U R N0t 1337 - G3t 0vr 1t!

Thursday, 21 December 2006 by marstinson.

The guitar relearning proceeds apace. Neither Eddie Van Halen nor the kid down the block have anything to fear from me. I am so sick of “Yankee Doodle” and “Skip to My Lou” that I could just about puke, but everyone has to start somewhere. At any rate, I’ve been perusing the forums at several dedicated guitar-playing sites in the hope of picking up a few tips to help me play better and have noticed an alarming trend - kids can’t write.

 I’m not talking about the occasional misspelling or grammar mistake. I’m talking about entire sentences, sometimes paragraphs, where the only word spelled correctly is “I” and even that is often spelled “i”. Some of it is understandable and comes out of the desire to conserve keystrokes. It’s much faster and shorter to use “U R” instead of “you are,” for example. I could even understand using that style of spelling in a chat session where speed of reply is an issue or in an SMS message where message space is limited. But to do it on a public forum where you want others to understand and answer you? Give me a break!

So here are a few thoughts to keep in mind when you post on public forums. First off, the way that you write is the first impression that the reader has of you. Make it a good one. If what you have to say is that important, then you should take the time to say it properly. And if you can’t spell, use a spell checker before you post. There’s one built into your Google toolbar if you don’t feel like firing up a word processor and writing it up beforehand.

Along with that first impression comes the idea of what kind of language I’m going to need to use to answer your question in a way that you can understand. Do I tell you to click Start -> All Programs -> Games -> FreeCell? Or do I tell you something like “Move the mouse so that the arrow-thingy is in the lower left (left is the hand that makes an L when you hold out your thumb and first finger). Now put the arrow-thingy on the part that says “start” and push down one time on the mouse button under your pointer finger”? Or do I just ignore your question because you insult my intelligence and can’t possibly be serious if you write like that?

I’m not talking about people whose native language isn’t English. Those folks have more guts than me - I don’t even try to post in anything other than English in spite of being reasonably compentent in a couple of others. And I’m also not talking about people who intentionally misspell or use poor grammar for effect. There is a very noticable difference between someone who has problems with a second (or third or fourth) language or is intentionally violating rules of grammar and syntax and someone who can’t express a coherent thought in their first language.

The purpose of the Internet is communication. So learn to communicate coherently!

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