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How much does it bother you when a person on the internet corrects your spelling, grammar, or misuse of a word? Do you correct others for these things? Do you want to correct others but you refrain because it might spark drama?

JenBeberstein 8 Sep 2
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0

I like to be corrected when I am wrong so that I can learn from it and stop being wrong. I often want to correct others but I stop myself because I am not trying to cause any confrontation.

@Donotbelieve thank you! I like you and tend to agree with your comments. It's a shame we live so far apart, I imagine we could have great fun together.

@Donotbelieve I have never been told that before but thank you, seriously! I like your face, you look approachable while still looking like you'd be totally straight up!

1

I might PM someone if it really changes the meaning of what they are trying to say. Mostly I edit it in my mind

1

I don't correct people, but I was corrected by a girl I liked the first time I wrote her on Facebook. I hadn't talked to her in over 30 years. Haven't written her since! Jerk!

you might block me for this but...a former girl?

@btroje I'd bet he means a girl he formerly liked.

@Donotbelieve if you keep this up, I will have a hard time not falling in love with you!

lol I don't blame you for not writing back. Tho I must tell you it was the grammatical errors that made me immediately realise I had a con-artist. He said he was 5 generation American and had a profile pic that was caucasion. I knew by his grammar that English was not his first language. Poor grammar can tell you things like that and it might tell you something about a person's education but it can't tell you about a person's IQ or character.

@Donotbelieve Pease don't!

2

I correct other peoples spelling all of the time. Sometimes it goes unmentioned, other times not so much. The latter are times of some entertainment.

Latter ?

@SimonCyrene What?

3

I usually don't.. with this auto correct thing, that drives me crazy! I figure that causes alot of the errors.

2

If someone points out a real mistake I have made, I appreciate it. Yes, I do correct others if the error is egregious or if it can lead to misinterpretation.

1

I don't mind when I am corrected, and yeah, I am a grammar Nazi and correct others.

Having said that, you can correct others in a respectful manner, or a disrespectful one. I try my best to be respectful when I am correcting others but will admit to being human and having reacted to the way in which the person I am correcting has posted (if they are being jerks, I may well be a jerk back). My preferred method is to parrot back what they have said in a way that is corrected, in hopes that they will pick it up and in hopes that it doesn't come across as an arrogant lob across their bow... but, in todays world, I am unsure anymore how to do anything that won't hurt someones feelings.

Why? How do we correct each others? How do we improve our skills in language if we allow others to use poor, and usually very ambiguous language? If we do, we are just undercutting our own language and creating situations in which people will misinterpret what is being said, and increase friction. Worse, we live in a world in which it is rather difficult to misspell something with out the medium telling us we spelled things wrong (or auto-incorrecting us to death). I have a word in red right now, because it's spelled the way I wish it to be spelled, is a non-standard word/construct but is, I hope, the correct construct for same. The interface is giving me guidance as to how to do it right. My confidence is high enough that I have reviewed said word and am leaving it for... my reasons. THAT I can put up with and don't mind and I hope that when the language is used in this fashion, it elevates clarity, versus creating more obfuscation.

We need to accept more guidance from our peers. We need to be respectful when providing said guidance, but we mustn't stop. If we do, we just allow society, in general, to go in a direction without our input stating we'd wish it were heading in a way we prefer. We may be overruled by the greater numbers of society, and we have to accept that, but society has to accept our input or it loses the nudges and may well hare off in a direction most of us don't like... look at the current political situation in which too much of society (I hope) didn't put in their 'nudge' on the appointed day.

I am never intentionally disrespectful to a person who has not first disrespected me, but I have repeatedly been attacked for trying to help so I tend to be very cautious about offering correction. On agnostic.com, in the past week, I have witnessed 3 different people confusing insure vs. ensure and it irks me but I just can't bring myself to engage in trying to correct them. I doubt that my spelling and grammar are 100% correct but when it's not, I would truly appreciate somebody letting me know.

3

Having thick thumbs and auto correct i bite my tongue when others make spelling mistakes but i get a little irritable when people use the wrong word ?

This post was inspired by me seeing a person mixing up the words ensure and insure - it was the third such mixup I had read on this site in the last week

1

I write a lot of my posts on my phone and find that the cursor jumps around, while I'm focused on what I'm writing or spell-check decides to 'help out' and it frustrates the heck out of me and I try to keep that in mind if I see someone else writing that seems awkward or misspelled. I hope that if I'm correcting someone, it's light-humored nature is evident and it doesn't come off as pious.

1

I used to be a grammar nazi (intentionally not capatilizing). In a world with "hru" or "wtf" I really don't care too much. Used to point out lots of errors, however, most get offended, and most can figure out what I am saying.

