[net.general] Spelling and Grammar

furuta (11/10/82)

Can anyone think of something constructive to do about the *terrible*
spelling and grammar that seems to be present in almost every message posted
to this network?  I'm not all that great of a speller myself, and reading
these messages is wiping out whatever command of the English language I had
managed to develop.

Let me point out one item that I've been noticing a lot, lately--the
difference between "its" and "it's."  "Its" is a possessive.  Think of it as
corresponding to "his" (or "hers").  "It's" is a contraction for "it is."

greg (11/10/82)

I agree.  In addition to "its" and "it's", some of the net correspondants
don't correctly use "then" (meaning "following in time") and "than"
(meaning "differs from" (well, usually)), and "there", they're", and
"their".  It may be a small thing, but if someone can't pay attention
to the small things in their (not there or they're) writting, I wonder
about how much attention they pay to their coding practices.....

-- Greg Noel, NCR    ....!ucbvax!sdcsvax!greg

steve (11/10/82)

its a shame

hamilton (11/14/82)

#R:sdcsvax:-245400:uicsovax:3300026:000:239
uicsovax!hamilton    Nov 14 05:49:00 1982

i've been wondering about that.  i have seen phrases like:
	"X is better then Y"
so often, in so many places, that i was beginning to believe it might
be a "correct" variant.
	wayne ({decvax,ucbvax,harpo}!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsovax!)hamilton

greg (11/16/82)

OK, OK, I admit it -- I can't spell.  And the line noise I get on this
terminal doesn't help matters, either.  But I know I can't spell, so I
usually put everything I do through the spelling corrector before I
send it out.  However, I have been unable to convince the interface I
use to put me in the editor when I reply to stuff, so I didn't with
that reply.  I noticed the problem with "writting" and the missing
quote; I guess I should have said something at the bottom so people
would know I was trying.  But you notice I wasn't complaining about the
SPELLING, I was complaining about the USAGE.  (And it still bothers me.)

Hmmmmmm -- I just ran the spelling corrector on the paragraph above.
It didn't catch "writting" as an error.  I can't win for losing.