Does grammar matter to you?

And as for grammar and spelling... I am no grammar nazi, but please, use coma and paragraph every now and than and may your spelling at least resemble the correct spelling.

Some typos baffle me.

(but I have zero tolerance for mispelled nationalistic slogans.


(you'd be screwed if they did........)

One Czech party played on nationalist sentiments through bad syntax slogan. When confronted about it, they said it's "conservative spelling, because we are a conservative party"

If you wanna lecture about national pride, herritage and whatnot... use the language properly. That is part of the herritage too).

Yes! Yes it does.

I like reading correct grammar. I don't mind small mistakes in posts on places like PC or other message boards. I mind less in chat when people are typing quickly. However, it bothers me so much when there are typos in things like articles that are published on line. If you are presenting yourself as a professional, your work should look it and be free of typos. It is obvious when the writer and the copy editor are not doing their jobs. I understand live reports needing to get on line quickly, but I don't think that spell check is too much to ask.

It's definitely important, to me.

I don't understand how some people can write/type the way they do.
There's something... pleasant, about correct sentences.

But I don't mind small mistakes, especially coming from non-native English speakers.

Just an interesting point to share. I've a friend who came to the US from Yugoslavia with the equivalent of a Masters degree in economics. She spoke no English. She completed a Masters in English Literature. That's how she tackled learning English! She finds articles are unnecessary and over the years I've had to agree with her. So I do drop them sometimes.

Oh, I don't get the articles. When I think I over use them when trying to write ubercorrectly.

I've read this entire thread with great interest. Some of it I agree with, some of it made me LMAO, and I know 'the grammar Nazi's' are waiting eagerly for my first mistake.

Putting a line between paragraphs make it much easier to read. And 12 pica is the industry standard. Aything smaller is difdficult to read. My n key is sticking and I don't catch every one so that probably makes me look like a moron already.

I loved the poster who said first drafts are always filled with mistakes. Want to know why? Because if I wrote the first sentence and went back to correct it and then wrote the second sentece and went back to correct it, the book would never get written. In the first draft you just want to get the story out. You will see bad grammar and bad spelling, notes on research, places where it says 'fill in the blank' and a lot of other notes that won't make sense to anyone but the writer. That's why it's called a 'first draft'.

Since you are also dealing with things like story arc, plotting, secondary plots, main, secondary and minor characters (who ALL use a different way of speaking), world building, character profiles, battle scenes and love scenes, created words for fantasy and sci-fi, and so much more, grammar and spelling pretty much take a back seat until the third draft. And you are dealing with making weak metaphores strong, stomping out cliches,
watching active verses passive, finding suitable synonyms, striving for economy and clarity, limiting backstory while makig sure each character uses his own voice, staying true to that characters background, syntax, personality and reaction to emotion and action. At the same time you must make sure you are staying true to story arc, plotting, world building...well, you get the picture.

My dictionary and synonym finder are dog eared because the computer versions are a joke and break your flow. And research? Even if your story is based in another time or on another world, your research must still be spot on. I spent a week researching Scotland and Loch Ness and three weeks on Ben Franklin and the tea party.

So grammar and spelling are important, but no more important than your other tools and generally the last draft is used to polish.

As for posting in here-if you are distracted by my mistakes, you are not concentrating on content or listening to what I have to say. Sure, some posters make so many mistakes, it's hard to read. I read it anyway, because I know their words come from their heart. I only have a limited time here each day because of my work schedual, and in future it will be even more limited. So I will read my post over once, but I won't waste my time trying to make it perfect. That strikes me as illogical. I endevor to make most of my posting supportive and as long as the person gets that, then I've accomplished my purpose.

No one is perfect at anything and I'm sure I make a lot of mistakes. But when you are writing fiction, you can get away with a lot if it adds to your story.

But I would never-never correct someone unless they ask me to. To demean or belittle or hurt someone's feelings to make yourslef feel superior is a bunch of crap. Take that! (Tea shishes her sword of justice!)
Grammar Nazi's indeed.

)And just for fun, I've added some deliberate mistakes in case you run out of things to do.(

Grammar does matter to me, but that depends on the source. If it's one particular friend of mine (we'll call he "Alex") and she has a very high level of grammar comprehension and a fantastic grasp of the English language, then when she makes a typo or an error I tend to point it out (unless she does first, which is usually the case.) Same thing if I'm talking to a writer. I expect good grammar and an extensive vocab.
However, if I'm talking to a different friend - Sam - then I don't worry about it too much and I don't make an effort to use complex vocabulary because she doesn't know quite as many words and generally doesn't text me with correct grammar (or punctuation, for that matter.)
Just depends on the source.

i honestly don't care.

as long as i understand what's being said, that's all that matters to me.

I so agree...in the end, no one wants to be seen as a pompous ***....well, most don't want to be seen as a pompous ***.

Some, y'just can't tell.

For me an error is an exercise in not being such an uptight perfectionist all the time.

