Capitalisation, spelling and grammar

[wayneL]

[]

Lol while we're at it. It now seems even pretty formal prose chucks in commas just where the writer thinks it's time for someone reading it out loud to take a breath. Almost as though simply employing commas itself, whether appropriate at the location or not, is the goal.

Mea culpa, probably.

 

[StockyGuy]

[]
Mea culpa, probably.

Not really referring to forum talk. But rather actual articles and books where, if regimented double-checking isn't the forte of some writer more of the stream of consciousness creative mold, an editor is supposed to go along and iron out the wrinkles before publication.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

The almost complete loss of -ly on adverbs with American English, both written and spoken, seems to creeping in here.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Fish
Fish
Fishes

Not the same, but correct.

gg

 

[Knobby22]

All good learnings.
(I hate that word).

 

[Gringotts Bank]

BIAS is a noun. eg. There is bias in the algorithm.

BIASED is the adjective. eg. The algorithm is biased. The media is biased. ASF is biased to the right.

You don't just spell it that way, you pronounce the 'd'. A hard 'd'. That's what she said.

 

[Bourseboy]

Myself does get upset by the way some people speak. Myself, yourself, themselves gets thrown in everywhere.
None (not one) are. Should be not one is.
The team are. Should be the team is. Singular. One team is. 2 teams are.
The team members are, but the team is.
Fixed the breaks on my car. For myself that brakes my heart.
I heard someone say the herd of dogs. Maybe I herd him bad. What were the herd of dogs chasing?
I try not to be one of those ones who notices these things.
LOL

 

[farmerge]

This is just a general reminder to all ASF members about the presentation of posts. I am constantly receiving feedback about the poor quality of spelling, grammar and punctuation in some of the posts here at ASF. Many of these posts are considered almost unreadable and are a constant source of frustration to those attempting to make sense of them.

• Ensure the first letter of each sentence is capitalised. Names, places and the word "I" should always be capitalised as well.
• Please take care with your spelling and grammar. It improves the readability of your posts.
• Proofread your posts before submitting them. This way, any errors can usually be easily spotted and corrected beforehand.
• Please be careful when cutting and pasting text into posts as it is very easy for the formatting to get messed up. Please consider putting quoted material within quote tags for increased readability.
• If your post contains more than one point or idea please use separate paragraphs for each one.

Form is almost as important as content. A useful post can be rendered far less useful through inattention to capitalisation, spelling and grammar, so please consider putting some effort into making your posts more readable for others.

Perfection is not expected, just a reasonable effort to make things easier for those reading your posts.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Just came across this post Joe even though it 13 years ago still relevant today.

 

[farmerge]

While I agree with all the foregoing posters re form in English, we must remember that written is different from spoken.

Further my beloved English language constantly changes so pedants such as us will always be overcome by peasants such as them.

I must also record for ASF pedants a new letter appearing over the last five years.

It probably originated in pamphlets by some Countrywomen's Association in constipated countries such as the USA where nobody ever seems to sh*t or pi** but lead a life sanitary full of advertisements for products which will only lead to doom such as toilet paper and deodorants.

I refer of course to the * .

Thus it is now becoming accepted to say words such as fu*k in print with approbation.

I remain yours, etc.

gg

GG another one that gets up my nose/nostel, left or right, is the use of "like' Seems to me to be going back to the Beatnik days when every second word was "like".

 

[farmerge]

Not really referring to forum talk. But rather actual articles and books where, if regimented double-checking isn't the forte of some writer more of the stream of consciousness creative mold, an editor is supposed to go along and iron out the wrinkles before publication.

I sometimes wonder about the ability of some of the proof reading that is supposed to take place especially in newspapers these days. As an employee of the two daily papers in Perth so many years ago, part of my apprenticeship was a couple of tours of duty in the Reading Room, proof reading. This area contained some weird and wonderful characters. Definitely a bygone era.

