I believe in literacy.

[doctordialtone]

Yes, exactly. That's why it is called a Rant. Like any other Forum, you have a right whether or not you would like to visit or comment.

Like any other Forum, if the opinions that you read here upset you, you may chose to comment or click the BACK button. They are opinions.

If you ain't got no problem reading posts which are frankly hard to read formostofusbecausetheyaretypedallinlowercaseorwith nopuntuationorwithallkindsofmisspelledwords, good for you.

I'm sorry this bothers you because you have Freedom of Speech rights too.

[Jimru]

Here's a great example of incoherent posting:

"Ok so the government wants to take my second amendments rights away. Then you'll know it they will want to take my First rights to speach away. Heres the real question to ask. What will happen to the ham radio groups in the futuar? Im not a paraniod person, but the one to asked question no one will asked that I know of."

Say what?

[elk2370bruce]

Originally Posted by kb2vxa

Muricun, y'all speak MURICUN! Well, you wanted to know and now you know. Oh and BTW it's spelled Aussie but pronounced Ozzy as in Ozzy Melbourne.

"I wish you Grammer/Spelling-Nazis peace."
That's G-R-A-M-M-A-R!!!
Now rest in pieces, pax Romano, Romano cheese, Dominoe's Pizza... aaa-mennn.

I's don't talk Mur-i-can. I be from U-R-O-P. Literacy is not the only problematic issue. The inability to think before constructing a correct message is often the root issue. Grammar and punctuation don't count if you can't think and reason before putting those sticky fingers on the keyboard. I don't think that schools even teach the art of a diagram of a sentence - even simple (let alone compound) ones. Like any other skill, it has to be practiced and exercised.

[Jimru]

You are only a "Grammar and Spelling Nazi" if you are correcting others in a forum or a thread.

Personally, as I have said earlier in this thread, it bothers me when I see other folks mangling the English language, but not enough to really give it a second thought.

The OP in this thread is merely speaking his mind and expressing an opinion, far from being any kind of "Nazi", as it were.

[Confuzzled]

It's getting worse. I can't figure out if people are getting dumber or just lazier. Maybe it's the infestation of mobile devices and people are too stupid to figure out where the Shift and other common keys like the comma and question mark are.

[k3cfc]

Originally Posted by Confuzzled

It's getting worse. I can't figure out if people are getting dumber or just lazier. Maybe it's the infestation of mobile devices and people are too stupid to figure out where the Shift and other common keys like the comma and question mark are.

I hear ya brother. i believe they are stupid or they just don't want to learn. a mind is a terrible thing to waste.


K3CFC

[Confuzzled]

I really wish Board Admins would start cracking down on it. Not just here, but all boards. One or two doing it won't make any difference.

People wonder why Americans are so looked down on by the rest of the world, yet so many continue to display rampant illiteracy in public.

[Jimru]

It's known as "functional illiteracy", methinks.

[feets]

I spend very little time with thoughts of grammar or spelling. Not in other people's posts nor my own.

I also spend very little time with thoughts of people's verbal use of language. Words are pronounced differently by some than what I am used to in my area. Some words are used differently depending on regions. Like coke, soda and pop.

If the literate consider themselves above others because of their perceived language requirements, so be it.

I judge people differently I suppose. I know quite a few people that are quite intelligent but are not very literate. I judge them on what they are good at and don't expect them to write a literary masterpiece about it.

99% of the time, I know what people are trying to say and they know what I'm trying to say(communicate).

I think most would conclude the founding fathers were quite educated and literate. I wonder, why so much debate over what in the world they meant when they wrote the Federalist Papers, Bill of Rights, Constitution and all of their personal papers? Literacy is over rated, IMO.

[Jimru]

Originally Posted by feets

I spend very little time with thoughts of grammar or spelling. Not in other people's posts nor my own.

I also spend very little time with thoughts of people's verbal use of language. Words are pronounced differently by some than what I am used to in my area. Some words are used differently depending on regions. Like coke, soda and pop.

If the literate consider themselves above others because of their perceived language requirements, so be it.

I judge people differently I suppose. I know quite a few people that are quite intelligent but are not very literate. I judge them on what they are good at and don't expect them to write a literary masterpiece about it.

99% of the time, I know what people are trying to say and they know what I'm trying to say(communicate).

I think most would conclude the founding fathers were quite educated and literate. I wonder, why so much debate over what in the world they meant when they wrote the Federalist Papers, Bill of Rights, Constitution and all of their personal papers? Literacy is over rated, IMO.

Very well said!

[com501]

Literacy is important however, when you are dealing with a document like the Constitution, where the placement of a comma can mean a world of difference.

This is why lawyers spend hours pouring over documents. I had a lawsuit once where the entire balance of the case and the outcome of whether I inherited a piece of property or not rested on the structure of one sentence in the will. Turns out that MY parsing, and the judges parsing agreed with MY attorney.

My attorney charged me 10% of the net worth of the inheritance (a bargain). His fee was $1.4million. Does that tell you that literacy counts??

[Jimru]

I worked at the United Nations HQ in NYC for several years as an audio tech, setting up and operating mics for the various conference rooms during the General Assembly.

During that time, I witnessed conferences that lasted many hours, where diplomats from around the world would take great pains to make sure that the language was perfect in each document. The dotting of an "i" or the placement of a semi-colon, or the addition or deletion of any particular word would make or break a treaty or agreement.

During that time, I gained a lot of respect for these "lower level" diplomats, as they toiled over these documents. I also learned that they spoke better English than most native born Americans, including myself.

However, here in Radio Reference, it just doesn't matter as much. As I've said before, as long as I gain some knowledge or am amused by a posting, it doesn't matter to me that the poster's English isn't so great.

[feets]

That is precisely my point.

When it takes 9 Judges to interpret the constitution, often with each having a different take on it, either the writers were illiterate, the Judges are illiterate or literacy(common use of the word) is not the communication holy grail some people make it out to be.

I've found that even among the most literate people, their "interpretation" of a written document has more to do with their own preconceived notions than the actual words on the document.

In other words, if literacy was end all solution to disagreements, it would not require an attorney to take $1.4mil to explain what a document meant. The whole world is illiterate if the goal is to have an unarguable method to communicate in writing without error.

[Jimru]

Originally Posted by feets

That is precisely my point.

When it takes 9 Judges to interpret the constitution, often with each having a different take on it, either the writers were illiterate, the Judges are illiterate or literacy(common use of the word) is not the communication holy grail some people make it out to be.

I've found that even among the most literate people, their "interpretation" of a written document has more to do with their own preconceived notions than the actual words on the document.

In other words, if literacy was end all solution to disagreements, it would not require an attorney to take $1.4mil to explain what a document meant. The whole world is illiterate if the goal is to have an unarguable method to communicate in writing without error.

At the UN, one of the issues that would come up often is that a particular word, or phrasing, had different interpretations just in a cultural sense.

What meaning a word might have in the USA, when translated into, say, Hindi or Thai, would take on an entirely different, (and sometimes opposite!) meaning in their languages.

This meant that all of the signatories to that document needed to work with all of the other diplomats in order to hammer out something that would be palatable not only to their leadership back home, but also to the population at large.

I preferred being a union audio tech to being any kind of a diplomat!!

[JoeyC]

Heres a good one based on the first 2 posts:

VBPD

[ridgescan]

Originally Posted by JoeyC

Heres a good one based on the first 2 posts:

here's

[Jimru]

Originally Posted by ridgescan

here's

LOL

[Confuzzled]

I'm still trying to figure out who Lol is other than Data's 'relative'.

[Jimru]

That's text shorthand for Laughing Out Loud, but I reckon you are aware of that!

[scanningisfun]

Some people on this forum don't care about their grammar or spelling in posts. It is quite annoying to try to give help to someone who can't type a question correctly. It seems like they are using AES-256 to encrypt their posts.

Jacob