Advanced Spelling Lesson

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  • _incogNEATo_
    _incogNEATo_ Posts: 4,541 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kgeyser wrote: »

    I appreciate the different opinion on this, and ignoring the author's good spelling and grammar in an article defending poor spelling and grammar, I'd like to say something about this excerpt:

    So if I crap on Jonny’s spelling, I’m either reinforcing an oppressive status quo, or picking on a person with a disability, or both.

    Hmm. I'm reminding people about the rules of English, and it seems like a big reach to suggest that providing examples of appropriate spelling and use of apostrophes is tantamount to reinforcing an oppressive status quo. Maybe by telling people how to lose weight, one is also reinforcing an oppressive status quo, but probably not. More likely, that person is just relaying how to do something correctly. Maybe there's a culture out there that values being overweight, or people who have thyroid issues, but the presence of any of those people does not mean that the correct way to lose weight should be censored.

    So, I stand by my spelling lesson, because those are the correct ways to use those words.

    I'm curious as to which version of "English" you are determining to be the appropriate one in an international community of users, and how you went about determining that as the standard for all to follow in said community.

    He's not complaining about issues like color vs colour, center vs centre, etc., IOW, differences between American English and British English. 'Loose' never means 'lose' in any version of English.

    Exactly. Maybe my next discussion should be Advanced Reading Comprehension Lesson.

    I'd be extremely interested to pick your brain about things done on the internet that bother you the most. If you can come up with a lesson for that, please tag me so I can come back and read through it. Possible title for that lesson should be something like, "I'm Right, You're Wrong. Na-Na-Na-Boo-Boo, Stick Your Head In Do Do"
  • Noelv1976
    Noelv1976 Posts: 18,948 Member
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    Spelling is fundamental folks. Butt geez dude, relacks. its nut the end of the world. don't loose a cow man.
    but before you criticize us, should check your username...it's grammatically incorrect
  • Iguessicandothis
    Iguessicandothis Posts: 2,132 Member
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    Noelv1976 wrote: »
    Spelling is fundamental folks. Butt geez dude, relacks. its nut the end of the world. don't loose a cow man.
    but before you criticize us, should check your username...it's grammatically incorrect

    Ooh, burn!
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kgeyser wrote: »

    I appreciate the different opinion on this, and ignoring the author's good spelling and grammar in an article defending poor spelling and grammar, I'd like to say something about this excerpt:

    So if I crap on Jonny’s spelling, I’m either reinforcing an oppressive status quo, or picking on a person with a disability, or both.

    Hmm. I'm reminding people about the rules of English, and it seems like a big reach to suggest that providing examples of appropriate spelling and use of apostrophes is tantamount to reinforcing an oppressive status quo. Maybe by telling people how to lose weight, one is also reinforcing an oppressive status quo, but probably not. More likely, that person is just relaying how to do something correctly. Maybe there's a culture out there that values being overweight, or people who have thyroid issues, but the presence of any of those people does not mean that the correct way to lose weight should be censored.

    So, I stand by my spelling lesson, because those are the correct ways to use those words.

    I'm curious as to which version of "English" you are determining to be the appropriate one in an international community of users, and how you went about determining that as the standard for all to follow in said community.

    He's not complaining about issues like color vs colour, center vs centre, etc., IOW, differences between American English and British English. 'Loose' never means 'lose' in any version of English.

    Exactly. Maybe my next discussion should be Advanced Reading Comprehension Lesson.

    I'd be extremely interested to pick your brain about things done on the internet that bother you the most. If you can come up with a lesson for that, please tag me so I can come back and read through it. Possible title for that lesson should be something like, "I'm Right, You're Wrong. Na-Na-Na-Boo-Boo, Stick Your Head In Do Do"

    I'm honored to be the subject of your 3333rd post!
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
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    Noelv1976 wrote: »
    before you criticize us, should check your username...it's grammatically incorrect

    I'm not expecting you to read every post in the thread, but I've already explained that the error of my username is deliberate (also ignoring that apostrophes aren't available to use in usernames).

    But even so, let's say that your post provided me with a stunning revelation: that this whole time I was unknowingly contributing to the (minor) problem of basic spelling errors. My original post would still be right. If a heroin addict A tells heroin addict B that he should stop using heroin due to its damaging effects, then heroin addict A isn't wrong. Hypocritical? Sure. But not wrong.
  • _incogNEATo_
    _incogNEATo_ Posts: 4,541 Member
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    Noelv1976 wrote: »
    before you criticize us, should check your username...it's grammatically incorrect

    I'm not expecting you to read every post in the thread, but I've already explained that the error of my username is deliberate (also ignoring that apostrophes aren't available to use in usernames).

