Grammar and Spelling.
Superboyian - I understand your concerns although as kx250rider I too would rate this forum as above average when it comes to spelling and grammar. Didn't see much bullying about it either - which doesn't mean it's not happening.
On the other hand it's very easy to use a spell-checker - wouldn't this resolve a lot of problems for both sides?
Don't forget that not all of us here are native English speakers. For instance, I ended up avoiding all the threads made by a WP member who's grammar was so broken, that most of the times I really couldn't figure what the posts were actually trying to say. It can be quite frustrating, but I never complained about it as I know it upsets people.
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"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live" (Oscar Wilde)
I've seen many many NT's elsewhere online have poor spelling and grammar, so it's not a spectrum thing. Also, some of the most eloquent typists I've ever seen have been lower functioning than AS. I always noticed that most people with AS are more inclined to care about spelling and grammar when writing.
I'm sometimes guilty of wrongly assuming that someone with horrible spelling and grammar mustn't be very smart, especially when I see peoples dating profiles etc.
I do that too but you'd expect a little care when doing a profile though!
Although I find bad grammar and spelling irritating lazy typing and text speech is far worse.
While I would never, ever bully someone over improper use of the language, I will say that I am extremely sensitive to poor grammar and spelling and it really drives me nuts, no matter what the media. I am quite obsessive about it, actually. I am often asked to proofread things at work because my eyes can almost instantly jump to misspellings. I think this may be due to AS, but since I have not yet been diagnosed and am just learning about the symptoms, I could be wrong. I don't judge people based on their usage; it's just that such errors stick out very quickly for me I find them very irritating. That is why I choose to block texting on my phone.
I am inclined to think someone is trollish when I see poor spelling but I would never treat someone as such without evidence that they actually are trolling.
I would never bully anyone over it. I get frustrated by posts that are just two or three run-on paragraphs thrown together and I usually don't read them.
I guess it could be a spectrum thing. Maybe it's sort of all or nothing. I see very precise and very poor grammar and posting styles here, I'd say most of the posters here are very good or at least decent wordsmiths, and know how to be understood in text.
Jacoby
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Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Age: 32
Gender: Male
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Location: Permanently banned by power tripping mods lol this forum is trash
The primary concern in language, whether written or spoken, is to be coherent and easy to understand. Poor grammar, spelling and punctuation are a barrier to understanding and should be avoided if at all possible. It's very difficult to correct people's grammar as many people are very sensitive about this issue. They can react in a highly emotional way to correction even if it is not intended to hurt the individual.
I personally find bad grammar, punctuation and spelling very annoying. I don't tend to bother reading such posts. My grammar isn't perfect but I try my best to improve when I make mistakes.
I am possibly on the spectrum (for Asperger's), and I have unbeatable spelling. In year 9 I didn't get a single spelling wrong all year. My grammar is slightly less impressive, however. If someone does not spell something perfectly, I get very irritated XD Not with the actual person though. I just hate bad spelling. I would never tease someone just because of how they spell- it's just plain mean, and most people on here know exactly what it's like to be teased.
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Some people are autistic... deal with it!
Self-diagnosed female Aspie (AS- 171/200, NT- 26/200)
I don't have poor spelling or poor grammar. In fact, I was one of the best children in the class at using grammar, before I was 10. In anything, a lot of NTs are bad at spelling and grammar.
When I was 6 years old, I could spell ''argue'', and that is good for a child of 6.
We can't keep blaming all our strengths and weaknesses on being on the spectrum. I'm very poor at maths, but I'm not blaming it on being on the spectrum. I am just a person who isn't good at maths, AS or no AS.
And I can't bear to read people's posts who have bad spelling and grammar, but people mis-using punctuation is far more irritating. The punctuation helps me to hear a tone of voice in my head as I read, and when reading somebody's post who doesn't use punctuation very well, I just can't understand what they're trying to say. And I also hate it when people don't close the bracket. Each time I see a bracket, I always have to look for the other bracket to actually read the words in the brackets. And I hate it when people use speech marks like this (example): Julie turned to her husband and said'', ohh that's a nice suit. And he said'', yes I brought it at Tesco. And then Julie went to the bedroom to get changed too.
How annoying and confusing that is to read! And I've never really seen poor punctuation like that on this Autism forum. I've seen more on the Yahoo forums. And also the spelling on the Yahoo forums too. They get muddled up with ''they're'', ''their'' and ''there'', or other words like that, which is also annoying.
My vocabulary may be bad, but at least I try to make my posts make as much sense as possible.
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Female
I've always had almost perfect spelling and grammar from when I was very young. It's from reading all the time. Personally, I've always found it easy to utilize proper English on the Internet. I don't even like to run spell check, because I go back and edit automatically if I make a typo. Like coffeegirl, my eyes jump immediately to typos in other people's work, so I think I would make a great copy editor.
Honestly, I do look down on those with poor spelling and grammar skills, though I don't bully them over it unless their content or actual point is stupid (which actually tends to be the case more often than not). Lots of NTs are biased when someone can't speak as well.
I agree that people make too big of a deal out of poor spelling and grammar online. Not everyone is able to write with perfect grammar and spelling and they should not be bullied for it or have the content of their posts ignored just because they made some spelling mistakes. People shouldn't be so anal about spelling and grammar, it's not fair.
A lot of people assume that people are lazy or stupid if their spelling isn't perfect. A lot of people have high expectations of grammar and spelling because there exist spell checks and they think that solves everything, but in reality there is only so much a spell check can do. Spell checks don't detect and repair all mistakes, only some.
I've seen a lot of bullying and abuse online with people picking on others for their spelling and grammar and I wish people were more accepting. All kinds of people use the internet and of course their spelling, grammar and English skills vary, but that shouldn't make anyone less welcome.
As long as I can understand what people are writing I don't care much how they spelled it, and even if I don't understand what they are trying to write, I see no reason to bully them about it, I just ask them to clarify.
Hate that, hate that!
Along with: "an elephant is bigger then a mouse", "I would of thought that ...", and anyone sitting at a PC keyboard who still feels the need to treat it like a mobile phone keypad: "I C U R there 2, m8" etc.
It's not clever, it's not neat - but it is damn near unreadable.
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Giraffe: a ruminant with a view.
I don't normally say anything if I see badly spelled or badly written comments on the internet. I'm not exactly Ms. Polly Prefect Proofreader myself. But if someone is being an ass, especially over someone else who they think is wrong, I might use their crappy spelling and grammar against them.