 

[farmerge]

brought instead of bought

Ah there are so many choices Isn't the English language great.
Fought for thought, prize for price, free for three and so on.

 

[farmerge]

So are things like OMG, IMO, ROFL, LMAO, FFIW, IIRC considered bad form here ?

Sir R don't know what half of the abbreviations actually mean. Fortunately, my education consisted of words and phrases and not just letters.

 

[farmerge]

A quick one for the new Aussies on ASF!

Over there, right there. (Place).
Their possesions. Their hopes and dreams. (Possesion).
They're happy because they're traders. (Apostrophe takes the place of 'a', as in they[a]re happy because they[a]re traders).

Lose money. ('Lose' is a verb).
Loose belt. ('Loose' is an adjective).

The cat's whiskers. (Cat has an apostrophe because it posseses the whiskers. 'Whiskers' has none because the 's' denotes plural).
Jim's cat. (Jim owns/posseses the cat).
Chris' cat. (Apostrophe comes after the 's' when the singular form, ie. "Chris", end with an 's').
The Joneses are coming to town. (Plural - several of them!).
The Joneses' cat is coming too.

Two = 2.
Too = also
to.... any other instance.

Though my surname ends with an "s". I was always of the opinion that its plural is s' not ses

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Though my surname ends with an "s". I was always of the opinion that its plural is s' not ses

You're the Joneses. Then there's the Joneses' dog.

btw, urbandictionary.com is good for figuring out what the younger generation is talking about. You can even look up btw.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Just came across this post Joe even though it 13 years ago still relevant today.

I am annoyed by posters who don't capitalise the ASX codes, and render their contributions to a stream of lower case ramblings.

I am bewildered by my new phone (mobile device) that no longer seems to want to retain words or acronyms that I've saved.
I am shocked at the apparent retreat from what was a sensible attempt at predictive text (on the former model) to a situation where even if I have entered the correct spelling and context, this device feature can alter what I've typed.

I am aghast that some contributors do not use the edit feature on ASF to at least try and clean up what they've posted. This applies particularly to 'cut and paste' attempts. Please exercise some editorial control.

Other than that, enjoy the weekend.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

I am annoyed by posters who don't capitalise the ASX codes, and render their contributions to a stream of lower case ramblings.

I am bewildered by my new phone (mobile device) that no longer seems to want to retain words or acronyms that I've saved.
I am shocked at the apparent retreat from what was a sensible attempt at predictive text (on the former model) to a situation where even if I have entered the correct spelling and context, this device feature can alter what I've typed.

I am aghast that some contributors do not use the edit feature on ASF to at least try and clean up what they've posted. This applies particularly to 'cut and paste' attempts. Please exercise some editorial control.

Other than that, enjoy the weekend.

Unfortunately @Dona Ferentes you are asking for the impossible.

ASF comes under the umbrella "blog" and not "publication".

From Wikipedia.

A blog is an informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.

I must go in and correct that, btw ( by the way for those just out of a long stretch at Cooma Correctional Centre. Hello Eddie Obeid your exit date must be soon. ), as the entries may appear at the bottom ( not bottem ).

So the informal rules unfortunately and what is "proppa inglish" for some, is not for me.

Enjoy your weekend, as will everyone I trust, on ASF. This use of the comma btw indicates that I do not trust everyone on ASF to behave as behoves a lady or gentleman.

gg

 

[Sharkman]

• Ensure the first letter of each sentence is capitalised. Names, places and the word "I" should always be capitalised as well.

holy smokes i never noticed this thread until now. i've probably been one of the worst (if not the worst) offenders when it comes to this particular habit, however in my case there's a bit of a backstory to it.

when i was a kid, i learnt to type on a second hand computer my old man was gifted by one of his colleagues - family couldn't afford anything better. the shift keys didn't always work properly on that old computer, and had to be rapped pretty hard to register a keypress. after a while this got frustrating, so i stopped bothering to hit shift unless it was necessary (eg. when i was writing something for a school assignment, or my code wouldn't work if certain chars weren't capitalised) and a bad habit was formed.

