Replying to Astahost's Professional Stance Is A Falling Dream

Spell check. Just wrote a tutorial and it got accepted! I was always told: "You should always write to the point that if a child were to read it, they would understand it." A professor in college said this to me in my Social Psychology Lab class when I was trying to explain a potential research experiment. I did my best. But realized afterwards, I didn't do well enough. And rethought about it.. and it's similar to something like Wikipedia's great idea for people who aren't great with English or speak another language -- Simple English Wikipedia -- http://simple.wikipe.../wiki/Main_Page -- explained in very plain basic simple English language without any fancy language. Pretty smart move to help people learn and understand what they are reading in the English language.

Maybe having an integrated spelling and grammar checker in the reply box of the Astahost forum would improve the quality of the language and make the posts look more professional, although I don't think anyway has invented an online spelling and grammar checker yet.

I have been to forums where they have a spell checker in their reply boxes and I think it does help improve the quality of the language. I don't know if it is possible on a IP board like this one but I have seen it on SMF forums. Maybe there is a IP board mod that adds such a thing. It would be good for the forum to have one.

Maybe having an integrated spelling and grammar checker in the reply box of the Astahost forum would improve the quality of the language and make the posts look more professional, although I don't think anyway has invented an online spelling and grammar checker yet.

In terms of posts made on Astahost, I feel that it is better than posts in other forums, where posts are less professional in their layout and structure, and have more of the internet slang words used regularly throughout posts.

I have been on website where there forums have such bad spellers you can't understand a word they're saying. Well it's not all spelling but they use so much internet slang I can't keep up. Stuff like "lol" and "ftw" are fine but some people take it to a whole new level and I just don't understand it nor will I sit there and try to decode it. Astahost seems to be good with this though.

The biggest thing, however, is simple syntax. There have been many post I have read, or tried to read, that contained no punctuation or paragraph breaks. the worst is simply lazy typing. When someone uses "ur" or "u" or the like for real words that person can not expect to be taken seriously. Noy being a native speaker of a language is not an excuse for not typing out words. Interestingly, those who are not native speakers of a language tend to use more formal grammar.

I know what you mean. Like I said to Atomic0 above this quote internet slang along you people who need to take already short words and make them shorter just make the forums seem less professional and I find it just plain annoying.

When I am reading a post, punctuation does make reading a more enjoyable experience.

I agree puctuation makes reading much easier which also makes it more enjoyable. The only thing I have to say about commas is that in my opinion if it makes sence without commas leave it that way. I don't use commas often unless the sentence really needs some to make it convey the message more clearly.

When I am reading a post, punctuation does make reading a more enjoyable experience.

Astahost does have several non-English members and I am more than happy to overlook misspelling and punctuation errors as long as the writer is well intentioned. The reverse of that is that some of the top posters here are not from a natively English speaking country and they have better grammar than most Americans. Punctuation and grammar are usually the first clue to me that a writer is not well educated or is just plain full of you know what.

For our non-English members here are a few dirty little secrets of commas.
1. In many cases the use of commas are subjective and may or may not be used and still be grammatically correct. The best example is in the use of lists. “One, two, and three” and “One, two and three” are both correct.
2. Use a comma when there is a pause.
3. Be consistent in your comma usage.

I learned the most about grammar not in elementary or high school but in my British Literature class during my second year of college. One of the required books was a writing handbook called “Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers.” When grading a paper the teacher would only put the handbook section number by the mistake (i.e. 21C) and nothing else. By the end of the class I had most of that book memorized almost as well as she did because she would routinely quote section numbers and rules from memory. During one of the classes an argument broke out over grammar (this was a class of engineering students that enjoyed debating with the teacher, myself included). She told us that some of the grammar rules that we learned previously were nothing less than a lie. One of these included the optional commas. Even though some teachers will swear up and down and mark off for certain comma mistakes, there are instances where commas can go either way and as long as you can argue your point you can use them as you please as long as you are consistent.

As with many of the hardest teachers you have ever had, I always remember her and never forgot what she taught. I even think of “some” of the memories as fond. I still remember the biggest WTF grammar moment of my life when I got a paper back. There was only a “9h improper use of a gerund.” I never knew what a gerund was but I do now. I still have that writing handbook and I have it beside me as I am writing this.

