Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 15064	2002-01-27 22:18:00	Pedantic Fanatic	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
33132	2002-01-27 22:18:00	Okay ... since I've alienated half of you with my previous posts, I might as well go for the rest. Listen up, homies - it be Grammar Time. Let me first qualify by saying I am NOT targeting anyone in particular. It seems to me that the intelligent make these mistakes as often as the genuine dullards. I blame the school system. I can't make you care about this, but I will ask you this question: Do you think you might, sometime in your life, need to make a good impression in writing? Maybe asking for a job interview? Writing a letter to the editor on some issue that's important to you? Trying to persuade IRD not to put you in jail? Most of you still have decades of speaking and writing English ahead of you. Do you really want to make the same basic mistakes over and over and over for the rest of your lives? If you're still with me, here goes: 1. Important There: In that place Their: Belonging to them They're: They are (the apostrophe marks the missing 'a'). Your: Belonging to you. You're: You are (the apostrophe marks the missing 'a'). Its - Belonging to it. His, hers, theirs, its - no apostrophes in possessive pronouns. It's - It is (the apostrophe marks the missing 'a'). 2. Not so important An exclamation mark means either the words are SHOUTED or spoken with great intensity or surprise. Does your sentence really merit one? If you use them all the time the impact is lost. Never use more than one. Never. And never use more than one question mark. 3. Not very important When you use an 's' to form a plural, you don't need an apostrophe, even when it's an abbreviation. PCs, not PC's (unless you're talking about something belonging to the PC like 'the PC's motherboard). 1970s, not 1970's For those who are interested, there's a nice guide to the correct use of the apostrophe at: http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/ And yes - I make mistakes in my grammar and syntax as well. Feel free to point them out to me. At least I never make spelling mitsakes.	Guest (0)
33133	2002-01-27 22:44:00	Well, since you ask so nicely... It's - It is (the apostrophe marks the missing 'a'). a? And I'm glad you never make spelling mitsakes. :-)	Guest (0)
33134	2002-01-27 22:51:00	Oops. Cut'n'paste has its dangers. Make that 'i'.	Guest (0)
33135	2002-01-27 22:51:00	LOL I enver make spelling mitsakes either. To be honest, I don't mind the spelling mistakes, and some of the txt generation abbreviated words. What I get really annoyed with, mainly because it makes it incredibly hard to read, is when people write *long* messages with no capitalisation or punctuation. It makes it incredibly difficult to decipher what the problem actually is. For example: we are going to the beach tomorrow we will waterski on friday we will build sandcastles on the beach. Now does that say: We are going to the beach. Tomorrow we will waterski. On Friday we will build sandcastles on the beach. Or does it say: We are going to the beach tomorrow. We will waterski on Friday. We will build sandcastles on the beach. Now when I see a message like that, I choose to ignore it, rather than give myself a headache trying to work out what is trying to be said. Mike.	Guest (0)
33136	2002-01-27 22:56:00	Another thing: 'Listen up, homies - it be Grammar Time.' Now since we're on the subject, the word 'homey' would be pluralised as 'homeys', not 'homies'. Otherwise you'd be suggesting that the word is homy, which it's not.	Guest (0)
33137	2002-01-27 23:11:00	You be dissin' my spellin'? I aint NEVA speld a word wrong, and I aint neva usin' no double-negatives neither.	Guest (0)
33138	2002-01-28 07:10:00	This is nothing new. Christchurch Boys High School was founded because the staff of Canterbury University College found that the schools were feeding them unprepared students. They couldn't spell, write, or count. That was around 120 years ago. It has worsened. There used to be books in most houses. Not now. Newspapers used to take care with grammar and spelling. Now they use computers. Computers can't spell. Grammar checkers are useless. Multiple choice tests are easy to mark. They can be marked by machines. The computers I learned on forced me to spell correctly. A punched card, or typed command has to be exactly right. Spelling errors in source code matter to proper compilers. Clicking on icons is easy. Some of the computer learning programmes for children do not even need ability to read or recognise numbers. The 'rewards' for correct clicks make the programmes work like the behavioural studies which trained pigeons to peck on targets. Television as the free babysitter trains children to have a 5 second attention span. When they go to school, they find it hard to learn. Computers with word processing programmes tend to cause the appearance to be thought more important than content. It's depressing.	Guest (0)
33139	2002-01-28 08:06:00	Ummm, Erin, don't forget what you said 2 days ago. Very good call Graham... This is supposed to be a help forum on computers, not a place for people to take each other down over spelling and grammatical errors... If you guys need to expend your weetbix, try a mircosoft chat room! Erin	Guest (0)
33140	2002-02-02 05:43:00	Just using my own post for testing: 12345678901234567890 break 12345678901234567890 break 12345678901234567890 break 12345678901234567890 break 12345678901234567890 break 12345678901234567890 break 12345678901234567890 break	Guest (0)
33141	2002-02-02 05:49:00	************************************************** 50 ************************************************** ************************************************** 50 Stars ************************************************** ************************************************** Fifty Asterisks ************************************************** ************************************************** Fifty asterisks with some text ************************************************** ************************************************** Fifty asterisks with rather a lot of embedded text **************************************************	Guest (0)
1 2