1

I am occasionally a grammar Nazi, but usually only when someone is seriously overusing internet shorthand or their spelling and/or grammar are completely abominable. It was something I made a point of in my dating profiles on dating sites I used because it's important to me. If it is simply a matter of typos, I usually overlook it. I don't worry about "sparking drama" because if someone doesn't want to learn proper word use and/or grammar, I don't really care what they think about my correcting them, and I don't take issue with others pointing out typos or misspellings in my own posts because if I missed them myself I'd like to go back and correct them.

1

It doesn't bother me that much. I'm not the greatest at spelling and Grammer. I take it as a learning experience. When I'm reading someone else and I come across spelling and grammatical errors I just substitute the correction in my mind and keep reading.

2

I'm always open to spelling and grammar correction. I try not to do any correcting unless what they write is incoherent, because I'm sick of the inevitable 'stfu, we're not in school' replies.

2

I welcome any corrections. I hate when people can't spell or follow simple sentence structure.

1

I like all of Jens posts so much I'm not even going to point out the glaring mistake she made in it.

I actually prefer to be corrected when I am wrong. If something I said is incorrect, please enlighten me!

@JenBeberstein
We're all friends here and I didn't want to start another never-ending war because as of yet there really hasn't been a satisfactory conclusion for the use of the Oxford comma.
NOW you can draw your rapier wits and have at it!

@Anonbene I like the Oxford comma, I feel it makes things clearer. It may not be grammatically correct where I live but that doesn't mean it isn't a better system. I also prefer the metric system.

1

I like to say I'm the Oskar Schindler of Grammar Nazis. I'll notice but I'll only point you out if you're being a real dick about it, and even then, only if there's nothing more Salient or substantive to get into. if the misuse greatly changes the meaning I might politely point it out or ask for clarification. But on sites like this or apps that people are using from their phone most likely I understand and make a lot of mistakes myself. or rather I let talk to text make the mistakes and don't have time to correct them all. I just switched to Android and hate typing on this thing. but trust me if I use the wrong homophone I realize it and it drives me nuts too.

1

Some people are hard to understand, because they don't use punctuation, or they use the wrong version of words like to, too or there, their, they're, or they don't break their rambling down into paragraphs.

Things like that bother me, and unless it's my daughter, I just scroll past. If it's my daughter, I know she knows better, and I feel a responsibility to call her out.
My sister in law will post some of the most horrendous sentences you ever saw on Facebook. I can't understand them half the time. I don't correct people if I didn't raise them.

1

I just judge them

4

If I misuse or misspell please correct me. I promise I will not be offended. I may just learn something new ?

1

It depends on who it is and just how egregious the offense. I don't normally bother, but there are times when....

As for being corrected myself, I welcome it. I try not to make errors, and when I recognize them, I edit the little buggers right outa there. As an editor and an author, being on any social media site requires the utmost of self discipline and restraint, but I manage. Occasionally, though, I....

1

I got "fagged" the other day.

godef Level 7 Sep 2, 2018

What does this mean?

@JenBeberstein I was talking about golf in another post, how I've never golfed, and mentioned the flag they stick in the hole, except I left the L out. Someone told me they figured it wasn't intentional, but urged me to edit it.

@godef Thank you for explaining!

1

It's silly. If you understand why bother, don't need to feel like im in school again

1

I do not correct others. And while I appreciate being corrected if I've asked for proof-reading, in normal circumstances, a "more knowledgeable than thou" correction just shows me that the reader is not gracious or bright enough to understand my meaning with a word spelled incorrectly. It also tells me that I would likely not enjoy being their friend in real life.

That said, if I answer a poorly spelled question, I will spell my reply correctly - and don't mind if people do the same with me - and I will quietly check who is right and edit my work accordingly. This method is more diplomatic than public shaming of the writer, who might be tired, dyslexic, have poor eyesight, etc.

Someone corrected me here on this site, and I believed I thanked them, but stubbornly left the mistake intact as it was in my post... even though I usually correct my own posts with the edit feature right way if I notice an error. I'm a stickler for grammar and spelling myself, but try to give some grace to others - and desire the same.

1

Might tell someone to use their spell checker. Will gladly correct a troll.

1

I struggle with that one.
When I see mistakes, especially common ones, it's all I can do to not point them out.
My intent is never to hurt anyone's feelings (unless I think you're being a dick-in which case, I'll use that against you-I don't always take the high road), but to help.

I've had my mistakes pointed out to me, and I appreciated it. I used to write "alright", but that is wrong, the correct way is "all right".
When it was pointed out to me, I stopped doing it.

I just learned that alright is not correct, thank you for that!

@JenBeberstein You're welcome! And while I was reading your response, I noticed a typo in my post. LOL

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