apostrophe's and never-ending paragraph's

reply to post by endtimer


You forgot your/you're, supposably, peak/piqué, ...

I DO give tons of credit to non-English speaking members. Unfortunately, I think most of the apostrophe errors are from English speaking members.

I agree with the poster above who stated he is likely to skip a huge run-on post that has no paragraphs. It doesn't take that much effort to hit the return key every once in a while.

Actually, one of my main reasons for making sure my post is all broken up, is when I go to proofread what I just wrote, I need to make sense of it.

I have to proofread, sometimes stuff just escapes my fingers, as it would my mouth and I have to go back and reconsider what I'm saying..

Lots of my edits are deleting stuff......

I dont care about these " , '.
All i would like to see is paragraphs as it's damned hard to read a huge block of text.

English does not have to be perfect to understand it,am i wrong?

It could be that I am getting used to it, but the lack of punctuation, or misuse of it, the substitution of similar sounding wrong words for the correctly spelled one, and even the lack of capital letters at the beginning of sentences just doesn't bother me so much anymore.

I am also getting more used to doing the same myself. The fact remains; however, that even if you think and talk in one long, drawn out, never ending stream --- you should not write that way!

make the "enter" key your friend and use it liberally; even if its not in the correct place, the space will give us all breather in trying to comprehend your point.

reply to post by dlifesjrny


I just skip apostrophes on virtually everything, including contractions. This isnt because I dont realize they belong there, its because I hate typing them. My pinkies dont like to type.

So, just skip my posts and you will not suffer unduly.

....and we must not forget the other misuses such as :

'effect ' when you should really use affect.

For example : This affects me (correct)
This effects me (incorrect)

The effect the movie has on me (correct)

The misuse of apostrophes is specially widespread in UK and USA. Now it seems that 60% of people in UK use apostrophes for plural which is completly wrong.

However has anybody noticed the new trend - to separate words !

Cannot has now become 'can not'
However has now become 'How ever'
anybody has now becom 'any body'

It is contagious and spreading like the plague. The point to make is that it is a phenomenon which is happening in the english-speaking countries.



[edit on 7-7-2010 by crowdedskies]

My favorites are the long rambling paragraphs with not commas or periods that seem to just drone on and one never stopping to give the reader a break or follow any of the basics in writing it seems that many here are probably children who discovered this site and don't bother to consider how their posts look or read in any case they get on my nerve there isnt much anybody can do about these types of posts other than to ignore them much like i do everyday anyway i hope we will start to see many newer members get on the ball.


TAKES A DEEP BREATH

just my 0.02

Originally posted by endtimer
Would HAVE and not would OF
Could HAVE and not could OF
Should HAVE and not should OF

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

To be honest I don't tend to get too bothered by grammar/punctuation (except when people insist on typing in 'text speak' ) but the above is one of the few things that really bother me. Every time I see 'could of', 'should of' etc. So thanks for pointing that one out

That's all I wanted to say here really. Personally I try to get my spelling right, but I'll admit it slips a wee bit if I'm not feeling 100%

I think that as long as people's posts are readable, it doesn't matter if everything is perfect - we all make mistakes and as someone pointed out, not all of us have English as first language.

And for some reason even though I'm from the UK, I have to stop myself from typing with American spellings sometimes, not sure why. Maybe cos American spellings seem to make more sense than the UK equivalents?

Oh and yeah, I find it hard if not impossible to read one long block of text that doesn't have any paragraph breaks in it. Dunno why, I think my brain just gives up on it. I can't follow it.


Edit to add - I've also found that if I put color text on my posts, it doesn't work unless I take all apostrophes out. So sometimes it's a choice between punctuation or colored text, depending on what mood I'm in...


[edit on 7-7-2010 by tappy]

reply to post by SLAYER69


I had to take a breath after that one too. I'd be giving a star for that if I could!!

This may seem ironic: I've been a proofreader for 25 years, and outside of work, I never criticize or care about punctuation, spelling or grammar. There are a good number of ATS members who have horrible grammar, but also have excellent ideas. That's all I look for.

Too often I see grammar threads started by someone who can't stand this or that, and I know that they just want to exert their literacy (as if correctly using your native tongue is a big deal). In reality, it's neither here nor there for the purposes of a forum for the exchange of ideas.

However I do agree that long paragraphs are a drag.

I can tolerate most spelling and punctuation mistakes.

However, I fell like I'm going to fall down and have a hissy fit when I hear the misuse of the words see, saw and seen.

It feels like I've been stabbed when I hear someone say, "I seen a cat today".

It is:
I saw a cat.
I have seen a cat.
I see a cat.

When I see or hear this misuse of those adjectives I almost discount anything else the author may say. That and the non use of paragraphs are my two complaints.

Please forgive and please do correct me when I make mistakes. I am a closet perfectionist and cringe when I make mistakes.

I strive for perfection but it is rare that I succeed.

I have to agree that i hate the random use of

the return

key

It is often found with the no punctuation crowd