Am I being rude

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Issa87

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When I correct others’ grammatical errors on public forums/articles? I say it politely, and give an example of the wrong way and the right way to say it. It is a pet peeve of mine to read poor grammar. I hate how uneducated Americans seem, and I am American. I don’t think I am better than anyone else, I just believe in perfection.
 
Yes. you are being rude .

Get the irony?

People who put grammar over substance are putting form over substance; furthermore, it appears to assume that poor grammar equals lack of substance, which is not the case. I find your attitude condescending, and I don’t hold to it.
 
I think it’s a little bit like a small child pointing at a large mole on a person’s nose and saying, “You have a mole.”
 
No. I was taught that spelling, grammar errors and the use of vulgar, foul language was the bane of an educated person. Hence, if you do have something substantive to articulate, do it well. 😉 We should all heed to being corrected when we are wrong.
 
Poor grammar bothers me as well, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable correcting anyone other than very close friends or family members. Or in a work situation, while working on a project together. Strangers on the internet? No.
 
This reminds me of correcting non-native speakers of languages I speak fluently; what I always do in those cases is first ask the person if they don’t mind me correcting them. If they say they prefer that I don’t, I don’t. 😛
 
Not necessarily.

They might be carelessly cultivating probable or potential ambiguity, an example lots of others will gladly follow, however “unintentionally”. That isn’t necessarily “perfection”, and it’s wholesome to awaken in others a taste for informativeness and being informed and a normal level of competence.

Prevalent levels of sloppiness as to meaning can vary from one subject and one set of participants, to another. If the dominant psyche isn’t really our cup of tea, we are well justified in not participating, just leaving them to it!

It is very important to know when to let it slide - maybe it’s of scarcely any importance for meaning at all, in many cases.

In addition to that we should add a “quota” where we let it slide on purpose even if it’s arguable, just to show ourselves that we can.

God didn’t appoint us as “forum police” and He isn’t going to demand our last pound of flesh every time we “let go” an “opportunity”!

Rules of thumb perhaps:
  • are we significantly enhancing the thread for other participants and readers?
  • are we, on balance between our “good days” and “bad days”, doing the forum more good than ill?
  • lastly and most important, are we nurturing ourselves and looking after our energy levels!
For God, our forum participations are at most a nice-to-have and only if it comes over as nice.

Hoping that’s not too pernickety!

🙂
 
It depends on the forum and article, as well as the circumstances revolving around the corrected person.

Formal websites such as *Wordreference *and *StackExchange *are suitable places to correct others.

It would be imprudent to correct others on websites such as *YouTube *and Twitter, as such websites encourage informal behavior.
 
I always encourage my spanish speaking students to engage in a conversation or dialogue in english…There are many grammar mistakes made but when you are talking with someone you just want to enjoy and have a nice time with them…not correcting them. There is a right time and place for everything.
 
I find it somewhat rude and annoying. I don’t think it will accomplish much, which is a good reason not to do it. You aren’t another man’s editor. Some posters on forums are not native English speakers. Correcting them would seem to me to add unnecessary noise unless the forum is an English grammar forum. Also, grammar is much more diverse and fluid than the rules assume. The rules are a sort of academic imposition.

This isn’t to say I don’t with alarming frequency read posts that have the most bizarre English. Internal clues suggest the author is a native English speaker. I very often ignore such posts. I figure I would have a hard time communicating with the author.

I am an American too and I also hate how uneducated Americans don’t just seem but really and truly are. I don’t think correcting them on Internet forums will do much good. I think your time is better spent preparing to endure the disasters these people will create.
 
Issa87 said:
When I correct others’ grammatical errors on public forums/articles? I say it politely, and give an example of the wrong way and the right way to say it. It is a pet peeve of mine to read poor grammar. I hate how uneducated Americans seem, and I am American. I don’t think I am better than anyone else,** I just believe in perfection.**
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That phrase says it all. You are doomed to be disappointed in this life. Poor grammar grates on my nerves too but I make the supreme effort to quell my inner Grammar Nazi. If you’re honest with yourself you’d see that you’re not really doing it for anyone else but yourself. You just don’t want to encounter bad grammar or misspellings (implied by the emphasized phrase above). Suck it up buttercup. (Sorry, was that rude?)
 
There are plenty of poorly-educated people in other countries who write badly–not all the British are as conversant with the language as CS Lewis was, for example 😉

I do not correct people’s writing except for explaining about paragraphs for those who seem not to know–solid blocks of type online are hard to read on computers, much less hand-held devices!–or if they did something like leave the word “not” out of the sentence and I am replying, I’ll include a correction to what they seem to have wanted to write, since that is what I am replying to.

Other than that, let them them be–I’m not perfect either 🙂
 
Issa87 said:
When I correct others’ grammatical errors on public forums/articles? I say it politely, and give an example of the wrong way and the right way to say it. It is a pet peeve of mine to read poor grammar. I hate how uneducated Americans seem, and I am American. I don’t think I am better than anyone else, I just believe in perfection.
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Mea culpa, I am probably ruder when I respond to a poster and at the same time mock their bad grammar or idiosyncratic spelling by affecting it myself. Mea culpa.

“l8r” “d00ds”
tee
 
Issa87 said:
When I correct others’ grammatical errors on public forums/articles? I say it politely, and give an example of the wrong way and the right way to say it. It is a pet peeve of mine to read poor grammar. I hate how uneducated Americans seem, and I am American. I don’t think I am better than anyone else, I just believe in perfection.
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If you expect perfection from everyone at all times, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. I agree with PolarGuy - you do come across as condesending, and almost prideful that you have better grammar than others and are more “perfect” than others.

Correcting others’ grammar doesn’t make Americans seem any more educated, or any other nationality for that matter. Most of the time, it just leads to an argument which is counterproductive. And honestly, you don’t know why a person’s grammar isn’t “perfect”. English may not be a first language, or a person could have a learning difficulty such as dsylexia. I would just be glad that an interest is being taken in an article the first place.

Lou
 
If I wrote or spelled something that made me look idiotic, I would appreciate someone pointing it out to me so I can correct it in the future.

If it was just a typo, that would be apparent & no correction needed.
 
There is a spell checker on the site although a very poor one - nobody likes the spelling police on forums
 
hu324b said:
There is a spell checker on the site although a very poor one - nobody likes the spelling police on forums
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Spell check doesn’t help when someone spells “there” when it should be “their” or “they’re.”

There should be a grammar check! 😉
 
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