...and again with the secret handshake.

To those of you who care about grammar and spelling: you can learn useful things about a person by their writing, whether it is correct or not. Don't rail against the mistakes; just file the information quietly away so you'll know whose opinions are and aren't worth paying attention to.

To all native English-speakers who can't be bothered to learn your own language: pay no attention to us. I mean it's not as if we can tell that you have lazy minds just from your writing.

To non-native English speakers: this language is absolutely crazy and you're crazy to want to learn it. But if you do manage it, you'll find it almost unbelievably powerful and expressive. Good luck.

OMFG PH34R MY L337 UB3R Grammer 5kill5 YO!

Speaking as an english person, i see some of you are in need of help with their grammer. Im not here to mock you, but to help you. Here is a link to a site that may help you all. Its heavy reading, so take it slow people. You can thank me later!
http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/bill_ben_story.htm

he'llback

Talk about hypocratic bullshit.

Damn grammer nazi's.  

It always boils down to the same thing, doesn't it?

One person feels his stardards are absolutely correct; therefore all others must fall in line with his views. He (or she) begins to see those who maintain different standards as 'wrong' or somehow inferior in some manner.

There will be cries of "But this is correct English! My position is backed by textbooks."

Don't listen to that.

The thing you must remember is that one person attempts to apply his standards to others. This is the method by which tyrants are born.

Speaking as an english person,

I assume you mean an English person, that is, someone from England.

i see some of you are in need of help with their grammer

The personal pronoun "I" is always capitalized. "Grammar" is not spelled with an "e".

Im not here to mock you

...but I am. The contraction "I'm" is capitalized and includes an apostrophe.

Its heavy reading,

...that is obviously beyond your capability. "Its" is a posessive pronoun, "It's" is the contraction of "it is".

I'm sorry that stomped on you with my grammatical jackboots, but after twelve years of Catholic school (nuns, rulers, all the cliches), the failure of basic grammar and spelling gets on my nerves.

I am a litigator and I am extremely careful to proofread my work product before it ever sees the light of day.

When I review the work of other lawyers, I get quite annoyed when I see spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors. Lawyers are supposed to know better, words are our tools of the trade.

When I see a pleading written in sloppy English, I expect the lawyer will be sloppy in other aspects as well. And almost always, this is true. Statements of law will not be properly supported by citations. Statements of fact will not be properly supported by an affidavit. Citations to cases will turn out to be inaccurate and misleading.

Fair or unfair, people judge you by the way you write. If you plan to work a blue collar job then your English skills aren't that important. But if you plan to be a professional, and I assume most of you do, then you need to learn how to communicate correctly.

When you seek a job, the first impression you make will be your resume. If I see a resume that reflects poor English skills, it goes straight into the trash.

The whole purpose of a lauguage, written or spoken is to communicate to others. I don't (or do not!) think it is important to be spot on (correct!) with the grammer, just so long as others can interperet what you write or speak. Anyone who thinks otherwise has there head stuck up their big fat arse.

Nah, you've got it all wrong. Sure, bad spelling/grammar is annoying, but that has to be overlooked (especially considering the international nature of the internet!).

But!

What you should attack (and I say we all join in), are the attempts at communication that are so bad that it's nigh-illegible, and takes work to actually decipher. I'm talking about the AOL-chat, iBaby-speak kind of stuff:

"hi how r u doin? y u wnat 2 attax my team?!?! lolol go away AI me no fite u now kthxbye!!1!11oenone"

Yeah, see? Doesn't that just make your eyes bleed and your brain burn?

So long as they communicate the gist of their idea, I say that's good enough. Sure, you can hold a lower opinion of the poster's lack of grammatical skills, but it's hardly worth fussing about.

Anyone who writes "LOL" should drunk-drive into a large oak tree.

"LOL" means "LAUGHING OUT LOUD". Are you really "LAUGHING OUT LOUD" when you write this? Are you?

Yichhhhhhhhhhhh...!

Ok, stap it damnit. What our you the Speling policy our something.

"LOL" means "LAUGHING OUT LOUD". Are you really "LAUGHING OUT LOUD" when you write this? Are you?

Perhaps we need to try and spread SAB for "smiling a bit"?

LOL!

Err, I mean SAB!

I must admit I am a bit of a grammar nazi myself, however only to the extent that I proof read my own comments before posting. In the defense of those that lack a bit of grammatical clarity, it is often not all that necessary to be able to understand what a poster is attempting to convey, and secondly grammar is not taught properly in many (all?) state eduction systems.

Fair or unfair, people judge you by the way you write. If you plan to work a blue collar job then your English skills aren't that important. But if you plan to be a professional, and I assume most of you do, then you need to learn how to communicate correctly.

