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[GeorginaS]

This one strikes a personal chord with me. My younger brother often writes like this in his emails. One day I attempted to explain to him what it was like to read something like this out loud; I asked him to go through a given "paragraph" and replace each "..." with (dramatic pause), and then read it aloud. He saw that it created a sort of stumbling-forward-in-painful-anticipation feel in his writing.

Yes! That's precisely how I read sentences with all of those ellipses in them. As if the writer can't quite breathe. Makes me fairly nuts, it does.

And ? when they're asking a question. It's so emphatic, it makes me cringe. It irritates me to the point that I don't want to even respond.

All that to say, yes, it is very painful to read sentences which do not have correct capitalization and punctuation.

Another pet peeve. When people don't know the correct usage of "which" and "that". But maybe that's getting carried away.

 

[drizzle]

... As if the writer can't quite breathe ...

Ahahaa GeorginaS, that was one heck of a laugh

 

[Moonbear]

Yes! That's precisely how I read sentences with all of those ellipses in them. As if the writer can't quite breathe.

Same here. I imagine them talking like the character in the wheelchair on Malcolm in the Middle; the one who is Malcolm's friend and needs to take a lot of breaths during sentences. See, now you must appreciate my lack of breaths while talking much better.

Maybe he/she is still trying to catch his/her breath after rushing here to type his/her URGENT question.

 

[GeorginaS]

Same here. I imagine them talking like the character in the wheelchair on Malcolm in the Middle; the one who is Malcolm's friend and needs to take a lot of breaths during sentences. See, now you must appreciate my lack of breaths while talking much better.

Maybe he/she is still trying to catch his/her breath after rushing here to type his/her URGENT question.

I hadn't thought of that character, but yes, sometimes reading ellipses do sound like that in my head. Sometimes they sound like an actress from a corny soap opera.

But when you get going, Moobear, I can scarcely breathe.

An emoticon just for Cyrus

 

[Dembadon]

...But maybe that's getting carried away.

Personally, I would rather be corrected. It gives me an opportunity to increase my knowledge.

 

[Janus]

Also, "no one" is two words; "noone" was the lead singer for Herman and the Hermits.

 

[Redbelly98]

Yes! That's precisely how I read sentences with all of those ellipses in them. As if the writer can't quite breathe. Makes me fairly nuts, it does.

Same here. I imagine them talking like the character in the wheelchair on Malcolm in the Middle; the one who is Malcolm's friend and needs to take a lot of breaths during sentences. See, now you must appreciate my lack of breaths while talking much better.

Maybe he/she is still trying to catch his/her breath after rushing here to type his/her URGENT question.

I was thinking of William Shatner in the original Star Trek series. "Must not ... let ... Klingons ... take ship ..."

 

[OmCheeto]

I was thinking of William Shatner in the original Star Trek series. "Must not ... let ... Klingons ... take ship ..."

i resemble that remark...

Well Superman, I'd say right off the bat, that you have not been paying attention. Energy is all around us, and has never been, and has always been, renewable.

Energy either came, or will come from the sun, or one of it's satellites.

...

sorry...

and, I am, still, not, william shatner...

Ok. I'll try and stop.

 

[lisab]

Also, "no one" is two words; "noone" was the lead singer for Herman and the Hermits.

Thank you! I see that so often, I sometimes question if it may actually be a word now...

 

[Moonbear]

I was thinking of William Shatner in the original Star Trek series. "Must not ... let ... Klingons ... take ship ..."

I haven't watched the original Star Trek in a long time, so that wasn't the first reference to come to mind. But, yes, you're right, it does sound like William Shatner.

lisab, what does Microsoft Word's spell check say about no one vs. no one? I think Microsoft has changed the spelling of some words with the introduction of spell check. I leave spell check off...I will not conform!

 

[DaveC426913]

Also, "no one" is two words; "noone" was the lead singer for Herman and the Hermits.

You know, I have always struggled with this. I think I may have learned it as one word in school, but whenever I type it, it looks wrong, so I always change it to two.

 

[Pengwuino]

When I was in elementary school, there was a teacher who's motto was "a lot is two words". For YEARS that statement confused me, I kept thinking "does he think everyone should shut up? Does he not like people who talk too much?". It took me a while to realize that he meant that most people misspell "a lot" by making it into one word, "a lot". SIGH.

HEY! What about the fact that people these days don't seem to want to use prepositions or small modifying words (I'm no English major, i don't know what they'd be considered) anymore? With the facebook and myspace generation fully taking over, the phrase "comment my pictures" is ubiquitous. My ex use to say things like "I'm done my essay" to mean "I'm done WITH my essay" sooooo often. This doesn't even include people who should be considered illiterate with how poor their grammar is! It's people who are perfectly capable of writing, but for some reason have simply lost these little words. I see it come up so often in the lab reports I grade as well!

