2 Feb
2004
2 Feb
'04
7:26 p.m.
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
Yeah, but for us curmudgeons it's annoying and distracting.
But how can
you determine if the content is good if you can't decipher the
text because the grammer is so poor?
Most mistakes are obvious typos or wordprocessor screwups based on typos ("I
walked down to the see" instead of sea), while sloppy it doesnt keep you from deciphering the content. If your reading an
article that was aimed at
people with a higher level of education then yourself your going to have
problems even without grammar errors (some legal documents and medical
reports come to mind). Then you have people who like to weave a string of
Well, first of all, if you can read and you know the basic rules of
grammar, spelling, etc., then the rules apply to anything you read. So
even if you don't comprehend the content of the words, you do know how to
read them. Then you use a dictionary to try to determine just what it is
you're reading. Second, the example you use is specious. If a legal or
medical document is written with poor grammar and spelling, not only will
it be less comprehensible, it'll be considered reprehensible by the
greater practice! But more importantly, there's a major difference
between a complicated and highly technical piece of writing and a poorly
written document. The two don't compare.
grammatically correct worthless crap like 90% of the
dotcom era websites did
for what the company actually produced. I have read quite a few manuals for
process controllers coming from japan that showed you what you needed to do
to make then function, but were a pain to read because of the translation
somebody did from japanese to english.
Ah yes, Engrish. A totally different topic altogether. But at any rate,
this proves the point: the grammar was probably poor (or nonsensical), and
perhaps there was a spelling error or two or more (or a homonym),
therefore clouding the intent of the meaning. See what we're getting at
now?
A misspelled word here and some poor grammar there does not compare to
full blown Engrish, I would agree, but both are equally annoying.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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