh ?

flow....

China Cat Sunflower · 12-21-2007, 09:07 PM

I find writing (composing) very difficult. It's so hard for me to think of how to express clearly what I'm thinking. I agonize over it and find it an excruciatingly slow process. One of the great ironies of writing to a forum like this is that it seems the more effort I put into it the less likely my post is to generate debate or comment. The payoff, to me, is the response from all of you. I figure it's either because I've killed the thread by leaving nothing more to say, or because my writing is so obtuse that no one can follow what I'm trying to say.

If I can't say something within two or three short paragraphs I probably don't know what I'm talking about anyway. But every once in a while I get a bug to try and write a good long post. I'll spend hours working and reworking the thing, and then wait giddily hoping and cracking my knuckles, waiting for a response that somehow justifies the effort, but all the while grinding myself that it's a waste, I should know better, and chastising myself for being so egotistical and shallow wanting the attention.

Chris

flowperson · 12-21-2007, 10:35 PM

Hi Chris:

My opinion is that you have a real talent for writing clearly on very complex subject matter. I never have a problem understanding what you're after, even when your doing your physics thingys. The above post to Juan is a good example of expressing complex thoughts with a minimum of words. I have found that writing anything longer than four moderately sized paragraphs on this forum is probably a wasted effort.

And don't worry about being human. We all desire and expect acceptance and praise for our intellectual efforts, but we seldom get either. Usually just silence or inappropriate questions. It's difficult to have a meaningful dialogue in an artificial medium. I have found it to be much more realistic to expect nothing and be surprised by whatever may happen. You know, lots of lurkers read our "stuff". Who knows who they may be and how what we write may affect their thinking and opinions.

Life is about spontaneity and surprise, not about expectations. In that sense, I guess you could say that Dickens was wrong.

flow....

China Cat Sunflower · 12-21-2007, 11:36 PM

Thanks Flowy!

I speed read, so I can parse anything down pretty fast. I myself can hardly remember how to punctuate, and there's no such thing as PunctuationCheck.

I never had stellar penmanship, but as a youngster I did have pen pals. That was back when people wrote letters. But now I seldom actually write with a pen or pencil so it often feels like I've forgotten how to make the letters and symbols. I can scarcely write legible cursive anymore. That's pathetic, but I just don't manually write much anymore.

Chris