Yeah! That's the spirit!
We really ought to bring this to OpaQue's attention, he's not been on here recently. I think he's doing things with the paid side of Xisto.
He's been on the Xisto livehelp for quite a bit, we could drop him a line through there...
http://www.xisto.com/livehelp

Hmm... I don't think grammar or spelling is that really important. I think simple mistakes should still be considered professional, however if there is a major lack of grammar and spelling, then they need to change it.

Hi! Just dropped in from the Trap17 for a minute, saw this topic and just wanted to say that i find the Astahost Forum to be of a rather good quality, in spite of all the spelling and grammar errors you have mentioned. Of course I spend a couple hours a day trying to read "Hey im g2g now. thx. im me asap.", so just about anything is an improvement. Keep up the good work.

Thank you man, in like, all my posts I don't spell right. I end up shortening the words into "chat languages." I will spell everyone of my posts right, and I will try to use correct grammer whenever possible. Should I edit my previous posts to use correct spelling and grammer?

I think that most people don't really think about comma's and grammar when online on a forum. I've been on many forums and I still find people that still tYpE lyK diS and it's REALLY... and I mean REALLY annoying. I try my best to write in correct English grammar that I was raised to learn. Of course... I still stick in an occasional ^^ and -___-;; for kicks. XD

I also agree with Twitch. I have been very annoyed of late by posts which I tried to decipher and, in the end, gave up on entirely.

Another thing that people seem to forget about is that your posts are editable. I have good grammar and spelling but often have typos slip past me even after I preview. When I see them, I go back and edit them out. Many times I will compose long posts offline anyway and have more opportunities to catch mistakes.

No one is perfect, as evidenced by several small typos in this set of posts. I have reviewed pre-publication manuscripts before where the manuscript is combed by a couple dozen reviewers and several editors--- and still small mistakes go all the way to press. On the other hand, the more you make an effort, the less it will impact your posts.

Being professional in your posts has another potential side-effect: you can get the attention of potential employers. I have had potential employers or clients do a Google search and read through my posts. I have also been asked to write a book on the basis of forum posts a publication house's editor discovered online (fell through for contractual reasons, but anyway). So, be neat because you are in the public light if for no other reason.

It requries a combination of these things to make a good peice of writing.



You did fine mw.



Isn't that how college lectures are anyways?



Actually that is a good idea. English and Russian are the two best laguages for technical discussions. Most forums on coding and programing are in english. The ones that aren't are most likely in Russian. Being as I only speak english and can struggle through written spanish, I really have no room to talk.



And you were complaining about his spelling... Anyways no one is perfect. Eventually you will make a mistake. I enjoy reading a forum that I can understand what is being said in. I also like debating things, so if you see me make an outrageous statement, call me on it and we will debate it. Well let's see if this gets me some more credits.

I think that the grammatical as well spelling mistakes creep in, not due to lack of knowledge, but may be, due to some sort of reluctance towards these issues.So far as my posts are concerned, whenever I am confused regarding a spelling, I check it with a word processor. That has really helped me a lot in improving my spelling. Saying so, I can't claim that I am cent percent accurate as yet.

Regards,
Sid

Well i noticed a change since the early 90's, where teachers would be so angry if you made a mistake.
Nowdays it's fairly different, lazy teachers if they understand it they just say good work?!

I myself failed everything i ever tried in school to do with english, but that never stopped me.
My punctuation is Awful!, but as long as you guys understand what i mean than i guess i'm happy .
But please tell me if it's getting annoying.

I don't put much stock in standard english classes. The easiest way to improve grammar and spelling is to read a lot. If you read the woks of good authors, you slowly absorb their language, idioms, and style. If you combine that with writing (like posting here), you should start getting better. Another good thing can be to actively have people critique your writing; I remember a college writing course where my papers fairly bled with red ink, but I got better. My spelling was always sub par, though, until I started playing competive Scrabble. It does not take losing many games to give you a real incentive to learn.

Good writing is not a matter of intellectual snobbery--- it just makes it easier to communicate what you mean. As an exercise, look at one of your sentences and try to make it mean something else; try to twist its meaning. Then try that with other people's sentences. Good writing can only be read one way (unless it intentionally puns). Most people's writing is hard to interpret and easy to misinterpret.

I have seen several studies lately where anywhere from %50 to %60 of email is misinterpreted by its readers. This is why you get a lot of serious flame wars online: people are just not understanding each other. Part of this is because you do not have tone of voice or facial expressions to interpret when reading an email. Part of it is because the writer of the email does not use punctuation and other cues to tell the reader what they really mean. One of the better ways to check your own writing is to read it aloud; mistakes and bad punctuation tend to jump out as you read.

Anyway, I'll get off of my soap box now.