    But even so, let's say that your post provided me with a stunning revelation: that this whole time I was unknowingly contributing to the (minor) problem of basic spelling errors. My original post would still be right. If a heroin addict A tells heroin addict B that he should stop using heroin due to its damaging effects, then heroin addict A isn't wrong. Hypocritical? Sure. But not wrong.

    You should work on the reading comprehension you eluded to earlier in your thread. He did not say that others were not in the wrong. He just said that you were wrong as well.
  • Noelv1976
    Noelv1976 Posts: 18,948 Member
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    Noelv1976 wrote: »
    before you criticize us, should check your username...it's grammatically incorrect

    I'm not expecting you to read every post in the thread, but I've already explained that the error of my username is deliberate (also ignoring that apostrophes aren't available to use in usernames).

    But even so, let's say that your post provided me with a stunning revelation: that this whole time I was unknowingly contributing to the (minor) problem of basic spelling errors. My original post would still be right. If a heroin addict A tells heroin addict B that he should stop using heroin due to its damaging effects, then heroin addict A isn't wrong. Hypocritical? Sure. But not wrong.

    If that's the case, why not use "itisthehumidty" instead? Also, I believe you are violating one of the MFP strict guidelines about, oh how do I say this, acting like a knowitall by criticizing other people. This is not English 201, this is MFP where people come here for fitness related inquiries, or just to have some fun. Do you teach English at a school, professor? If so, this is not the place.
    Crap, I'm feeding his ego! I should have stayed away. I thought about using Spellcheck, eh, who cares?
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    edited February 2016
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    kkenseth wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kkenseth wrote: »
    So much racism in this thread and in the several recent threads mocking threads started by people of color and non-native English speakers. It's pretty gross. Peppermint out.

    While there are a lot of offensive things around, I don't see this as racist or mocking non native English speakers. There is usually a very clear distinction between someone who is ESL and someone who is just too lazy to type a full sentence or use check their spelling before they post. A lot of the parody threads, in their defense, are a parody of a ridiculous idea, such as trying to hook up with a certain group of people in the forums. It's not mocking anything about the person other than them coming onto a fitness site and looking for hookups with a certain group of people.

    Then again, that's just my opinion.

    Half of my coworkers are ESL and don't make the mistakes I commonly see on internet forums. On another forum, I knew the members better and again it was not ESL (or learning disabled) people making these mistakes. My experience is that ESL people put a lot more effort into their communication than many native English speakers.

    Agreed. It's rather easy to tell the difference between a language difference and just plain laziness and stupidity.

    I'm an ESL person, clearly we defend our own on the site.

    What the OP doesn't seem to understand and I'm surprised no one has brought up is that there is something called language register. It defines how formally we communicate or how much slang or specific local lingo someone uses.

    The language register of a web forum does not need to be as high as that of an academic paper. It can be quite sufficient to have a loose spelling of lose in an environment where questions and comments may be made at a moment's passing from a phone pad.

    Only pedants of my level really need to see the most formal of registers here. (Don't be me - if all you are complaining about it language use, step up and bring contextual dietary value to the conversation not whining about there and their.) Clearly, if we had people writing with rhyming Cockney Slang it might be a problem - but slight misspellings or homonym misses? The uppity annoyance you feel is your own. Whether a person chooses to make those mistakes or they come from a failure of education - the message and questions get through and are addressed by the rest of the community. Don't like it? Read the TOS.

    Might as well complain about the fact that the site is monolingual English were the majority of the world speaks two or more languages.

  • Noelv1976
    Noelv1976 Posts: 18,948 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Agreed

    kkenseth wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kkenseth wrote: »
    So much racism in this thread and in the several recent threads mocking threads started by people of color and non-native English speakers. It's pretty gross. Peppermint out.

    While there are a lot of offensive things around, I don't see this as racist or mocking non native English speakers. There is usually a very clear distinction between someone who is ESL and someone who is just too lazy to type a full sentence or use check their spelling before they post. A lot of the parody threads, in their defense, are a parody of a ridiculous idea, such as trying to hook up with a certain group of people in the forums. It's not mocking anything about the person other than them coming onto a fitness site and looking for hookups with a certain group of people.

    Then again, that's just my opinion.

    Half of my coworkers are ESL and don't make the mistakes I commonly see on internet forums. On another forum, I knew the members better and again it was not ESL (or learning disabled) people making these mistakes. My experience is that ESL people put a lot more effort into their communication than many native English speakers.

    Agreed. It's rather easy to tell the difference between a language difference and just plain laziness and stupidity.

    I'm an ESL person, clearly we defend our own on the site.

    What the OP doesn't seem to understand and I'm surprised no one has brought up is that there is something called language register. It defines how formally we communicate or how much slang or specific local lingo someone uses.

    The language register of a web forum does not need to be as high as that of an academic paper. It can be quite sufficient to have a loose spelling of lose in an environment where questions and comments may be made at a moment's passing from a phone pad.

    Only pedants of my level really need to see the most formal of registers here. (Don't be me - if all you are complaining about it language use, step up and bring contextual dietary value to the conversation not whining about there and their.) Clearly, if we had people writing with rhyming Cockney Slang it might be a problem - but slight misspellings or homonym misses? The uppity annoyance you feel is your own. Whether a person chooses to make those mistakes or they come from a failure of education - the message and questions get through and are addressed by the rest of the community. Don't like it? Read the TOS.

    Might as well complain about the fact that the site is monolingual English were the majority of the world speaks two or more languages.

  • closetlibrarian
    closetlibrarian Posts: 2,207 Member
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    I can relate to these peeves in a big way, and always shake my head when I see them; but I also lived in a foreign country for three years, and am sure my grammar and spelling there was abysmal, so just learned to ignore it.
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Noelv1976 wrote: »
    before you criticize us, should check your username...it's grammatically incorrect

    I'm not expecting you to read every post in the thread, but I've already explained that the error of my username is deliberate (also ignoring that apostrophes aren't available to use in usernames).

    But even so, let's say that your post provided me with a stunning revelation: that this whole time I was unknowingly contributing to the (minor) problem of basic spelling errors. My original post would still be right. If a heroin addict A tells heroin addict B that he should stop using heroin due to its damaging effects, then heroin addict A isn't wrong. Hypocritical? Sure. But not wrong.

    You should work on the reading comprehension you eluded to earlier in your thread. He did not say that others were not in the wrong. He just said that you were wrong as well.

    On the topic of reading comprehension which I alluded to earlier:

    He did not say that others were not in the wrong. Right. He and I weren't discussing that. I didn't claim he did say that.

    He just said that you were wrong as well. He did say that, yes. My point was: A. I'm actually not wrong because the error in my username is deliberate (it's a personal joke and very much intended for the sake of personal amusement), and B. It doesn't matter either way. My username can be anything at all and my original post still stands. He's just grasping for anything he can think of to try and discredit my point. What he grasped, however, was irrelevant.

    Edit: Apparently B + ) makes a B). Fixed that.
  • cjferguson40
    cjferguson40 Posts: 93 Member
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    The OP is right.
    Stop defending bad Engrish!
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
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    The OP is right.
    Stop defending bad Engrish!

    We are but a ragged few against an army of those armed to the teeth with excuses and logical fallacies.

    SPARTANS! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!
  • TrailRunn3rMN
    TrailRunn3rMN Posts: 162 Member
    edited February 2016
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    areyoucrying.gif?w=584
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
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    I love the seriousness of the internet.
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
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    areyoucrying.gif?w=584

    Me? Yes. Hard.
  • Noelv1976
    Noelv1976 Posts: 18,948 Member
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    *throw your hands up in the air, like you just dont care*
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
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    I googled "lose" because I feel that using the term in our quest for lighter bodies is not accurate, i.e to lose implies that I've lost something and I need to go look for it. However, by definition it fits. http://www.ross.net/notes/loose.shtml
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    The Doctor is all like, screw you, I make 500 grand a year. I can tell you to loose weight eating 800 cals per day if I want
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    Rocknut53 wrote: »
    After reading these posts I have to ask myself if there is a correlation between poor grammar and a lack of knowledge of good nutrition. Maybe I'm reaching too far. I think (just my opinion) that both have become less important in our society. Perhaps it is a regional phenomena. I never could figure out how to spell "yall." Is there an apostrophe in there somewhere?

    iPhone autocorrects to y'all, but from my time in Georgia I could have sworn we spelled it ya'll