As long as it's not in complete acronyms and "txt speak", I mostly don't mind...mostly.

Just popping in, and don't have time to read all the messages in this thread, but I have read some. When I read a book or magazine, spelling and grammar is important to me. It doesn't have to be perfect, but at least show a reasonable effort. I need a refresher course of grammar and usage myself. I've found, or so it seems, that some things I was taught are now different. Either that, or I'm seeing a lot of wrong usages, which could just as well be true. For instance, I was taught that when you use a colon, before you list what you're listing or emphasizing (since a colon means, "Pay attention to this!"), your sentence before the colon should be a complete one: Then you begin the next sentence or your list with a capital letter, as this sentence does. However, I see a lot of this rule being ignored or maybe it's changed, and I see people not using the capitalization.

In live chatting, or on message boards, I don't mind so much. I also use shorthand (OMG, u for "you", not always capitalizing sentence beginnings or "I", etc.), and it's not because I'm lazy, but because I usually view chatting as a way to relax with friends. Unless, of course, I were chatting in a professional way, say as a writer representing myself and/or my publisher. In that case, I want to show I know how to write and punctuate.

Also--and this is an important one--whether in writing or in conversation, if you must insult or criticize me, spell it write, punctuate it correctly, capitalize as required, and make sense! Is that too much to ask? Because I'll call you on it.

your so stack up, y gramma matters? Nobody rites wright, gramma is for old ppl! We have freedum 2 rite as we want!

Just kidding

Grammar does matter to me. When people slur their words together irritates me. Even when people are singing and the words run into each other irritates me. You can't understand what is being sung.

We as individuals are a composit of traits, preferences, past experiences, aspirations, etc. etc., like pieces of a puzzle. A person can't really be judged by any single piece of the puzzle, but together they paint a picture that tells us if a person is to be taken seriously, or if the person is a doofus. Grammar is an important piece of the puzzle, as it says much about you. The occasional slip-up should be of no concern, but a pattern of bad grammar tells me that somebody is either lazy or ignorant. Either way, they loose credibility.

(bold emphasis mine)

So, you're all for good grammar, but not spelling? HUGS!!!

OMG, I just caught my own error (and maybe the person who responded right after caught it and I didn't realize she was teasing me about it, and not just me in general), LOL! "Spell it write," should be, "Spell it right." Oopsy!!!

Grammar is the meaning of life. When one is fluent in the English language, they are fluent in life.

Spelin dont make me no nevermind ;-)

It's just the opposite from European usage, I think! Articles are used here only for particular objects, while in some languages they are used for the general case. We do not say "the humanity" unless we are talking about some particular instance of it.

That's the whole point. If you write "too" or "two" when you mean "to", it reduces my ability to understand what you are saying. I cannot read it smoothly, but have to take time to figure out which word you really mean.

Maybe this is spelling, not grammar, but confusion in either disturbs me.

I like grammar. A well written page is a joy to read. Punctuation can change the meaning completely. Language and grammar is living. I think it is interesting people want to do away with single quotes in favor of double quotes or no quote. In fact typing on a mobile device has made me so impatient about apostrophes on a desktop. I never have to type the apostrophe in "you're" on a phone. It fills it in automatically. Now it is really annoying to me on a desktop. "Ty" becomes "Thank you" on my phone. Outlook should keep up!

"He thirty three." Luster said. "Thirty three this morning."
"You mean, he been three years old thirty years."

Sound and Fury(Faulkner)

Sound and fury would not be a book worth reading if you don't know >good< grammar so you can read the so called bad grammar. So even if you don't care to use it I think it is a good idea to know it.

Now there is something interesting… Emphasis is inconvenient in apps like tapatalk. There is no option in Facebook. So people find shorthand ways to create emphasis. I believe techies are influencing how this has changed. Makes sense as they tend to be the first ones to adopt the tools. For example "><" could be considered derived from XML thus I first saw my techie friends using it. Techies ranting might use: "<rant> [say your piece] <\rant>". If you don't know XML that might not make sense but I'm sure the meaning comes through regardless. I usually use "><" in place of italics (like above) and * in place of bold. *This sentence is in bold.* "[]" is used more and more as a way to denote fill in the blank as in "[your name here]". In code I don't think "[]" is ever used so it makes sense plus visually they look like a box. Sometimes I get lazy and use double quotes for everything because I have to go through two keyboards on my iPad to get there.

<rant>The iOS spell checker is regularly changing the meaning of my words into something truly bizarro. And not just a single word but a group of words. It is supposed to be intelligent at figuring out what you mean to say. I'm sorry, that is a FAIL! Or it splits words when I don't mean too and changes sentences into something completely nonsensical. It gives new meaning to the first draft. First draft is correcting iOS mistakes. Second draft is correcting mine.<\rant>

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you are fluent in Spanish you are fluent in tango? Or maybe you could easily become fluent in Italian and then you are fluent in cooking and tango. Fantastic! I am moving to Argentina and then Italy

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk