Re: Bad grammar on the list (was Append?)

Subject: Re: Bad grammar on the list (was Append?)
From: Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 13:21:05 CST

Karen Merrell writes:

|} I subscribed to this forum a couple of weeks ago, and have been
|} reading it with awe and wonder ever since. I think the subjects
|} are fascinating, the information is helpful, and the writers
|} sincere. BUT! I am appalled at the spelling, grammar, etc., that
|} appears. I know the notes are informal, but SO MANY errors
|} show up - for instance, "you're" for "your" - that good writers
|} never make, even when they write their grocery lists! It really
|} makes me wonder if the forum ought to stop emphasizing *getting*
|} a job and start emphasizing *doing* much better on the job you have.

As my Dad is fond of saying, "Rule 1 is ``don't sweat the small stuff''
and rule two is ``it's all small stuff.''"

o The net is extremely informal.

o The net is an international forum, so you can't assume that everyone
speaks English as a native language.

o Mail tools, as a general rule, don't have spell checkers.

o Everyone is in a hurry.

o Not every ``writer'' on the list is a touch typist.

o The brain is very often quicker than the fingers (as I write this, my
brain is on page three, my fingers are still hacking out the first
paragraph). (aha! it started as a paragraph, became a bulleted list,
and I didn't go back and edit out the reference to the paragraph!)

o You have never seen one of my grocery lists.

and lastly,

o Spelling and grammar flames such as yours are bad "netiquette," even on
a writer's list.

Of course, you were also guilty of two other minor "net sins;" the
unrelated subject header (Append), and the abrupt change of topic within
your post without so much as a paragraph break or decent segue. <sigh>

But we will forgive you your sins and hope that you will forgive us too,
if we have apalled you.

******************** Steve Fouts
* _ ___ * sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
* ( |____| *
* _ /\ |\ _ * "There are too many flames, and so much to burn,
* / / \ _| \ \ * and life's only made of paper."
* ( * ) \/_|__* ) * --Ronald Padivona
* \_/ _/ \_/ * <Boilerplate disclaimer here>
********************


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