i was referring to the population on the grounds of the college. meaning, it apprently doesn't take much of anything but money to get into college. i'm told, at one time, college actually meant something. now it's just crap. i do editing of essays for people in my classroom, and frankly it's ridiculous how these people graduated high school.

 

Yes-OCD!!! I am sorry ifmy spelling is off, or i forget to put aperiod at the end of a sentance. I never claimed i was good at Grammer, but i do know how to work on cars, and i am not retarded, so ithink i must be okey.

 

I agree 100%! I don't care what I have to read through in order to get people's meaning here...because I might learn something either through someone's advice on how to solve a problem or even through someone's mistake! Elsewhere, like in writing-related circles, or when I'm reading a fellow-author's book, you betcha I get irritated. But here? No way. We're all about cars. And I looooooove cars.

 

good post, pretty informative and insightful. well, as my grandpa used to say, "i don't have to know how to spell toilet to know how to use one." he told me that when i was about 6 or so and i never gave it much thought until now. he's a wwII vet, built his house w/ his bare hands back in the 40's, and lived a great life. he never graduated high school. now i finally understand him. thanks guys.

 

It's good you finally understand what he was really talking about when he'd said such a simple thing.

Personally, I think writing is becoming a thing of the past. Society is moving more toward communicating in pictures now that digital cameras and camcorders are so readily available. I mean, even at this moment, look at how many threads have either photos of awesome stangs or up-and-coming projects or videos of our experiences. We don't always need words to communicate.

 

I for one would prefer if more people on forums used at the very least DECENT grammar and spelling, if not completely precise grammar and spelling. If for no other reason than out of courtesy for those who would like to read the post they make without getting eyestrain, headaches, elevated blood pressure or angina(chest pain). I'm not trying to nit-pick, the idea is the most important thing andnot the grammar and spelling, but it does help. My grammar and spelling isn't perfect either. Just so long as no one here starts doing "ricer math" I'm not really going to complain

 

Most minor spelling and grammatical errors can be overlooked. But believe me absolutely when I tell you that they do get noticed (reviewing what other technical people write is part of what I do for a living, and I don't think I miss all that much).

As this sort of thing gets worse, it starts to reflect poorly on the writer. Will any answer or its explanation be understood? If a post looks like it was written by a 7th grade dropout, that image carries over.

Acronyms are one thing, at least for the more common ones. But IM-speak or text-messaging shorthandtells me that the writer thinks his time typing is more valuable than the time anybody spends to help him is to them. That's selfish and rather insulting in a semi-technical forum.

Ditto on the "stuff everything into one paragraph" gripe mentioned earlier. "Stream-of-consciousness" writing is as hard on the eyes as actually listening to the words from an auctioneeris on the ears. Break it up so that people can easily find the part(s) that they might choose to answer. One paragraph, one thought. It isn't that tough, and you might find that you get more and better responses.


Norm

 

Thanks Norm.
Jim

 

I hope you are wrong, my 12 year old daughter will be very disapointed if you are correct! She has many interests, but Iam surethat reading is one of her favorite things to do.

I have to admit that I seldom read for pleasure, usually my reading has more to do with work, and technical things to do with cars or computers.

If this stuff were in video format, everyone who might observe me trying to take this stuff in would quickly reailze just how thick I really am, as I watch, rewind, play, rewind, play,....... No one can really know how many times I reread the same line in a book.

 

That is just what I have been trying to do, if people don't expect much they wont get let down, on the contrary, they might even get surprised, I like to call this the "Columbo Factor".

So, you see, I make spelling and gramatical errors on purpose, just to keep everyone off guard,,,,, (are you going to call me on that one or not?)