There are this thing I just don't get. A lot of people, some which write a lot on the forum just writes kind of lazy when they write forum posts. Like quick text message or IM lazy. Incomplete sentences, hazily constructed sentences, not using correct punctuation, not using capital letters etc. Just not striving for clarity, style or elegance. Just not doing their best as writers when they are writing posts. I'm commenting on this not as a criticism but because I wonder why don't people spend all the time they write practicing. You writing you post anyway, why not use them for practice as well? I don't mean we should take this to the extreme, rewriting every post over and over again. Just trying to get it elegant the first time, would make every once reading nicer for everyone, and provide more practice for the one writing the post. We all get a typo every now and then, or manage to screw up a sentence, that is a part of writing. But why do people write post they just not did not try their best at at writers, when you going to spend time writing the damn thing anyway?
I am chatting with my fingers and not writing. This is my distraction from writing - it isn't writing a story or a non fiction essay. I am not trying to get it published. Just like I speak differently in different situations. When I am public speaking I speak properly, when I am talking to a friend I am more sloppy.
I've thought the same thing. I think that, for some reason, a lot of people even here on a writers' forum think writing grammatically-correct, properly-spelled posts is a chore. I've always thought that, for a real writer, correct SPaG is not a chore. Generally decent writing is not a chore, but a joy. I guess this feeling is rare.
I definitely write more conversationally on these forums, but 99 percent of the posts I"ve seen on here have had good syntax: on other forums I've been to, people constantly fail to capitalize, use minimal to no punctuation, clump everything in one huge block instead of spacing out grafs that are easier to read etc. Even though most of us are more casual here than in, say, an email with our boss, we're still writers and so our SPAG is still going to be relatively good. That's just my own two cents and observations.
Yeah, I think it's mainly newcomers that don't stay very long that write horribly. Most of the people here write well compared to the rest of the internet. As for me, I'm the master of multitasking, so I don't always have the time to write properly. And right now I'm too tired to see what I'm writing.
I like to keep my posts on here as neat and concise as possible. When I need to elaborate, I do - especially in debates, where I've picked up a bad iceberg style of writing. I'm trying to quit.
When I'm posting on a forum, I don't really care about eloquent wording. I just throw out a bundle of letters that carries my meaning well enough to be understood. Having said that, I always maintain grammatical correctness, unless I'm making a joke or a typo. Not doing so just feels sloppy to me. I think that's probably how most of us view it. The first half of that, anyway--plenty of people here don't have such a stubborn take on grammar. Posts and stories don't have the same requirements.
w176, I agree with you. Granted, my typing is lousy and I'm not as diligent about proofreading a post as I am a piece of fiction, but I strongly believe that good writing habits are reinforced by continual application.
Some people, like me, forget to space every single line of sentences that needs to be broken to break the pargarah. This isn't always the case though. The sad thing is that those who post their best writing, the critics may imply that the person is a lazy poster, when that is how the writer actually writes, because of the simple fact that that's the best they can write. For instance, if the writer is proud of his or her work and unintentionally put a truckload of grammar errors (maybe the writer doesn't know grammar well, or vise vers), then critics would think that the writer is just posting because he or she is either drunk or is posting on the forums carelessly.
I was going to pretty much say this but it was already said so I just quoted it. I treat writing in these forums as conversational, so my writing may not be the best grammatically. Still, I dislike "text-speak" so I rarely use it. Even when I am actually texting with my phone.
Believe it or not I actually sometimes refer dictionary and grammar books to write posts. This is helping me write better English, which is my second language. It's unavoidable for someone like me to make mistakes, and I always appreciate when somebody points out those mistakes.
On a friday/saturday night that may also be another issue for me - that third glass of wine does make for interesting posts. -Charlotte
I write as naturally as possible, I don't use a lot of "leet" (lol/brb, etc etc), I think that is for a younger generation. But in a forum I'm not looking for the perfect sentence. I just write. The forum is more a brain spill, where as a book is telling a story. But I , on a personal note do not have a problem with evolution of the english language, so if the future generations write books like they text, so be it.
It's just courtesy to take some care so that people can understand you. But there's a difference between writing books and casual posting on a forum.
I agree it's really good practice for writing properly. When I was a kid - like, 10 years ago now - I started writing on forums all the time, and I went in a very short time from terrible typing and laziness to a pretty high standard. I write far more on the internet than I do words in a story some days when I'm too tired to do anything else, and it's really clear to me how the fact that I've been expressing myself this way half my life now has made me better at writing. I think anyone who doesn't put the effort in to make their posts representative of their total writing skill is really kinda lazy. I might talk informally, but everything has to be as perfect as I can manage in this format...
I will seriously edit and re-work a post over and over before posting it here sometimes. Not a poem or a story, just a regular forum post. Writing this post alone I probably deleted four times as many words as the post itself contains. Not joking. EDIT: God dammit, I said the word "post" too many times. I should have re-written. See what I mean? I just didn't want to have to say "five or six times as many words" because I didn't want you people judging me. Forum fail.
When I post on a forum, I'm practicing how not to be florid. I'm trying to type how I would speak in a story, except my fingers are smarter than my mouth. I'm sorry, that doesn't make sense in my head, either. Forget about writing it down right. It would be really bad if my browser didn't have a built-in spellchecker. I do have issues with "netspeak" that isn't being used ironically. I have a cheap phone, and I still write "your" or "you.re" even though I'm using 9-key typing. (Trying to hit an apostrophe is much harder than using a period.) Surely someone that's using a keyboard can't find "ur" that much faster...
Not at all... I do know other people struggle more with the spelling and grammar more than I do, though, and tend to make that assumption when coming across posts like that. There are some places where I write more grammatically correct and punctuate like I generally should (other than being abusive toward commas)... And other places, like messaging, where I just don't care. I'm having an extremely casual conversation with a friend, and I don't worry about capitalizing "I", or ending sentences with exactly the correct punctuation. I love that little tilde symbol for ending sentences, when chatting. ~ << That one. so, if i was writing this to a friend in a messenger, this is how it would come out ~ not because I'm being lazy (as I just capitalized the I there, without thinking), but because my friend really doesn't care either way~ if i'm in a forum, and writing out full sentences instead of just rambling maniacally, i take more care with it. But, whether I punctuate properly in chats, misspelling always drives me batty. I love my spellchecker for catching my type-os.
I try to make my posts as clear as possible, and part of that is using the courtisies of written communication; capitalization, punctuation, and rudimentary grammar. I struggle with spelling (I had an editor tell me once that Hemmingway did also, that's part of the reason he used common language), but I try. Yes, this is conversation, but it is conversation with peers who care about the written word. I feel I owe you those basic courtisies.
Generally, I try and write with proper spelling, punctuation and grammar on forums. I hate it when people write in 'text speak' because that really is just laziness and half the time I don't even know what they're saying. But I don't draft and redraft posts I make on forums unless I have to really think about what I'm saying, for example if it's on a complicated issue. On MSN, Facebook etc. I write the same as I would on forums, except I don't tend to capitalise. That's just pure laziness on my part though, as I'd be rambling on there and when I do, it's just annoying to have to press shift all the time to capitalise. And really it's not a big issue when talking to friends etc.