No one here, that I am aware of, is striving to be a punctuation nazi. That said the idea that punctuation does not matter is simply ludicrous. For example I recently read something that described a weapon as having a "sharp curved blade" this would not be the same as a "sharp, curved blade" so was the blade sharp with a curve to it or did the blade curve sharply? It is hard to tell the authors intention with the comma. The sentence was a pain given that it was, intentionally, a complete run on as well.

The biggest thing, however, is simple syntax. There have been many post I have read, or tried to read, that contained no punctuation or paragraph breaks. the worst is simply lazy typing. When someone uses "ur" or "u" or the like for real words that person can not expect to be taken seriously. Noy being a native speaker of a language is not an excuse for not typing out words. Interestingly, those who are not native speakers of a language tend to use more formal grammar.

When I am typing a post, I have the English (Australian) dictionary installed as an extension in Firefox which checks my spelling as I type. Generally, I don't have to correct anything, although I may occasionally mistype or misspell some words. Typing fast tends to cause more errors in my typing, so I like typing a steady pace that is not too fast or too slow.

In terms of posts made on Astahost, I feel that it is better than posts in other forums, where posts are less professional in their layout and structure, and have more of the internet slang words used regularly throughout posts.

... snip ...

I wish I was like one of you who just gets their words right the first time, and doesn't have to check again and again and still get it all wrong.

So sue me. I have dyslexic tenancies.

I am one of those authors people think words come easy for, but I go through the same process of revision that you do. I have a paper I wrote a bit ago that ended up at 31 drafts for about four pages. And yes, sometimes even the final draft has mistakes, but one of the useful tricks is just to have someone else read it over before you submit. After you have been staring at the same text for a few hours, you cannot see the mistakes anymore, no matter how good you are with spelling, grammar, or style. Someone else looking at it often sees those mistakes right away just because their mind is fresh. When writing a tutorial in particular, it is critical to make sure someone other than you can understand the directions. That is the whole point, isn't it? So, ask your spouse, girl or boyfriend, roommate, or alien overlord to look over your shoulder or email it to someone for comment before submitting a major work.

With tutorials, another test is to let it sit until the next time you have to do the same task. Then take it out and follow it exactly as you wrote it. Does it still make sense to you? Your mind may be fresh enough at this point that the mistakes will jump out at you.

Another often overlooked thing is that you can also edit *after* you submit. Astahost lets you edit your own posts, so, after you have rewritten the piece twelve times and it still has one last typo, you *can* still correct it. Quite a few sites have this feature now. Just don't try to use it to game the point system or I think Opaque might get a bit testy.

Anyway, I don't think we should shoot people who have typos in their posts or occasional bad grammar— no one is perfect. But good writing is something worth striving for and continually improving.

Some members may not be from Briton or the US so not every one knows english well, and others might be typing too fast or don't believe it is necessary to recheck what they write. Good spelling and the use of commas or points may make the post more professional, but i think astahost members care more about the content which in many cases is plain coding.

When I write a page of tutorial, it can take days. Literally. Just to get ten points, I might have to write a tutorial which takes many hours over a few days, along with the illustrations etc in order to complete the task.

When I read through what I've written, I see errors. Many errors. In particular, is this thing called "double barreling" where I some times say the same thing twice... other times I use the same or similar words a few times withing a sentence or two... so the word gets repeated over and over. It sounds funny. It's off. The flow of what I'm trying to say is broken. It gets hard to understand. It's just "wrong".

Sometimes I go over what I have written and try to fix these errors (normally I do this at least once, but sometimes I go over what I have written several times). It's hard work for me. I try to stop my self from getting up and wandering around the room when my head hurts, because if I do that it's easy to lose my train of thought. Often, on trying to fix the mistakes, my mind goes into a rut, and I fill my work with a whole lot more mistakes.

Imagine how I feel when some self righteous prick comes in and pokes fun at the way my effort reads, rather than respond thoughtfully about what I have said.

I'm not stupid. I have an extremely high IQ (that's why I chose AstaHost over Trap). Apparently, the cause of my writing problems is affected by my thinking a lot faster than I can write. It's like trying to run with your shoelaces tied.

I wish I was like one of you who just gets their words right the first time, and doesn't have to check again and again and still get it all wrong.

So sue me. I have dyslexic tenancies.