Collarspace Discussion Forums


Home  Login  Search 

RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD?


View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
 
All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? Page: <<   < prev  1 [2] 3   next >   >>
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 2:36:23 AM   
RapierFugue


Posts: 4740
Joined: 3/16/2006
From: London, England
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: MrCyanide
I'm able to stop myself from correcting someone's spelling, but it makes me feel anxious, and I won't be able to stop thinking about it.

Does sound a bit OCD-like eh?

Personally it used to drive me up the wall, but now I find it merely slightly irritating.

Occasionally some especially moronic poster will cause me to mention something, but generally I don't let it impact my relationships with others - people do tend to take offence if you correct them, and on one level I do think it's a bit petty.

(in reply to MrCyanide)
Profile   Post #: 21
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 6:46:23 AM   
flcouple2009


Posts: 2784
Joined: 1/8/2009
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

Hmmm, "OCD?" It could be I guess.
I notice it a lot when the lefties are losing an argument (which is very common) they start correcting people's spelling and punctuation. After that they go to name-calling.


Your OCD is showing

(in reply to popeye1250)
Profile   Post #: 22
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 7:24:38 AM   
hertz


Posts: 1315
Joined: 8/7/2010
Status: offline 		There is no such thing as incorrect spelling or grammar, only differences.

EDIT: Not directed at you, LadyPact...


< Message edited by hertz -- 11/29/2010 7:25:50 AM >

(in reply to LadyPact)
Profile   Post #: 23
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 7:29:27 AM   
tazzygirl


Posts: 37833
Joined: 10/12/2007
Status: offline 		ooooooooookaaaaaaaaaay then

_____________________________

Telling me to take Midol wont help your butthurt.
RIP, my demon-child 5-16-11
Duchess of Dissent 1
Dont judge me because I sin differently than you.
If you want it sugar coated, dont ask me what i think! It would violate TOS.

(in reply to hertz)
Profile   Post #: 24
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 7:40:58 AM   
DarkSteven


Posts: 28072
Joined: 5/2/2008
Status: offline 		I used to be that way, too, and still have it to a degree.  But working around engineers has made me more tolerant of spelling foibles and less tolerant of those who cannot express their thoughts clearly and directly.

_____________________________

"You women....

The small-breasted ones want larger breasts. The large-breasted ones want smaller ones. The straight-haired ones curl their hair, and the curly-haired ones straighten theirs...

Quit fretting. We men love you."

(in reply to tazzygirl)
Profile   Post #: 25
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 7:42:11 AM   
Carouselambra


Posts: 99
Joined: 9/9/2010
Status: offline 		i iz gud wih seepling!

_____________________________

If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. -Thomas Szasz

(in reply to LadyPact)
Profile   Post #: 26
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 9:20:44 AM   
Aynne88


Posts: 3873
Joined: 8/29/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: MrCyanide

Alright here is your statement with at least ten minor structure and grammatical corrections. Mainly you seem to have an issue with using incorrect punctuation following words such as and, but, etc. (you used a comma in conjunction with those words) where it is not needed and redundant. You also can not begin sentences with the word "And." I did notice as well that you followed a semi-colon that was not needed with a randomly capitalized word in mid-sentence. 

First and foremost, I'm not here to lecture people about their spelling and grammar; Nor am I here to laugh at people with subpar spelling. And I am definitely not saying that I'm a spelling and grammar god. I am here to find out whether or not my infatuation with correct spelling is just a minor annoyance, or quite possibly a full on OCD.

The best way I can explain it is, is if you're sitting down at your house and you see a picture that's slightly tilted on the wall, so you get up and fix it. Though I wouldn't consider the action of fixing a picture to be an OCD, but the emotional tension someone may feel behind them if they didn't go and fix the picture.

That's the kind of feeling I get when I see someone spell something wrong, or use the wrong tense, I feel a need to fix it. It's not that I think they're stupid, but that I have to correct it, which leads to a lot of problems for me when it comes to speaking to friends and/or family online.

I'm able to stop myself from correcting someone's spelling, but it makes me feel anxious, and I won't be able to stop thinking about it.



Alright here is your statement with at least ten minor structure and grammatical corrections. Mainly you seem to have an issue with using incorrect punctuation following words such as and, but, etc. (you used a comma in conjunction with those words) where it is not needed and redundant. You also can not begin sentences with the word "And." I did notice as well that you followed a semi-colon that was not needed with a randomly capitalized word in mid-sentence.  "Though" is also not a proper way to begin a sentence and it is simply referred to as OCD not "an" OCD.  Do you see how trite this can become when people spend time having angst over minutiae? Take a breath, it's a message board not your college thesis. .

Of course I am certain I made an error or two in your edited version as well. I will be okay with that. ;-)

"First and foremost I'm not here to lecture people about their spelling and grammar nor am I here to laugh at people with sub-par spelling. I am definitely not saying that I'm a spelling and grammar god. I am here to find out whether or not my infatuation with correct spelling is just a minor annoyance or quite possibly full on OCD.

The best way I can explain it is if you're sitting down at your house and you see a picture that's slightly tilted on the wall you get up and fix it. Although I wouldn't consider the action of fixing a picture to be OCD but the emotional tension someone may feel behind them if they didn't go and fix the picture.

That's the kind of feeling I get when I see someone spell something wrong or using the wrong tense. I feel a need to fix it. It's not that I think they're stupid, it's that I feel that I have to correct it which leads to a lot of problems for me when it comes to speaking to friends and/or family online.

I'm able to stop myself from correcting someone's spelling but it makes me feel anxious and I won't be able to stop thinking about it."




