Lessons in Language Arts

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  • #588180
    mdlevine
    Member

    Every so often, I attempt to read a post that I can not comprehend. The sentence structure makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, the thoughts are disjointed and the spelling is beyond bad. Usually, I just skip to the next post.

    Sometimes, I find many words spelled inccorrectly, however, I have an understanding of what the poster is saying, so I overlook it and cintinue reading the post.

    I am not interested in lessons in language arts on the boards. Posting boards, generally are not meant to be legal briefs nor english compositions. We all spell words incorrecttly at times or even omit words. What is the problem as long as the thought is still understood? We have all seen the “english lesson” post castigating someone for incorrect usage or spelling only to be corrected later by someone else.

    This has nothing to do with Yeshiva or secular education, it is a byproduct of the medium in which we are engaged – a quickly typed response to a topic or comment.

    #668915
    Mayan_Dvash
    Participant

    Perhaps that why it’s called Laguage ARTs, as it remains an art practiced by the few. The rest of us think we speak in much much gooder English. 🙂

    #668916
    mariner
    Member

    i agree.

    btw, in the sentence you are talking about spelling incorrectly, continue is spelled with an i. if done on purpose, hilarious!

    spelling and grammar usage, i have always said do not need to be followed strictly on message boards. but reading comprehension skills do need to be used. there are many posters here that truly lack this skill, and argue points completely on the basis on not understanding and taking information out of a paragraph.

    the skill of reading comprehension is need in everything that is written, including advertisements. a message board, whether with misspelled words or incorrect sentence structure still gets the point across, but if you cant comprehend the point, then being on here is useless.

    #668917
    intellegent
    Member

    So what are you trying to bring out in that case?

    (-IntellIgent)

    #668918

    some of it is lack of education, but with the younger folks part of it is that they are used to IM which has its own set of shortcuts to save keystrokes, such as skool for school or sum1 for someone, and completely ignores punctuation.

    Recently I worked on a project where the project manager would IM me work related stuff in that form. It took me longer to figure out her question than the amount of time she savesd on extra keystrokes, lol. (lol=laughing out loud).

    an example – u dont hv any changes or anything lk tht rt (You don’t have any changes or anything like that, right?)

    another: u cud do tht 2day or 2morow tho i ges (you could do that today or tomorrow though, I guess)

    #668919
    mdlevine
    Member

    mariner: I would love to say it was intentional, but that would be ganavous da’as (spelling??? but you get the point). besides, who put the “o” and “i” so close together on the keyboard anyway?

    IntellEgent, I was trying to bring out the point that the language arts lessions detract from the subject matter at hand and are more of a distraction than incorrectly spelled words and poor grammar.

    Charlie Brown, those examples r gr8!

    #668920
    illini07
    Member

    I have to admit, though I realize that it is partially an effect of the medium which we are using, the posts with extreme grammatical, paragraph, spelling, and typographical errors do irk me. Perhaps I am old fashioned, but in my opinion, we should be treating electronic communication in the same way that we treat other forms of communication. The way you portray yourself through electronic means are indicative of the way you would present yourself in a written document – or at least that’s the attitude I use.

    Not to mention that it is extremely difficult to carry on a semi-intelligent conversation when you can’t understand what someone else is trying to say without taking it to a cryptologist.

    #668921
    Jewess
    Member

    i always wonder y sum ppl like 2 type like this it make me sic. besides i think it take longr 2 typ this way u hav 2 think more 2 do this.

    ************************

    Did I just do that?

    #668922
    mariner
    Member

    jewess, charlie brown, and illini07:

    i explained this ina previous discussion. the reason that these abbreviations are used go back to early internet, which was really message boards with links. it was filled with nerds, and they found it “cool” to use certain slangisms, so to speak. more common were abbreviations, like lol, btw, brb, gr8, etc. there are others, like w00t that are more geek-like.

    when messaging became big, early -mid 90’s aim/ms messenger, replying had to be done in a fast pace, like in a conversation, which lended itself to steal these abbreviations. when texting took off, about same time, little later, late 90’s, besides wanting it to go faster, to mimic conversation, there was another aspect, the number of spaces allowed in a sms text message. 160 characters is the maximum, so abbreviating and not using apostrophes became a necessity.

    #668923
    illini07
    Member

    Mariner:

    And I agree with you. But the fact of the matter is, the internet generally is not limited to 160 characters. If you abbreviate in a text message, that’s fine – but don’t carry that over to emails or internet messages where you have abundant space to write a coherent response.