 

[drizzle]

When I was in elementary school, there was a teacher who's motto was "a lot is two words". For YEARS that statement confused me, I kept thinking "does he think everyone should shut up? Does he not like people who talk too much?". It took me a while to realize that he meant that most people misspell "a lot" by making it into one word, "a lot". SIGH...

What's the sigh for! It's not you fault, it's your teacher's!
A is not a word

 

[drizzle]

Same here. I imagine them talking like the character in the wheelchair on Malcolm in the Middle; the one who is Malcolm's friend and needs to take a lot of breaths during sentences. See, now you must appreciate my lack of breaths while talking much better.

Maybe he/she is still trying to catch his/her breath after rushing here to type his/her URGENT question.

Hahaa. I don't really mind it in general discussions, it show the sequence of thinking... I guess... Of course I'm not talking about using them within HW posts... Can anyone find one for me... I just want to see how it look like

 

[Redbelly98]

Note for our native German-speaking members:

In English, we use

• "How does it look" or "how it looks" when referring to a subjective description of something. For example, "it looks good" or "it looks terrible".
• "What does it look like", or "what it looks like", when referring to an objective description. Example: "it looks like a horse with black and white stripes", or "it's spherical, with black pentagons and white hexagons covering its surface".

That being said, "how does it look like" and "how it looks like" are considered bad grammar. Native English speakers, even bad ones, do not say this.

 

[drizzle]

Urghhhhhh! It was there! who deleted it! ... And btw, I speak Japanese!


Edit: Forget about the Japanese thing. I'm sure that I look like a bakka right now, hehehttp://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-ashamed003.gif...

 

[Moonbear]

HEY! What about the fact that people these days don't seem to want to use prepositions or small modifying words (I'm no English major, i don't know what they'd be considered) anymore? With the facebook and myspace generation fully taking over, the phrase "comment my pictures" is ubiquitous. My ex use to say things like "I'm done my essay" to mean "I'm done WITH my essay" sooooo often. This doesn't even include people who should be considered illiterate with how poor their grammar is! It's people who are perfectly capable of writing, but for some reason have simply lost these little words. I see it come up so often in the lab reports I grade as well!

I see that a lot too. It seems to be especially prevalent among realtors! My last realtor would go through a house commenting things like, "door needs painted." When I made an offer on my house and she wrote the draft letter regarding the repairs I was requesting after the inspection, I had to go through and add all the "to be" words.

 

[WiFO215]

Let's review, boys and girls:

(1) - I is capitalized in a sentence
(2) - you don't...need...to...do this... every sentence... just type normally...
(3) - too and to are different, know this difference
(4) - your and you're are different, know this difference too (see (3) about usage of too)
(5) - if you're working on a project, consolidate all your project question in one thread, it will do us all a favor reading them.
(6) - show us what results you have come up with so far, but need help with moving forward
(7) - don't throw around acronyms without explaining what they are.

(8) Do NOT use 'lol' to reply.

Homework helper: "Did you think of using stupid obvious fact X to solve the problem?"
Student: "lol... no..."

Sometimes they even mis-spell lol as lawl. DAMMIT!

 

[ViewsofMars]

(8) Do NOT use 'lol' to reply.

Homework helper: "Did you think of using stupid obvious fact X to solve the problem?"
Student: "lol... no..."

Sometimes they even mis-spell lol as lawl. DAMMIT!

I'm a female adult and I would not use the word "DAMMIT" when talking to youngsters. Now that I think about it, I've never said that word except for writing it in response to your useage of it. However, I will use LOL! And if I wish to disperse a few "..." within a conversation, I shall choose to do so, knowing there is no harm done.

 

[Cyrus]

(8) do not use 'lol' to reply.

Homework helper: "did you think of using stupid obvious fact x to solve the problem?"
student: "lol... No..."

sometimes they even mis-spell lol as lawl. Dammit!

roflcopter.

 

[berkeman]

(8) Do NOT use 'lol' to reply.

Homework helper: "Did you think of using stupid obvious fact X to solve the problem?"
Student: "lol... no..."

Sometimes they even mis-spell lol as lawl. DAMMIT!

Tragically, both damnit and misspell are mispelled in this post. Be gently on them Cyrus.

 

[jtbell]

Sometimes they even mis-spell lol as lawl. DAMMIT!

As a non-native resident of the southeastern USA who would never write "lawl", I nevertheless recognize it as a regional dialectical variant which has a pronunciation distinct from "lol.".

(Not long after I arrived here, I was asked by a salesclerk in a store, "Kin ah hep you?")

 

[Pengwuino]

Whatever, this is non-sense, I invented "lawl". There is nothing regional about it.

 

[Cyrus]

Sorry, I had to make a thread in Engineering because people are not reading this thread here. I'm strongly leaning to just not helping anyone there anymore either, until they learn how to spell. It's just not worth the time to help someone that needs URGENT! helps because i don't know what to do. the computer says hit buttons and i hit them but I am lost pleasez?...

Honestly, how are these people in college? God help us all.

 

[russ_watters]

That's enough whining for today. Thread locked.