Years later when I was in my mid-late teens, we could afford a proper computer, so I did eventually manage to kick the habit. Several years ago however, as my portfolio grew to a level that I never thought I could accomplish as a kid growing up lower-middle class, I decided to bring the habit back, sort of as a weird way to stay mentally grounded and not get carried away with my growing affluence, by serving as a constant reminder of my humble beginnings.

Although it's not really a habit anymore as I can fully control it and do use capitals properly when I have to (eg. writing reports/documentation or communicating with external parties at work). I've only been deliberately skipping capitals when writing casually/informally (eg. emails to family, writing anonymously/pseudonymously such as on here etc) for that reason. But if people find it irritating (though no one's ever said anything about it to me before), I can go back to typing properly, no problem.

 

[farmerge]

Unfortunately @Dona Ferentes you are asking for the impossible.

ASF comes under the umbrella "blog" and not "publication".

From Wikipedia.



I must go in and correct that, btw ( by the way for those just out of a long stretch at Cooma Correctional Centre. Hello Eddie Obeid your exit date must be soon. ), as the entries may appear at the bottom ( not bottem ).

So the informal rules unfortunately and what is "proppa inglish" for some, is not for me.

Enjoy your weekend, as will everyone I trust, on ASF. This use of the comma btw indicates that I do not trust everyone on ASF to behave as behoves a lady or gentleman.

gg

Hmm GG this thread has caused some consternation, but makes an interesting read.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Hmm GG this thread has caused some consternation, but makes an interesting read.

All you need @farmerge is just one sh*tstirrer to come on and a thread can go bananas.

It ususally happens on weekends.

holy smokes i never noticed this thread until now. i've probably been one of the worst (if not the worst) offenders when it comes to this particular habit, however in my case there's a bit of a backstory to it.

when i was a kid, i learnt to type on a second hand computer my old man was gifted by one of his colleagues - family couldn't afford anything better. the shift keys didn't always work properly on that old computer, and had to be rapped pretty hard to register a keypress. after a while this got frustrating, so i stopped bothering to hit shift unless it was necessary (eg. when i was writing something for a school assignment, or my code wouldn't work if certain chars weren't capitalised) and a bad habit was formed.

Years later when I was in my mid-late teens, we could afford a proper computer, so I did eventually manage to kick the habit. Several years ago however, as my portfolio grew to a level that I never thought I could accomplish as a kid growing up lower-middle class, I decided to bring the habit back, sort of as a weird way to stay mentally grounded and not get carried away with my growing affluence, by serving as a constant reminder of my humble beginnings.

Although it's not really a habit anymore as I can fully control it and do use capitals properly when I have to (eg. writing reports/documentation or communicating with external parties at work). I've only been deliberately skipping capitals when writing casually/informally (eg. emails to family, writing anonymously/pseudonymously such as on here etc) for that reason. But if people find it irritating (though no one's ever said anything about it to me before), I can go back to typing properly, no problem.

Good reason to keep your posts tight. Well done @Sharkman . We all have interesting backstories.

gg

 

[divs4ever]

I sometimes wonder about the ability of some of the proof reading that is supposed to take place especially in newspapers these days. As an employee of the two daily papers in Perth so many years ago, part of my apprenticeship was a couple of tours of duty in the Reading Room, proof reading. This area contained some weird and wonderful characters. Definitely a bygone era.

it has been more than 12 years since i worked for a (publishing ) subsidiary of NWS , but even back then proof-reading was an episodic serious of jokes ( sometimes bordering on international litigation )

i remember several times being roasted for errors more than 3 hours after the print run finished , but MY job was to ensure the correct number of papers ( roughly ) was loaded on the correct truck preferably within three days of being printed .

and the part that management completely missed was i am dyslexic ( despite working there for 12 years ) only added to my amusement ( the least reliable employee to read numerous articles diligently , being held responsible for something printed hours ago by others )