Why is there such a problem with spelling and grammar here?

Question

I can't stand it any more. The worst was seeing someone say "a tin a beans." Its horrific! Seriously, is it so difficult to spell check, or at least TRY to make an effort?

I think its simutaneously funny and sad that people are so willing, angrily so, to defend their own laziness. I have stick up there because I'd like to see a little care put into writing? No, we're not in school any more, but that's no excuse. I can understand a shortcut here and there, and I can understand it when english isn't someone's first language. I'm not talking about that. There is nothing misunderstood, miscommunicated, or otherwise about the word 'boy' being written as 'boi.'

LOL, my own childish spelling has been handed back to me :)

Thanks! (no sarcasm intended - I'm guilty too)

Answer 1

I suspect that many younger people are accessing Yahoo Answers through their cell phones and mobile devices so quite often what we are seeing is text messages. That's one part of my theory. The other part is that young people (and some older as well) don't have a clue how important the written word is at all. If they knew that writing is so important that we make contracts by the written word because it carries meaning, lots and lots of meaning.

I think overall its pure laziness. As the world gets more technology those people too lazy to learn the rules in the first place use more of the technology and use it poorly. I suspect that it's just too difficult to learn the rules in the first place, and they probably aren't ambitious enough to dream of careers that require an education. At least I hope not!

This is a direct reflection of the school systems in the USA today. No disrespect to teachers, but have you been convinced that they're not working in their current incarnations?

I know that my writing isn't free of flaws, but because I hold the written word in high esteem I try mighty hard to put them in the right order so that other people don't misconstrue my meaning.

I think it’s important to continue to report bad writing and tell question posers when their writing is horrible. Yes, you can report a person for not writing in English.

We are the Grammar Police and we have a job to do. Perhaps if every poorly written question was responded to at least once with a Grammar Police comment, these people would learn that words are important. I say don’t let up on them! We need people like you on this site to pass the grammar and spelling torch to young people.

In Grammar’s name with punctuation and spelling for all, amen.

Answer 2

People have always had problems with spelling. That's how name variations evolved anyway! (Christopher, Chris, Kris, Kristofer, Kristof, Christof, Cristopher, Cris, etc) Misspellings also accounts for a large majority of surnames that you see in the US since Ellis Island officials would regularly resort to an approximation of an immigrant's name rather than actually spell it out in the "correct form."

However, it is a problem that the spelling and grammar mistakes in the questions and answers here are so horrific. But there's nothing you can really do about it-- I think most people can't be bothered. They either don't realize they lack certain English skills or they're too lazy to actually edit their own writing. I just tend to see it as a sign to avoid their question since chances are, if they can't be bothered to properly write out a question, the question's not worth answering.

Answer 3

People are more concerned with two lousy points than actually making any effort to appear intelligent. Also, many questions are answered by teenagers who are being poorly educated these days. Other people answering them are non-native speakers whose command of English is sometimes not that good.

It drives me, crazy, too. I'm such a word nerd and grammar nazi, it's not funny. The point of Answers is to communicate information and knowledge, and that can't be done if no one can understand what you're trying to say in the first place!

Spell Check is your friend!

Answer 4

It's just pure laziness. What gets me is when someone asks a question and it is so mangled that it doesn't make sense. Do they really think they will get a serious answer? I think a lot of it has to do with people using texting and instant messaging so much that they don't realize this is different. I read this thing about how this laziness spills into people's way of writing and even speaking in the real world.

Answer 5

Hey, everyone makes spelling >mistakes<, typos and what not. However, there is a very big difference between that and the laziness you speak of.

I totally agree with you, it drives me crazy. When I see a person with grammar and spelling like that, I can't help thinking less of them. It projects an image of a 12 year old trying to be an adult but looking like a fool. Unfortunately, it's not only 12 year olds who do this.

Answer 6

It's the whole chat room culture that developed during IRC's heyday. Messages would scroll so fast that you had to hurry up and abbreviate everything. This was easily done with phonetics.

The trend developed from there and because kids don't read books anymore, and because they communicate online more than any other way, they don't stand a chance.

Now this is kids. There's no excuse for anyone over 30.

Answer 7

I think it's ironic that you spelled "simultaneous" wrong hehehe.

But seriously, two words on the spelling and grammar here: Laziness and Immaturity. That, and people think it's cool to use web-speak. Sometimes it's easier, like if you're in a fast-moving chat room. But for things like this, yes, we need to watch what we're typing.

Answer 8

the respond is elementary: a new child is something a pair would desire to decide on... it won't happen by utilising twist of destiny. the undeniable fact that almost all babies borne to young babies have been conceived by utilising twist of destiny makes a solid case for usually no longer trusting young babies to be solid parents. a lot of them would unquestionably be solid parents yet in a generic social putting the circumstances for a teenage couple to have a new child at the instant are not very favorable. i think of older generations do no longer unavoidably have a situation with young babies having young babies... as quickly as the new child is there, you need to make the main suitable of it. the situation they have is that young babies get themselves into the situation to have undesirable babies contained in the 1st place. they do no longer think of in regards to the outcomes of what they're doing and subsequently do no longer preserve themselves sufficient.

Answer 9

I agree with you. The spelling, punctuation and grammar are horrible. I think people are basically lazy and ignorant. They don't care about how the questions and answers look- they are just after points.

Answer 10

I think this is true (especially for the goofy abbreviations [i.e., "boi" for "boy"]) because people who type this way think they're cool. If they only knew how ignorant they look to us normal folk. It really is sad. When they're in school or at work, do they abbreviate "ur" for "your"? Probably not. Why? That's what I want to know.