Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!orion!houca!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece From: preece@uicsl.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: A New Subject Worthy of Flaming - (nf) Message-ID: <2264@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 17-Jun-83 22:54:58 EDT Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2264 Posted: Fri Jun 17 22:54:58 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jun-83 00:16:03 EDT Lines: 33 #R:rabbit:-158500:uicsl:4300024:000:1441 uicsl!preece Jun 17 09:21:00 1983 I'm tired of people reacting to spelling/grammar complaints by looking for errors in the complaint. Most of us make occasional spelling errors; all of us make typographical errors. Anyone with two neurons to call his own can recognize the difference between that kind of error and the kind of illiteracy seen in some articles an the net. There are people posting their opinions in language lending no impression of competence to the writer. I have seen words consistenly mispelled that my four year old spells perfectly. I don't say anyone should stay off the net. The diversity of experience and opinion is what makes the net fun. But everyone posting to the net should remember that a large group of highly educated people is going to be reading the words he uses and giggling even at the innocent typos. So let's stop ridiculing people publicly for their errors. Everybody knows how to use a dictionary. Most dictionaries include some notes on punctuation and grammar as well. Just remember, what you write is the ONLY contact between you and the other members of the net. If you can't write coherently and you can't spell even the words peculiar to our shared expertise, we're probably either laughing at you behind your back or writing you off as hopeless. You've got to have pretty shiny thoughts if we're to notice them through a fog of presentation errors. scott preece uiuc - coordinated science lab pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece