why do some people on this forum feel duty bound to correct other peoples grammer?

Question

i call it the schoolteacher syndrome and i am well aware of my own poor grammer. it seems to me that some people equate poor grammer with stupidity. what are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

I think it’s one thing to try to write clearly and another to edit your work for the grammarians out there who are waiting to find your mistakes. Some of the people who responded to the grammar posting remind me of, please don\’t be offended, Grammer Nazis. They judged people whose only crime is not memorizing a lot of arcane rules that applied to a language that is in a state of evolution. The technology that we are using here is responsible for a resurgence of written language and people who hated writing in school are finding it easier to express themselves in online forums and blogs. Criticise the writing, but not the writer. Don\’t presume to make any judgements about a person\’s intellegence based on a few mistakes. Some people have lives to lead that don’t involve trying to impress everyone with their knowledge of grammer, nor does everyone care how eloquently something is said, as long as it is understood.

Answer 2

Correcting other people's grammar isn't as bad as refusing to use the "check spelling" feature Yahoo has graciously provided.

To actually answer your question, yes, people do equate poor grammar with stupidity. Why do you think people from the north assume southerners are all stupid? Spelling and grammar always came easy for me as a kid, so I never struggled with it the way I see others struggle with it. It's hard for me to imagine not being capable of doing it. I'll admit I'm a bit of a snob about it. However, I DO think that writing skills are COMPLETELY underrated and being replaced with the idea that everything is okay as long as you tried. I think that's crap. You're obviously not trying if you refuse to use a dictionary or at least attempt to end questions with question marks. Writing and speaking are forms of communication. If we all make up our own rules, it's going to be more and more difficult to understand one another. There MUST be a common rulebook we all share when it comes to grammar & spelling (at least within our own languages). When people don't use the rulebook, those of us who try to use it get irritated. A lot of times people also really are just trying to help.

On here especially though, I make it a point to point out the mistakes when the person making them is taking a "holier than thou" approach about whatever issue they're blabbing on about.

Answer 3

The ability to communicate with correct grammar, spelling, and sentence construction is the mark of an educated being. You might be able to think well without communicating, but if you can't convey those thoughts to someone else in an acceptable manner, you're the one with a deficit of skills.

It may stupidity, it may be laziness, it may be a learning disorder, it may be a poor education, but the onus is on the speaker/writer to get it right.

Eloquence in communication, without being stuffy, is a praiseworthy goal.

Just hacking some IM abbreviations out there and slinging some sort of approximations of real words and sentences is the equivalent of having people drive wherever they want - it's chaos. An agreed-upon set of rules helps us to understand each other.

Answer 4

Proper grammar is becoming a lost skill. Maybe the "school teachers" you speak of are merely trying to revive a lost art. Proper grammar can be the result of many factors, including cultural upbringing, family speaking styles, learning disabilities, or a lack of education. It does not mean they are stupid.. or even lazy...

But it does make us "school teacher" types want to break out the red pencil and scribble all over our monitors...

But hopefully we can see through the improper grammar, spelling, and sometimes vagueness of questions and honestly try to answer the problem at hand!

Answer 5

Could it be, by any chance, that it's because this is the teaching/education section of this site??? :) :)Personally I don't view people, who use incorrect grammar and spelling, as stupid. I see them as complacently accepting mediocrity as a way of life. On this forum it's also lazyness because when one answers a question there is a "check spelling" feature right above the box.

Answer 6

I'll agree with the school teacher syndrome part, however, to all those who have "said" syndrome, in this day of age over such a medium as computer aided messaging
(IM, blogs, text messaging, ect.)
certain abbreviations and such are
common-place and do not mean one is lazy or stupid, merely "hip" to this new "technological" dialect.

Answer 7

are people really wrong to associate incorrectness with stupidity? do you want to be around people who've got it wrong all day, but don't want anybody calling them dumb? it's annoying. I call it the 'I'm embarassed for you that your still spelling basic stuff wrong" syndrome, not the schoolteacher syndrome. One of my friends said to me " What are we going to do . . . just sit around like two bums on a log?" Everyone started laughing at them & someone corrected them. Instead of thinking about how horrible it was they were corrected, they took the time to get it right!

Answer 8

Good grammar is a sign of intelligence and by correcting other peoples' poor grammar they may be trying to make this world just a little smarter.

Answer 9

My thought on this (and I shall refrain from correcting your grammar. And your spelling) is that this particular site is devoted to teaching. And it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to expect that teachers should be able to spell correctly and to use proper grammar.

Answer 10

Usually, quite grateful as I know my spelling and grammar are not perfect. My excuse is that I had a hippy for an English teacher! (All free expression and creativity, no actual rules of English!)