I would make doctors teh exception to ths rule. Anyone who has ever tried to determine just what is written on a perscription without prior knowlege knows what I mean (except for the people at the pharmacy, who have likely gone through several years of cryptography training).

(Citizen)random50October 7, 2006 13:45:50Reply #87"LOL" means "LAUGHING OUT LOUD". Are you really "LAUGHING OUT LOUD" when you write this? Are you? Perhaps we need to try and spread SAB for "smiling a bit"? LOL! Err, I mean SAB! random50View random50's ProfileEmail random50Find Posts By random50

Well done, Sir!   

grammer

gnore

Is this the reason you are a "former" copy editor vs. a working copy editor? LOL. Just teasing. But to add a cent or two, since the internet is a "typing" medium, I am tired of the casual users saying that proper grammar isn't required. Comments like these are the reason for degeneration within a civilization. Spelling may not seem like much, but when communicating, especially with the "written" or "typed" word, it would be nice to see people use the correct spelling and punctuation.

This thread is insane. I will therefore post in it.

And I will, therefore, bump it.

You are an apologist for the illiterate. You see yourself as a sort of Che Guevara locked in urban combat on Sesame Street in a war for a more egalitarian, lowest common denominator, "pan-ignorance" society.

Damn! Now, THAT'S funny!

On the forum, and the internet in general, the rules are of course different. In fact, for the most part there are no rules, and playing grammar police becomes futile if not downright silly.

However, for those who can see them, the poor grammar is distracting while playing the game. Worse off are those who can't see the errors - kids and non-native speakers mostly - who because of galciv wind up thinking that "loose" is indeed the opposite of "win".

IMHO, Stardock makes enough money from Galciv to justify shelling out several hundred (or thousand?) for professional copyediting. Please consider this for future releases.

As an English teacher, I am often bemused by folks who use command of the language to suggest they are somehow fundamentally better than others. Spelling wasn't formalized until the 19th century, and much of the work was done by a fellow in an asylum. Shakespeare has wildly diverse spelling, even within the same play, and it's still the center of western literature.

I dunno--it's just not a big deal in this context. It's not like this forum is a job or a wikipedia entry or what have you. People implicitly undermine themselves with a poorly utilized personal lexicon: no need to get on a soapbox and pontificate your superiority or what is obvious.

Your view of literacy isn't defendable in a functional sense. Clearly it's personal (and inflamatory, I should add) but not functional. What a silly place to draw a line in the sand about grammar, usage, and order in society. There are certainly places where this is an important thought. Here, with such a fierce tone seems petty, however.


-Mario Cerame

p.s. no need to capitalize "inability" after a colon

This thread is absolutely hysterical!    I really do appreciate the fact that when I need a good laugh, all I have to do is jump onto these forums and look for an outrageous topic. I find hours of joy and laughter within these walls. I personally am not a grammatical junkie but I do try and take pride in what I write.

Like a few of you have already posted, I do want others to read what I have to say and therefore I do my best to come across somewhat intellectual while trying to be a bit entertaining. However, I also must admit that I very rarely waste my time with hard to read slang or jargon. I commend those of you who use English as a second language, tis a very hard language to learn indeed.

You can blame the school system in the U.S., you can blame the teachers themselves, you can blame your friends, relatives or co-workers, blame the internet or your lack of time, you can blame the area in which you currently reside, or where you grew up, you can blame George W. Bush. The fact of the matter is simply, when it comes right down to it, if you cannot read or write, the blame should fall squarely on your own shoulders. That is, of course, you do not have a learning disability or some other terrible illness. (Disclaimer) No, just not caring or being lazy, does not constitute an illness. Accomplishing what I have in my life, with what I was given to work with, is why I hold this opinion so dearly. You have the power to change your stars. We are just "star stuff" after all.

Maybe I have said to much, or I haven't said enough....... That's me in the corner... that's me in the spot light....... oppps... busted into song, sorry.

"That's all I got to say bout that" Forest Gump

p.s. no need to capitalize "inability" after a colon

I never did truly understand when to use a colon vs. a semicolon. My wife's an English teacher as well. I try to use proper diction, grammar and spelling as much as reasonably possible, but I know she could run rampant through pretty much anything I write with a red pen. The fact that she doesn’t is one of the reasons I love her.

Excellent post about context sensitivity in the proper use of the English language (BTW hasn’t it essentially morphed into the American language by now anyway).

I never did truly understand when to use a colon vs. a semicolon.

Easy solution: just don't use them.

I can see you didn't, Mumble, so please don't take this the wrong way.

Acchh! It would appear the necromancers have plied their trade upon this thread more than once. However, as it is entertaining, I will do my part to keep it alive.

I never did truly understand when to use a colon vs. a semicolon

Same here, I think they were just invented by some ultra geek to confuse all of us common folk.