Czechmate
08-29-2005, 06:48 PM
I wonder what inspired this column. :P (This is how it goes into the editor, except in a Word document.)
~Czech
_________________________________
Choice Words
(Technicalities 11/05, by Kevin Rice)
Tagline:
“u r definatly stoopid” “no u r” “quite n00b”
Body:
Not too long ago, I conducted a not-so-scientific test on my friends in a message board. I purposely picked apart one of the posts that had what I would consider a few egregious errors. Some were spelling related, some were grammar related, and so on. These are all friends that I play online games with, so I figured the reaction would be one of, “Oh STFU :)” or something equally befriending. It turns out I was wrong.
Some of the people (namely, the person I picked on and her boyfriend) were downright defiant about it. Some others agreed with me, in that proper spelling and grammar is important. Still others were relatively apathetic about the whole thing. That thread lasted for a few days and I thought that was the end of it. Again, it turns out I was wrong.
A few weeks later, I made a post that contained an error. I’m usually pretty anal retentive about such things (I have the nickname “grammar whore” in that circle of friends), but being human, a mistake slipped through. Now, two weeks prior, this wouldn’t have been anything. This time, however, people (especially those I had chastised before) relished in the fact that I made a mistake. Me! The grammar whore! One comment even suggested the existence of God because of my mistake.
At this point, it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned. Whereas this particular group of people was completely apathetic before, they were now watching for errors, both mine and their own.
While I know that I’ll never get everyone to agree with the importance of spelling and grammar (Holden Caufield told us this lesson), there is a curious amount or stoicism toward this subject, both during online games and on message boards. It’s understandable that full sentences and proper punctuation have no place in the heat of battle. The requisite “gl hf” (good luck, have fun) at the beginning of a match, the admitting “ns” (nice shot) during the match, and the ending “gg” (good game) at the end are all expected. You simply don’t have time to type when you’re reloading and ducking.
What is strange is when these acronyms and other slang creep into posts and online games where the typist has some time to think about things. I know that there’s an entire community built around “leet speak” and so forth, but this is different. There is a pervasive amount of grievous misspellings, blatant grammatical mistakes, poor sentence structure, and more.
It’s usually easy enough to figure out what people mean. The scarier issue is that many of these people don’t even realize what they are doing. For the most part, English is their native tongue, but ask the difference between “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, and you’ll either be called a very “creative” name or told to shut up. The (corrected) excuses I’ve received are gems such as, “It’s just with my friends” and “I only do that on the message boards.” Other perennial favorites include, “Who the hell cares” and “Everyone else does it.” The answers are, in order, I’m your friend, you also do that in email, I care, and no, not everyone does it.
Now, I realize that I’m a stickler for such things, but the unfortunate part is that people should care. Many of the people I deal with are college aged if not older, and whether or not they will admit it or realize it, how they write both in public and in private is a reflection of who they are. Someone that writes clearly, concisely, and correctly comes across as better educated and more intelligent, even if that’s not true. People that misspell words and make obvious grammatical errors come across as dimwitted and undereducated, even if that too is not true.
There is a certain social structure that dictates such beliefs. Like him or not, our President is constantly ridiculed for his often interesting choice of words. He’s portrayed as a buffoon, a thick-skulled moron. Now look at former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Agree with him or not, he came across as intelligent and well thought-out. Whether it’s realized by us or not, this same principle crosses into most forms of communication, including how we interact with friends, colleagues, and so on. And yes, it happens online too.
This isn’t to say to say that online matches should start with, “Good day sir. Best of luck to you and yours. Have at you!” There is a time and a place for both kinds of typing. However, the impasse is in people giving a damn one way or the other. I know I’m not alone in being a nitpicker on this topic, and I also know there’s an endless stream of excuses for continuing with it. Unless you’re a polyglot and English is your fourth language (and I’m looking at you, Euro-players), there’s really no valid excuse for an educated adult to type like a third grader. There is definatly no reason at all.
~Czech
_________________________________
Choice Words
(Technicalities 11/05, by Kevin Rice)
Tagline:
“u r definatly stoopid” “no u r” “quite n00b”
Body:
Not too long ago, I conducted a not-so-scientific test on my friends in a message board. I purposely picked apart one of the posts that had what I would consider a few egregious errors. Some were spelling related, some were grammar related, and so on. These are all friends that I play online games with, so I figured the reaction would be one of, “Oh STFU :)” or something equally befriending. It turns out I was wrong.
Some of the people (namely, the person I picked on and her boyfriend) were downright defiant about it. Some others agreed with me, in that proper spelling and grammar is important. Still others were relatively apathetic about the whole thing. That thread lasted for a few days and I thought that was the end of it. Again, it turns out I was wrong.
A few weeks later, I made a post that contained an error. I’m usually pretty anal retentive about such things (I have the nickname “grammar whore” in that circle of friends), but being human, a mistake slipped through. Now, two weeks prior, this wouldn’t have been anything. This time, however, people (especially those I had chastised before) relished in the fact that I made a mistake. Me! The grammar whore! One comment even suggested the existence of God because of my mistake.
At this point, it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned. Whereas this particular group of people was completely apathetic before, they were now watching for errors, both mine and their own.
While I know that I’ll never get everyone to agree with the importance of spelling and grammar (Holden Caufield told us this lesson), there is a curious amount or stoicism toward this subject, both during online games and on message boards. It’s understandable that full sentences and proper punctuation have no place in the heat of battle. The requisite “gl hf” (good luck, have fun) at the beginning of a match, the admitting “ns” (nice shot) during the match, and the ending “gg” (good game) at the end are all expected. You simply don’t have time to type when you’re reloading and ducking.
What is strange is when these acronyms and other slang creep into posts and online games where the typist has some time to think about things. I know that there’s an entire community built around “leet speak” and so forth, but this is different. There is a pervasive amount of grievous misspellings, blatant grammatical mistakes, poor sentence structure, and more.
It’s usually easy enough to figure out what people mean. The scarier issue is that many of these people don’t even realize what they are doing. For the most part, English is their native tongue, but ask the difference between “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, and you’ll either be called a very “creative” name or told to shut up. The (corrected) excuses I’ve received are gems such as, “It’s just with my friends” and “I only do that on the message boards.” Other perennial favorites include, “Who the hell cares” and “Everyone else does it.” The answers are, in order, I’m your friend, you also do that in email, I care, and no, not everyone does it.
Now, I realize that I’m a stickler for such things, but the unfortunate part is that people should care. Many of the people I deal with are college aged if not older, and whether or not they will admit it or realize it, how they write both in public and in private is a reflection of who they are. Someone that writes clearly, concisely, and correctly comes across as better educated and more intelligent, even if that’s not true. People that misspell words and make obvious grammatical errors come across as dimwitted and undereducated, even if that too is not true.
There is a certain social structure that dictates such beliefs. Like him or not, our President is constantly ridiculed for his often interesting choice of words. He’s portrayed as a buffoon, a thick-skulled moron. Now look at former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Agree with him or not, he came across as intelligent and well thought-out. Whether it’s realized by us or not, this same principle crosses into most forms of communication, including how we interact with friends, colleagues, and so on. And yes, it happens online too.
This isn’t to say to say that online matches should start with, “Good day sir. Best of luck to you and yours. Have at you!” There is a time and a place for both kinds of typing. However, the impasse is in people giving a damn one way or the other. I know I’m not alone in being a nitpicker on this topic, and I also know there’s an endless stream of excuses for continuing with it. Unless you’re a polyglot and English is your fourth language (and I’m looking at you, Euro-players), there’s really no valid excuse for an educated adult to type like a third grader. There is definatly no reason at all.