Proof, proof, proof

[Yonak Hawkins]

...the real loser is the writer.

..Not only for the reasons you cite but, also, because the inquirer may not get the most knowledgeable answers. If the query is too difficult to read, someone who has the best answer may not bother to read the rest of the post and reply.

It's too bad because all woodworkers, no matter skill or grammar level, deserve quality direction and answers but, unfortunately, there are so many posts that, sometimes, poor quality posts are passed over in favor of more appealing (or less offensive) posts

[John K Jordan]

I also sometimes wonder whether teachers at the elementary and high school level enforce the accuracy of spelling and grammar in the way they did when many of us were that age...

Years ago I had two boys in a private school. I dropped that school at the end of the term after notes from the TEACHER consistently came with poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

if tha teechr cant wriit; how"s she gonna be teechn the kidds to wriet ,?

[Art Mann]

I am afraid the command of the English language is so poor with some people that proof reading will not improve their posts. For example, if someone doesn't know the difference between "quite" and "quiet", no amount of proofing will help.

[Harold Balzonia]

Years ago I had two boys in a private school. I dropped that school at the end of the term after notes from the TEACHER consistently came with poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

if tha teechr cant wriit; how"s she gonna be teechn the kidds to wriet ,?

As a guy who spent a lot of my professional life in the education field, this makes me shudder. My kids are in public school (6th grade) and ever since they've been in kindergarten, every time the teacher (or principal, or other school entity) sends home a homework sheet/permission slip/ditto/instructions, with grammatical errors or blatant mistakes, I take a big, red Sharpie and correct the mistakes and send it back to them. I refuse to acknowledge those things sent home that haven't been proofed. I regularly send back homework assignments with corrections for the teacher. And Beelzebub help them if they send a letter home asking for money without first proofing the letter. When they do that, they get a colorful response.

The teachers/administrators always act embarrassed, but they don't seem to change their sloppy habits. Giving them corrections makes me feel better, if nothing else. And my kids learn from their teachers' mistakes.

One of my favorite tag line signatures from a member of an internet forum was "Typed, not proofed." I always appreciated that sentiment when it came to forum posts. Funny thing was, the guy almost never made a grammatical or typographical error....

[John K Jordan]

..."Typed, not proofed."....

Ah, nice. Preemptive excuse, covers everything!

[Ruperto Mendiones]

I, too, take great issue with misspellings and faulty grammar--in some instances the meaning of the author is obscured. But I still delight in applying the break to slow my bandsaw down.

[Lee DeRaud]

One of my favorite things is finding misspelled words and bad grammar in advertisements. That's right: companies pay good money to get their names and products in front of their desired market, and then look like idiots.

Latest example? Banner ad for Vectrix, right here on SMC, telling me how "poweful" their software is. I'm not sure what "powe" is, but their applications are apparently full of it.

[Art Mann]

I don't watch television but I do read the news on line from major networks. It is shocking how often these people who make a living crafting words make glaring mistakes. Have they no shame?

[Steve Eure]

I unsubscribed to our local rag newspaper recently, in part due to all the grammar errors in it. We were taught to always proofread our work. Sometimes things do slip by. In the newspaper's case, they should know better. Apparently the journalist nor, (I use this term lightly), the editor proofread their work anymore. Must not be too important to them. Our demographics in this part of the country leave a lot to be desired when it comes to education.
As the old saying goes,"dumbing down of America" is appropriate here.
!

[Yonak Hawkins]

Have they no shame?

I suspect it has more to do with money. With the emphasis on kowtowing to the owners, i.e., more money for them, proofreaders are superfluous. With fewer employees, everyone has more to do, leaving less time for preventing the publishing of grammatical and syntax errors.

[Simon MacGowen]

The world has changed!

With thumb typing taking over keyboard typing, who cares about typos and grammar in a forum setting.

I went with a friend to see his lawyer for their first meeting the other day. A young lady in her early 30s...by the time we left, she had not handed out any business cards of hers! That was supposed to be the first thing professionals or businesspersons (see, I did not use businessmen) did back in the old days when they first met.

During my time, "Dear so-and=so" was the way to address the other party by mail; hers (by email)? Hi....

So I no longer cringe even when I see grammatical errors made by journalists in newsprint.

Simon

[Ole Anderson]

Sure I cringe with easily misspelled words and grammatical errors, but what me shake my head is when someone posts a comment or idea, which when you finish reading it, you have no idea what they are trying to communicate to the world. Often makes me wonder their state of sobriety at the time of the post. I will freely admit to relying on spell check to fix my fumble fingered typing mistakes, red-lining words that don't compute. I rely on a right-click to give me choices that at once become obvious. Now if I could just find my PC's dictionary and remove that "i" that got accepted as correct... Anyone? Where is the dictionary for this forum? Residing on my computer somewhere I bet.

[Mel Fulks]

[QUOTE=Simon MacGowen;2755606]The world has changed!

Yep, but young women will never be giving out cards at the high rate men do.

When I started using a computer and sending email I was surprised by lack of established salutations, but I quickly accepted it as the norm.

I can remember when people from one section of the country could not easily understand the speech of those from a different section.

There are schools now to help people lose their accent in order to seem "more professional". I'm agin' it.
And some word letters the Oxford says are silent ...are now being pronounced by TV people. I'm against such silliness.

[Roger Feeley]

Ole, a lot of folks post from SmartPhones and "Autocorrect" quite often does a number on things when folks are typing with their thumbs...and as you note, they rarely read things before hitting "post". And many folks don't realize that one can go back and edit out errors, too...

I can’t resist sharing my favorite autocorrect story:
I was a programmer working with PCs. The email app did an automatic spell check when you clicked send. It would scan your text and ask you to approve each correction. When the process was complete the email would be sent.

I was composing an email to be sent up my chain of command including the Chief Operating Officer.

The sentance was, “For this project, I will need at least a 286 or perhaps a Pentium.”

Admittedly, I wasn’t paying close attention when I approved the last spelling change. As sent, the sentance became:

“For this project, I will need at least a 286 or perhaps a Penis.”

My boss just about fell out chair laughing. The COO replied simply, “Approved.”