<p>now, now, Novelisto, as I wrote to Violadad, pas devant les enfants. :)</p>
<p>This door is alarmed.</p>
<p>^ Did someone startle it?</p>
<p>There, there, you’ll be all right…you’re adoorable.</p>
<p>Novelisto, you handled that well.</p>
<p>“Peaked my interest”</p>
<p>^^It’s gone downhill ever since.</p>
<p>^ Indeed. Potentially insurmountable.</p>
<p>It’ll all hinge on my mood at the time…</p>
<p>Noticed “Washinton” in a post- someone else forgets to type the g. I usually have to proofread and add a g to that word on a computer whereas if I were to write it I would never forget it. Shows I am not typing as automatically as I write with a pen or pencil.</p>
<p>Don’t parentheses show less important asides/additional info that often should not be given the importance of their own sentence? </p>
<p>Pet peeve- overly critical people on CC postings’ grammar- I treat this as if an oral conversation were taking place sometimes, not worth all of the formal written forms. I skip some formalities even though I know they are incorrect (anyone else wish their keyboard had a capital “I” key?).</p>
<p>Maybe the person who forgot to type in the “g” in Washington is fixin’ to fix it now!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t proofread carefully before hitting the “submit” button so my posts contain lots of typos as well as factual errors. </p>
<p>However, I have seen words like “principle investigator,” " hypocracy" and indeed, “peaked my interest” (this, usually in college application essays), permissable, per say (only academics use that phrase surely?) to know these are not typos but genuine misspellings .
And now, for another pet peeve. Americans saying “au contraire,” especially with a thick American accent. What’s wrong with “On the contrary?”</p>
<p>Agree with marite-
There is a difference between typos, misspelling, and genuinely poor writing. I can understand some “computer speak” (e.g. posters who write “prolly” instead of “probably”) here, but some of the writing doesn’t even sound like conversational speech-- it just sounds like some might benefit from a few more writing classes</p>
<p>I shutter at the grammatical and punctuation errors in many of my past posts, but like wis75 if one adopts the premise of the forum as being more of a verbal conversation than an exchange of written text, the issue often disappears.</p>
<p>Personal conversation involves body posture, facial movements, hand gestures, inflections, pregnant pauses which cannot be duplicated within the context of a forum. Use of parenthesis, ellipses are often useful tools and can keep the online “conversation” flowing, and closer to a real-time event than just mere words on a screen.</p>
<p>And word play, puns, malapropisms and the occasional double entendre within the appropriate context do much to keep the reader’s interest or in cases, diffuse or lighten a heated post.</p>
<p>Having a bit of fun at the expense of the grammer and speeling police is also not outside the realm of potential motive. Someone has to keep them on there tows.</p>
<p>I kid you not, I knew a guy who would say: </p>
<p>“The outside perimeter of the field per se”.</p>
<p>Are you sure he did not say “per say?” I’ve seen it written by people with advanced degrees. Argh…</p>
<p>I am generally good with grammar and spelling, but the one thing I can’t get into my head is the difference between “that” and “which”. I was told by a teacher in high school to use “which” exclusively, and so I do. </p>
<p>It drives my PhD advisor (who has a degree in English) insane, and I have a sticky note above my desk with “THAT VS. WHICH” on it, right next to the formula for cell culture medium and the recipe for my genotyping PCR. I understand the distinction, but I always write “which” and have to find and replace errant whiches before handing manuscripts over to my advisor.</p>
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“Prolly” just drives me nuts. Seriously, how much harder is it to type “probably” than “prolly”? I think some kids just think that’s how it’s spelled. </p>
<p>When my kids were young they would say “vers” for “vs.” I think they are just getting over it. But the one that upsets me most is “should of” for “should have.” That one is a lack of grammar taught in schools.</p>
<p>^^ Oh, I can’t stand “prolly”, 3bm103, I just understand it’s use. It seems to be accepted as “computer speak”, according to my new best friend, the Urban Dictionary (I had to look it up when I kept seeing it over and over).</p>
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<p>I was taught pretty much the opposite: When in doubt use “that.”</p>
<p>Wouldn’t you think it would be easier just to teach students how to use them correctly? :)</p>