Are you aware you are judged by the way you speak and write?

Question

As much as you may hate that, you ARE judged by the way you speak and write. When I read what people write here and see all the misspellings, grammar mistakes, and punctuation errors it indicates to me that the person who wrote it is not really very intelligent. Is that wrong?

It is assumed that when you graduate from high school you should know how to spell and write.

There are very few jobs where no writing is required. Imagine these people writing business letters to clients, associates, vendors, and so on.

Imagine them writing contracts, putting together a presentation to be shown to a potential customer.

Imagine them having to write a report for their bosses.

If I received a report that was so pitifully misspelled and had all the grammar and punctuation errors I see on the Internet, I would conclude the person is practically illiterate and I would not have a high opinion of them. I would also not allow them to have any written contact with any customer or vendor

By the way, I am aware there are people here whose native tongue is not English. The question does not apply to them, but to people born and raised in the United States. Okay?

One other thing...foreigner or NOT...there still remains the Check Spelling link.

For those of you making excuses because this is the Internet, I write using actual words and not the slang. The slang is just a lazy man's (woman's) way of communicating. Whether you use the Internet or not, you are being judged by others. Like it---or not.

I see we have some answers from fry cooks and stockers.

Answer 1

Well done mate. Very good question.
The standard of english on here is appalling but what really annoys me is that there is a little link called "CHECK SPELLING" but many people can't see or read it.
Which brings us back to what you wrote I suppose, if they can't read then they wouldn't understand what that link is anyway.
In the UK according to one survey, not too long ago, it was suggested that 52% of all school leavers didn't have the ability to fill in a simple job application form.
But that brings us on to a totally different subject, many people have their heads stuck so far up their own backsides that they don't have the decency to realise that there is a world outside of their own puny universes and they have rules to follow, like learning how communicate by speech and text.

Answer 2

I say this, and will say it again. The internet is a totally different world from the classroom. It is not a place to judge how the person writes. The message they are trying to convey is more important. It is a kind of short hand when you are using the internet. If we were to make sure everything was grammatically correct, the person on the end (especially with IM) would be waiting for a while.

Please stop judging people based on the short hand we use on the internet- U (that was quicker that spelling "you") are smart, u can figure it out. Judge people in situations that warrant professional or grammatical correct works- like the classroom, writing a report, a professional letter, a resume, reports, etc. -NOT THE INTERNET OR IM!

It is not a classroom atmosphere. Don't you act accordingly? Compare your behavior at home to your behavior at work. Any difference? If not, that is a boring life. I would have done this answer in shorthand, and though it would be saying the SAME thing, you probably would not have paid attention. Get the point?

Answer 3

Yes I am aware of business communications and the writing styles. Different communications do require different levels of business communications.

Examples:

1. IM: Infrl ... fst ... abbr.

IM'ing is designed to be fast-Fast-FAST ... waste time on spelling/grammar would result in you being the butt of all jokes among the IM'ers in u'r grp, and you may get ignored like Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

2. E-mail:
A. Informal E-Mai: Quick correspondence, more formal than IM ... but speed is key.
B. Formal E-Mail: Still quick communication media, but you would spend more time with spelling and grammar. Typically, group E-Mail is more formal.

3. Formal Letters / Contracts / Manuals / : Follow the guidelines from your English Teacher. Here you need to determine who the reader is. Is the reader looking for a simple, easy material to follow? Then the writer should use eight grade-writing skills. However, with this being public, it should always be the Corporations policy to have several “Edit” personnel before distributing such material.

However, if the reader is a professional in the same field then the writer should elaborate in detail and reference the sources of the materials and ideas. Again, a good Business/ Corporation will have a quality control process before distributing this material; especially since they are talking to professionals in their field.

PS: You have 4 mistakes in your dissertation about speaking and writing.

Answer 4

This is an informal venue for people to express thoughts and opinions. While it's laudable that you have appointed yourself to be the world's grammarian, judge not lest ye be judged.

Other than that, how ya doin' an how's life treatin' ya, ya big lug. At least ya got job sekuity wif all deese po' spellars tryin' two cummunikate. Half a reelly auwsum life dud (opps, I mean "dude")

Just had to throw in another comment because the questioner is obviously lacking in his knowledge of the internet. I can remember when computer memory was measured in kilobytes and every keystroke had to be closely watched. Abbreviations were not "laziness" or due to "uneducated" people at the keyboard. Abbreviations were a necessity. As time went on and hard drives were measured in gigabytes, people continued to use abbreviations. Every venue, whether it be a hospital where people write and say things like "stat", or "icu", or "mri" or the internet, has it's own list of acceptable abbreviations. So get a life and get over your obsession with "proper" spelling and grammar on the internet!

Answer 5

Yes, I agree, and believe me, if there are spelling and grammar errors in a Yahoo answer, I tend to consider that person's advice as suspect.

But don't despair, there is help. I can recommend two wonderful book about grammar, which believe it or not, can be fun to study.

The first is called "Eats Shoots and Leaves". The title comes from an incident where the author was at the zoo and came upon the Panda exhibit. The sign describing the Panda included the following phrase: "Eats shoots and leaves" (which of course referred to the Panda's diet) but she realized that with the addition of just one comma, it meant something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: "Eats, shoots and leaves" The Panda has dinner, fires off his gun and goes away. Well it is a very entertaining book on the fine points of grammar.

There is another book about grammar called "The Deluxe Transitive Vampire" which is a lot of fun. The author uses gory sentences about vampires and ominous, graphic woodcut illustrations to teach the finer points of grammar.

Either one of those books would be a big help to the "grammatically challenged" Good luck everybody. Take pride in your writing skills!!!

Answer 6

I agree with most of what you say EXCEPT there is more to it than what you "see." I hope you realize too that there are people on here from other countries attempting to write in English. Therefore, they have to be intelligent as this would be their second language and you can't expect it to be perfect. The only other issue is there are children on here too. Usually you can tell my the immaturity of the question. I have a problem though because my kids were able to spell and use correct English even when in grade school but then again, I was constantly correcting them (like my mother did to me and I appreciate now). We do need to give the people attempting to write our language credit. I can usually tell when they leave certain words out or sentences seem to sound a little backward.

Answer 7

I have a spelling checker
I disk covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.

And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That's why eye brake in two averse
Cuz Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.

I would participate much more if I could more enghlish. Remember that not everybody here are using english as their first language. I have to reach for my dictionary quite often when answering to answers here, but to solely depend on a dictionary to answer a difficult question, would be too much work for me.

Most people understand this, and don't act like a Yahoo Spell Check Nazi.

Beware of the foreigners!

John

Answer 8

I agree that we should all have a good grasp of spelling and grammar in order to succeed in the real world.
I think that what we are witnessing here on this board sometimes more reflects the slanguage that runs rampant through the cyberworld, specifically amongst teens and younger people. I just witnessed my niece, who is highly intelligent, posting messages using the word "wut" instead of "what"... Too lazy to use that extra letter and spell correctly?
Another large segment of the population do not bother to check their words before sending, and end up posting error-ridden garbage.
And then there are those for whom English is not their primary language.
And YES the rest simply lack a decent grasp of spelling and grammar and are destined to be fry cooks and stockers for eternity.

Answer 9

I make the same judgment. You're not alone.
If I got a report or letter from someone telling me that "de wot 2 hab a gob sos i cin meke $" they will not be working for me. The way you talk and write is the first thing people learn about you.
I got an e-mail from a Yahoo answers user that had misspelled almost everything in his question. His/her feeling was that I should just "know" what he was trying to say. He was really angry about me pointing out that his question couldn't be answered because it made no sense. I figure he's an unemployed pot head with no life and no prospects for a life.

Answer 10

This site is international and a great number of people from different countries attempt to communicate in English, which as you know is a very difficult language to learn. Other Yahoo Q/A users are teenagers and pre-teen who have yet to learn the finer points of the English language with punctuation, etc. I hope this gives you and alternative method of thought regarding judging those with poor writing/punctuation skills.