How important is spelling and punctuation to you?

[oldballs]

It doesn't make any difference to me. I have at least one friend who can't read (his wife does it for him) but he is quite talented musically, with tractors and manual labor. It is obvious if one is a poor communicator, but his thoughts may be worthwhile reading if one is so interested.

Maybe some posters are too lazy to be concise and just want the quick answer for their laziness, e.g. just read the manual, or do a search. Some of the old gezzers are new at computers and have little formal education.

 

[MikeInEburg]

So many posts here strike a chord with me. Like others, in my regular business world, clear communication is critical as bad things happen when someone "thought" that they understood a task, but didn't due to poor communication. My wife and I also enjoy finding mistakes in the regional daily paper, or on printed posters or signs.

However, this isn't my business world; this is my tractor world, where misspellings, homonym abuse, and either too much or not enough punctuation is par for the course. Most folks will post comments that are easy enough to understand, thus, while I may stutter while reading, I can generally get past tractor English. That said, if it is one long paragraph with no punctuation or capitalization, I'll just skip it - as the effort required is often not worth the benefit.

 

[murphy1244]

Paragraph breaks...all I ask

Nothing more difficult than trying to read a large block of run on sentences nonstop especially with my old eyes

That to me is the main one. If I have to grab a ruler to read I might as well pass.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Since my first day at work as a professional in April of 1963, I have relied on the English language as my most important tool. Although I am not obsessive about it, as an educated person I like my writing to reflect as much, and it's only human to draw certain conclusion about a person who constantly misspells words and uses poor grammar. Fortunately, I have had a good Secretary to keep me in line.

I spent a great deal of my career reading and interpreting environmental regulations and then writing instructions and explanations for those who had to comply with them. A very wise old Engineer advised me early on: "If you don't get your message across in less than three short paragraphs and without using a bunch of big words, the guys you're writing this stuff for won't even read it, and it will go into the round file". I found that to be true...except for lawyers...maybe.

I also don't have much patience for someone who is overly critical unless we're talking an English final.

 

[Walkin Horse]

It doesn't make any difference to me. I have at least one friend who can't read (his wife does it for him) but he is quite talented musically, with tractors and manual labor. It is obvious if one is a poor communicator, but his thoughts may be worthwhile reading if one is so interested.

Maybe some posters are too lazy to be concise and just want the quick answer for their laziness, e.g. just read the manual, or do a search. Some of the old gezzers are new at computers and have little formal education.

yeh wat he say

Brought to you by " Bring back ghetto"

Bye Phelisha

 

[Looking4new]

And maybe I should have been more specific with punctuation. I was primarily meaning periods and paragraphs.


Auto correct is a hoot. On another board someone had just wrote that the dimensions were 2 feet London by 3 feet wide and he missed that auto mess up had changed his misspelling of long to London.


Did you write something?


And I wasn't writing about simple mistakes, rather a word like "expecially" instead of especially. Although I really wish more people could tell the difference between "loose" and "lose".

There, they're, their come to mind, also/too.

 

[kidr]

Punctuation is the difference between,

"I helped my uncle Jack, off the mule." and,

"I helped my uncle jack off the mule."

Seriously though, I think we should be able to to spell the name of our tractors. Kabota ? Come on.

 

[newbury]

Punctuation is the difference between,

"I helped my uncle Jack, off the mule." and,

"I helped my uncle jack off the mule."

Seriously though, I think we should be able to to spell the name of our tractors. Kabota ? Come on.

That's a minor punctuation difference.
Again mine main complaint is when it's like:
I helped my uncle Jack off the mule andi helped my uncle jack off the mule

 

[speedbump]

Thank God for Computer Keyboards. If I had to use my not so smart phone to write this, I would be one of the topics of this conversation.

 

[JDgreen227]

Thank God for Computer Keyboards. If I had to use my not so smart phone to write this, I would be one of the topics of this conversation.

+2.....I hate the autocorrect feature on my Android...had several Blackberries with a REAL keyboard prior to switching to Android and I LOVED the BB OS....HEY MURPHY1244 are you GOING TO B*TCH AT ME FOR YELLING HERE????