People who get caught up in spelling errors on here,Are they shallow?

Question

I mean they must know what people are saying,despite the spelling errors,so whats the big deal?Can't they just answer the Q,,,hellooooooo! LOL.

Answer 1

Flower, I am with you 100% on this one. People can be "small" and this is one of those silly things they are small about online. I think mostly it is fueled by whether or not they agree with the questioner imo.

Answer 2

Well, I really am unable to be in their shoes.... (you know, to feel any empathy towards them) because for me, the Lord has given me a photographic memory.... I'm a visual learner. So for me, spelling comes easy for me. Some people just don't have that ability. When I feel a word might not be spelled correctly, I just go to www.dictionary.com to make sure it is spelled properly. Most of the time I was correct in the first place! :-) And the other reason why there may be errors is because they are typing so fast and want to get the "job" done..... you know, finish the answer to the question as quickly as possible....without having to use the "check spelling" icon in the upper-right hand corner.... even though it is just a click away. :-) This is often portrayed in their lack of punctuation and capitalization. For a while, I was unable to use the "check spelling" icon because for some reason it wasn't working on my parents' computer. I was getting some sort of "delayed response" to my "check spelling" command. Nothing was happening. America tends to be a very lazy country when it comes to proper mechanics and what not via technology! :-) But I tend to break the mold with the laziness.... as do some others I know personally.

Answer 3

You should respect other people by spell checking your work and also proofreading it for errors the spell checker can't find. You should look at capitalization, spacing, punctuation, and grammar. Sometimes meaning is totally lost if the errors are bad enough. People who know how to write good English are not shallow. They are very deep. They even suspect those who can't write good English of being shallow.

You do make a good point about answering the questions. If the only thing they can attack is the spelling, and they can't counter the well-reasoned argument, they may as well remain silent.

Answer 4

No, not shallow, but sometimes pedantic. I'm kind of ambivalent about it.

Firstly - many people on here don't have English as a first language, so we need to make allowances for that.

You see, on the one hand, I know that this is just a disposable medium that we're all working in here, and I don't bother to use a spell-check for this old tripe BUT

the idea of coming on here is, apparently, to find questions to your answers. So, if the person who answers your question can't even spell properly, how much confidence can you have in the accuracy of their answer?

Trouble is, with the dumbing down we have in our society now, nobody seems to care about correctness and accuracy. That's all very well until some dumb-a s s screws up your tax return or you get a badly spelled letter from your bank - how would you feel then? The Yanks all seemed to get excited when Quayle couldn't spell "potato".

And, anyway, what's wrong with at least trying to get it right? Do you want to spend the rest of your life as a thick illiterate?

Answer 5

Everything that one does is an external sign of the person inside. An extension of one's character. A sign of a good education or otherwise.
If today's youth are so lazy and under-motivated that they can't be bothered to use the written language correctly, then their thinking is, by association, similarly lazy.
Lazy thinking produces delusions, clouded minds and immature ideas.
Typographical errors are, of course, accepted but there is no time, worth considering, lost when one re-reads one's typed response and correcting 'typos' and any other errors which may have crept in.
I also understand the point made by the teacher earlier. I know this to be true. It is a disgrace.

Bad spelling, grammar and punctuation are all bad signs. Unavoidably sending appropriate signals to those of us who care about such things and affecting how we respond to any questions asked. We assume that, if a question is badly-phrased or badly-assembled, that the writer is sub-standard, below par, uneducated.
Add to this anyone who uses 'LOL', another infantile habit that sends appropriate signals
Treat us as intelligent beings and we will do so in return.
Use the language with respect and we will respect you.

Answer 6

If it's a simple typo...no big deal.

However, there is a disturbing trend towards ignoring grammar, punctuation, and spelling; which makes it extremely difficult to understand the question. All too often, you'll see a long, rambling post, typed out by a kid who text messages way too often. Half of the time, these questions tend to get asked, simply to attack someones intelligence...and fail miserably.

It also implies laziness. There is a spell checker built into the 'answer page'. How much effort does it honestly take to click the button, and then agree or ignore the suggested change?

EDIT: "the 'smart' ones who call themselves atheists love to show off their spelling proficiently." You forgot to point out that atheists also know how to properly capitalize the first letter of each sentence.

Answer 7

It depends. If you can understand the question then it's kinda silly. Everyone makes typos. But I've seen some that I was totally clueless as to what they were asking.

But with just occassional typos I'd say they need to get a life. I remember once doing an Art Newletter for a local gallery. I included alot of things that might not be otherwise known. When asked everyone had loved the newsletter and it's content but complained I used commas too often. Uh, duh! It's kinda weird because my main complaint in most of the things I read is that often there aren't enough for the sentence to be read as it was meant to be. But I don't go writing or calling anyone about it.

Answer 8

how hard is it to hit the spell check box? besides, the schools teach this stuff from the time you are tiny...i tend to wonder about the intelligence of people who lack the BASIC ability to compose a simple sentence and hit a button on the screen to check the spelling...i'm sorry, but communication is all we really have on this forum-if a question isn't important enough to merit simple literacy, then why should anyone else waste an intelligent answer?
an old english teacher of mine said, 'if you write like a moron, people will tend to believe you're a moron'

Answer 9

I only point out spelling errors when the presence of such errors negates the very argument they're trying to make. Like when someone tries to insist they're superior to some group, but despite this supposed superiority, can't seem to work the "check spelling" function to save their life.

Answer 10

You've hit on one of the current problems in the education system in the UK. As a trainee teacher in a secondary school I was told not to correct any spelling errors in pupil's homework. Too much criticism for them to cope with. So you will see bad spelling on the increase.

Answer 11

Sometimes. But, often, the level of accuracy of the question demonstrates the level of thought that went into the so-called question. It's a good indicator of the age of the poster, too. Responses to a 12-year old will be quite different than those to an inquiring adult.

P.S. Some of us are teachers who have to grade hundreds of illegible and indecipherable papers a week. That tends to sharpen the eye for errors and, also, the response to them.

ADDENDA

"the 'smart' ones who call themselves atheists love to show off their spelling proficiently [sic]."

We like to show off our superior grammar and word usage, too. ;-)
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Then, there is the ironic, such as:

"but despite this supposed superiority, can't seem to work the "check spelling" function to save they're [sic] life [sic]."

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One last thought before crawling off to bed... As mentioned by another answerer here, there are many very common semaphores that raise red flags as to the education and sophistication level of a poster. Consider a few that are present in some of the answers in this thread: "kinda" for "kind of" or "sort of", "alot" for "a lot", and "it's" for "its". Any argument of fact loses much of its credibility when couched in such terms.

G'night, all!