Network Switch in Loft?

Oct 18, 2005 68 Replies

And little point in getting the spelling right, if the inappropriate or absence of punctuation conveys an entirely erroneous meaning.

Unless, of course, you believe the following to be synonymous:

The defendant, said the Judge, is quite mad. The defendant said the Judge is quite mad.

Taken to an extreme, whilst most would appreciate that the phrase "Nude Reader's Wives" really refers to the nude wives of many readers, the literal interpretation would be of a lone reader sharing a polygamous marriage with several naked women (lucky sod).

But that does not excuse proper use of the apostrophe in many cases. The rule for using its and it's is simple enough, and its use in contractions and possessives shouldn't be beyond anyone who can be bothered to re-read that which they have just written.

And as a counterpoint to your emphasis on correct spelling, I would like to draw your attention to the increasing usage of txt spk, which many find reasonably comprehensible, yet which cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered correct spelling.

Having said all that, I've now almost certainly guaranteed at least two spelling or punctuation errors in the above text.

Cheers Clive

Why blame lazyness on dyslexia? "R U" is nothing other than that.

Recent research has upset many people by claiming that it is poor education, rather than an illness. Being perfectly honest, with educational standards slipping all the time, I can see their point.

No idea, as I can't imagine anyone actually watching such crap.

^

;-)

They would be doing their job properly. If the student is unable to communicate in a coherent manner, that should be addressed before "running".

If we're being picky I'd question the construction of:

"And little point in getting the spelling right, if the inappropriate or absence of punctuation conveys an entirely erroneous meaning."

and propose:

"And little point in getting the spelling right if the inappropriate punctuation, or absence of punctuation, conveys an entirely erroneous meaning."

When discussing spelling, grammar and punctuation on Usenet I believe it is the actions of a wise man to purposely include errors and omisions in order to minimise the effectiveness of cheap 'counter attacks' on one's own linquistic ability.

Furthermore, whilst now we abuse this particular part of Usenet to argue about whole-house RCDs and combi boilers (imagine a thread discussing a combination of the two - ouch!) let's not forget that Usenet was actually invented for like-minded individuals to argue about spelling and punctuation - in those days the Internet was otherwise a very boring place.

Indeed, I believe one of the earliest posts on the subject may have been about the correct use of apostrophe's... ;-)

Mathew

Why not give us a well reasoned counter argument rather than resorting, as usual, to abusive ad hominem attacks. You do yourself no favours and such posts only serve to illustrate where the ignorance and fuckwittedness lies.

MBQ

Absolutely. It was so much better on the radio. ;-)

inappropriate

Except that I suspect many dyslexic people would never construct a sentence like the above example because, as you say, without correct punctuation it make no sense - even to the person writing it. I suspect the sentence would be constructed something like 'The defendant is quite mad, said the judge' (with or without punctuation).

You'll never get that idea accepted! It's like a politician telling the truth.

Regards Capitol

Written by a source of total ignorance, again, I see!

You must be a relative of dIMM. Go away and do your homework.

Capitol

Are you saying that crackpot Jerry is related to Dim Lin, the Oriental enchantress, the love of Maxies life? My word.

I totally agree with this.

Does poor spelling make communication incoherent? Test show that most people have no difficulty reading "english" when the first and last letters fo a word are correct and the remainder are arranged at random!

In that case, I retract ;-)

MBQ

ITYM 'wanker' jerry..

So now you agree with Jerry that you are an ignorant little f****it?

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