    #668924

    The history lesson on why this came about is interesting, but nevertheless, the background problem still exists. I am not an English language major and do tend to mispell sometimes, but that does not excuse the general population neglecting to learn the major international language. How can one work and interact with the global economy and buisiness world while speaking broken English and excusing it as “Yeshivish”? When I was in high school, the Lemudei Kodesh teachers gave me a obviously higher grade when they could not understand what I was writing when I gave essay questions on tests in more than three sylable words. Why should that be? Everyone should be able to read and write on a basic high school level.

    #668925
    feivel
    Participant

    does everyone who posts here have english as their first language?

    is it possible some may be from russia,

    perhaps some were brought up speaking only Yiddish?

    is it possible some are Israelis?

    Yemenis?

    mexicans?

    iranians?

    #668926

    This site was set up in English and people should post in the language the site was set up in. Also- English is America’s first language… and the fact that it may not be some people’s language does not excuse the rest of the population! People should teach their children that they should be able to speak coherrently!

    I understand not capitalizing as it is a blog, but still- can we have more or less complete sentences or ones that are understandable?

    #668927
    YW Moderator-72
    Participant

    for all those users that keep pointing out the errors in other users (or mods) posts, I thought this was an interesting read…

    #668929

    I luv this thred.

    S/t when i c spling mstakes, i rofl!

    lol!!!!1!!1!

    #668930
    moish01
    Member

    gee and i thought i was bad because i don’t capitalize when i’m supposed to?!

    #668931
    mepal
    Member

    moish: we all don’t. It’s the spelling/grammar errors that are so prevalent on this forum. Is this new 2 u? I think we may have discussed this in the past…

    #668932
    moish01
    Member

    i nvr sw ths thred. man, its imposble 2 type lke ths- it takes way longr!

    seriously that took me more than three times than the amount of time it should have. plus i had to look at the keyboard while typing.

    #668933
    Just Smile
    Participant

    ha – lol in a big way

    it really depends on how much you type.

    true it takes some time to get used to typing in IM language, but once you learn it and get used to it – it makes for much faster typing.

    Try telling a court stenographer that should write everything out instead of using shorthand because for you it’s to hard to get used to.

    #668934
    oomis
    Participant

    My typing and my thinking are at such different rates, that I often have spelling errors unless I actually proofread, when I post here. The irony of the situation is that I once earned my living by being a proofreader and editor at a publishing company.

    #668935
    kapusta
    Participant

    oomis, that happens with me and my talking. 😉

    *kapusta*

    #668936
    Bais Yaakov maydel
    Participant

    i miss all the old-timers. where’d they go? i expected e/o to still be here when i got back….

    #668937
    aussieboy
    Participant

    wts so hrd 2 spl like this? i do it all the time in txts.

    For everyone against it. Its just a diffrent way of writing I can read it just as easily as regular words. It is just that your not used to it.

    The only problem is when people leave out a question mark and you cant tell if they are asking a question or saying something.

    (btw the rsn y ppl txt like this is also bec when u snd a txt u have a limit 2 how many lttrs u can use so it allows u 2 put in more words in 1 txt. — By the way the reason why people text like this is also because whn you send a text you have a limit to how many letters you can use so it allows you to put more words in one text.)

    It took me longer to write the second one than the first. (Although I do i send a couple thousand texts a month so I get a lot of practice lol)

    #668938

    2 most ppl undr the age of 25 or so, it’s sooo mch ezier 2 write lk ths. it tks mch shrtr, x lngr!

    but i think that as a courtesy to the 26+ among us, coherent writing on a website like ywn would be appreciated by many.

    and as far as spelling & grammar is concerned, i’m one of those crazy fanatics who actually get irritated by errors [not the typos – the lack-of-better-knowledge mistakes]. although i try to control myself from the pedantic correcting… sometimes my comments on that just spill out.

    #668939
    tzippi
    Member

    Eh, go ghoti.

    #668940
    anonymisss
    Participant

    aussie, riteing lyke that iz won thing but fer tha peepul hu downt no hou tu spel it kan get kinda anoying to reed they’re posts. du yu get wat i mene?

    ~a~

    #668941
    anonymisss
    Participant

    That’s my point, ames. I can’t take it when people mispel words. shrthnd is nt hrd 4 me.

    ~a~

    #668942
    kapusta
    Participant

    anonymisss’s post in shorthand, for ames.

    aussie, wrtng like dat is 1 ting bt 4 da ppl hu dnt kno how 2 spel it can get kinda anoying 2 read feir posts. dyu get wat i mean?

    no one can do it like a real teen. 😉

    *kapusta*

    #668943
    anonymisss
    Participant

    kapusta, txting’s awsm, wat dyu say 2 dat?

    ~a~

    #668944
    kapusta
    Participant

    anonymisss, I agree w u nd ur improvng.

    *kapusta*

    #668945
    Jax
    Member

    for the record i had no issue reading all that! hee hee!

    #668946
    an open book
    Participant

    i read it fine but i still think it’s annoying.

    #668947
    kapusta
    Participant

    AOB, do you text?

    *kapusta*

    #668948
    Jax
    Member

    an open book: after a while it’s not annoying one bit!

    #668949
    anonymisss
    Participant

    kapusta, lol! im improvng? if ur qun of cr im qun of txtng!

    jax, 😉

    aob, u x txt?

    ~a~

    #668950
    kapusta
    Participant

    anonymisss, uh uh, im qun of e/t! txting incldd

    when you text you use full words, or T9 or…

    *kapusta*

    #668951
    an open book
    Participant

    kapusta & anonymisss: a lil but i dont like 2, i prefer email esp since i can email 2 my frends phones (& they get em as txts). i usually do shorten things but not as much as some ppl.

    & whether or not it’s easier for the person typing, it’s always a lil harder to read.

    #668952
    kapusta
    Participant

    AOB, not always, once you get used to it, its fine. But, you need to text a LOT until you get used to it. btw, do you have a full keyboard? makes it much easier.

    *kapusta*

    #668953
    anonymisss
    Participant

    yeah, i have full keyboard and don’t use it very much, i don’t like it. What phone do you have, kapusta? I know you have verizon from the time you lost your phone and i recently got a new phone LG Dare.

    ~a~

    #668954
    an open book
    Participant

    kapusta: nope, & yeah ik. but i don’t like texting anyway, too short. also really annoying when you’re trying to spend time with someone & they keep checking their texts.

    #668955

    i am da queen of txtng -just strtd to wrt out wrds more bec my frnds all either gt blckbrrrys or r usin T9-dnt like emailing


    and idk alot of my frnds hu i txt r da type 2 fllow all rules incldng txtng jk lol- i 4 1 dnt lke qwerty keypads —

    #668956
    kapusta
    Participant

    anonymisss, samsung alias, best phone for texting, awesome keyboard! (that was the one that was stolen, this is the second…)

    AOB, I agree with that, did you ever see a few girls walking and each one is texting or on the phone, its funny and sad.

    CNP, I, for one, do!

    #668957
    anonymisss
    Participant

    aob, agree 100%. Extremely annoying when ppl are 4ever checking their texts.

    CNP, sorry, u nt da qun of txtng da title’s already been claimed!

    ~a~

    #668958
    kapusta
    Participant

    CNP, sorry, u nt da qun of txtng da title’s already been claimed! twice!

    *kapusta*

    #668959

    ok ok im mochel the tittle

    #668960
    kapusta
    Participant

    CNP, you really dont have to, one more queen cant hurt that much. The CR, however, only has 1 queen.

    *kapusta*

    #668961
    anonymisss
    Participant

    cnp 😉

    ~a~

    #668962
    aussieboy
    Participant

    Haha as much as you all say you hate it you seem to be having fun writing like that.

    As for everyone else who is trying to show how “hard” it is to read words that are misspelled or shorthanded. Your doing a horrible job I can read it just as easily as I can read it when it’s written correctly.

    Grammer is often ignored out of laziness not out of not knowing proper grammer.

    (Only thing I cant figure out is what qun is supposed to be?)

    #668964
    an open book
    Participant

    most annoying is going to a party & everyone’s sitting there texting (often each other!) & comparing ringtones. ive seen that more than once even before i got my phone, & remembering how i felt i try not to text a lot, especially when with other people.

    aussie: i don’t think anyone is doing it to prove that anymore. they’re just doing it for fun, since it’s on topic so it’s allowed on this thread. qun = queen.

    #668966
    mepal
    Member

    Whats more annoying is trying to talk to your boss and every other second he checks his texts/emails on his blackberry…I just pause, stare at him in the face, and wait for him to look back up and then continue till he gets another text…

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