5 Oct
2011
5 Oct
'11
2:15 p.m.
> all of which are "lysdexia", adjacent
keys, etc. none of which are
> homonym substitutions, or lack of understanding of correct word(s) (no
> "their" v "they're", "to" v "too",
etc.)
>> On 2011 Oct 4, at 1:10 PM, Tony Duell also wrote:
>>> Why can't HR people use their mother tongue in the accepted way?
On Tue, 4 Oct 2011, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Most of them, not all of them. Regardless, it's
not an excuse. I hit
adjacent keys in the wrong order a lot too, but I make an effort to
correct them before hitting send.
Not an excuse. Just pointing out that it is a qualitatively different
form of error than language misuse. I am certainly NOT down-playing its
importance.
The writer can't be bothered to take a few seconds
to correct his
typos, the result is 100's/1000's of readers have to waste time
stumbling over interpreting his message(s). I'm not being anal - it's
casual email conversation, not a thesis, and much of it can glossed
over - but there is a point past which it is an insult to the reader.
I agree, IN PRINCIPLE.
But, I won't scrutinize your messages looking for errors to point out.
Because, I have to admit that I make more misteaks than anybody else,
and often fail to catch numerous ones.
I am far from expert, but I will make a minimal effort.
I don't often "stumble" on the errors in Tony's posts, although that
might
be a "grey" area.
This is much the same as the recent criticisms of
tortured grammar. The
writer is basically saying his time is more important than the readers'
time. If you're writing notes to yourself, do whatever you want. If
you're intending to communicate to others: language has rules for a
reason.
Although language evolves, we can at least try to avoid slothful changes.
There are, however SOME language rules that I CHOOSE to flagrantly break.
Those include comma before "and" in a list, "LOGICAL" placement of
punctuation relative to quotation marks, arbitrary creation of plurals
(particularly with acronyms or other capitaliation exceptions), certain
"creative" spelings, capitalization for emphasis, nested parentheses,
etc.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com