_____________________________

As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer and Nobel laureate (1902–1991)



(in reply to MrCyanide)
Profile   Post #: 27
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 9:37:52 AM   
SultryItalian


Posts: 125
Joined: 7/9/2008
Status: offline 		To the OP:

What's that old saying?

I remember now, "It's the pot calling the kettle 'black'."

< Message edited by SultryItalian -- 11/29/2010 9:42:41 AM >

(in reply to Aynne88)
Profile   Post #: 28
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 9:38:47 AM   
LadyPact


Posts: 32566
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz
EDIT: Not directed at you, LadyPact...


Not to worry on that.  I'm very familiar on the 'in reply to' feature and know that comments aren't always in direct reply, but rather in chronological order.  I'm actually in the camp that prefers people read the whole thread, so that will come up from time to time.


_____________________________

The crowned Diva of Destruction. ~ ExT

Beach Ball Sized Lady Nuts. ~ TWD

Happily dating a new submissive. It's official. I've named him engie.

Please do not send me email here. Unless I know you, I will delete the email unread

(in reply to hertz)
Profile   Post #: 29
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 12:43:45 PM   
YoungBlondeSlave


Posts: 953
Joined: 2/7/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyPact

quote:

ORIGINAL: YoungBlondeSlave
i feel the same way, when someone states in their profile that they are a "Dominate" instead of a "Dominant" it makes me feel like my head is about to explode.

Same here.

You must have missed the post where someone corrected the terminology, saying that the poster who had written didn't have the ability to be a verb or adverb.  The person following that comment decided that he had to say his piece that 'it's not another person's decision'.  I sincerely felt like asking if the guy could prove he was an adverb.   Arrrggghhhh.

Somebody just started a new post about how he's a "dominate".  Now, how in the world am I really supposed to take that seriously?



Damn, i did miss it. i think i have to see it out of sheer morbid curiousity...i don't know if i can believe it without seeing it. i'm going to have to look for it now.

_____________________________

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice. Bill Cosby

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. Salvador Dali


(in reply to LadyPact)
Profile   Post #: 30
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/29/2010 3:51:01 PM   
DesFIP


Posts: 25191
Joined: 11/25/2007
From: Apple County NY
Status: offline 		By correcting them, do you mean quoting the post with the errors fixed? That's acceptable if you neither highlight the corrections nor focus your reply on them. To point it out is rude. The better way is to use the same word in your answer but spelled correctly.

Keep in mind that there are many people for whom English is a second language. Additionally there's the Brit/American divide; as Winston Churchill said ' two nations divided by a common language'. This  may be a paraphrase, I'm too lazy to look it up.

Plus there are many learning disabilities that prevent one from being able to spell. And last, but gaining rapidly are the people who post on their phones. I can almost always tell when it's a phone posting, the damned things mangle posts and those little tiny buttons mean you're constantly hitting a wrong key.


_____________________________

Slave to laundry

Cynical and proud of it!


(in reply to YoungBlondeSlave)
Profile   Post #: 31
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 12:30:19 PM   
Seatonstomb


Posts: 71
Joined: 4/7/2005
Status: offline 		Can't remember who said it but there is an old literary quote
"It is a poor man who can spell a word but a single way"
Stanard spelling has only existed for maybe 200 years prior to that people managed fine with spelling being very individual and variable. Standard spelling only came about due to I think the encylopaediasts demanding standardisation any trying to eliminate self expression in peoples writing.
Spelling only serves those who write spellcheckers and dictionaries.


_____________________________

Your humble servant

nick
http://shirerealms.wordpress.com/

(in reply to MrCyanide)
Profile   Post #: 32
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 1:39:00 PM   
DarkSteven


Posts: 28072
Joined: 5/2/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Seatonstomb

Can't remember who said it but there is an old literary quote
"It is a poor man who can spell a word but a single way"



Andrew Jackson.  http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1838

_____________________________

"You women....

The small-breasted ones want larger breasts. The large-breasted ones want smaller ones. The straight-haired ones curl their hair, and the curly-haired ones straighten theirs...

Quit fretting. We men love you."

(in reply to Seatonstomb)
Profile   Post #: 33
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 2:55:59 PM   
PeonForHer


Posts: 19612
Joined: 9/27/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Aynne88
You also can not begin sentences with the word "And."


Shakespeare did - as have some of the most highly-respected writers throughout the history of English, right up to the present-day.  I'd have just loved witnessing a debate between Shakespeare and some Elizabethan grammarian on what is and is not 'allowable' writing.   Just saying.

I appreciate the points of clarity and a certain aesthetics in writing . . . but when it comes to the rules set up by grammarians - well, no.  For me, there's something of the authoritarian personality in those who are sticklers for 'correct English'.  It's as though they just must have a set of laws by which to govern this aspect of their lives, even though these putative laws are unenforcable, unnecessary, and there's no-one who has any credible position to lay down such laws anyway.



< Message edited by PeonForHer -- 11/30/2010 2:57:47 PM >

_____________________________

http://www.domme-chronicles.com


(in reply to Aynne88)
Profile   Post #: 34
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 3:02:46 PM   
mnottertail


Posts: 60698
Joined: 11/3/2004
Status: offline 		Alot of writers thru the centuries have started sentences with 'And'.  And they have, in their times, went to some pretty good high schools.  

I think that for the most part, the super-prohibition for high schoolers to avoid starting sentences with and, is to reduce the already ubiquious propensity for youth to write in sentence fragments.  There is no 'Strunk & White' prohibition, or what have you.  

_____________________________

Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two? Judges 5:30


(in reply to PeonForHer)
Profile   Post #: 35
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 3:07:47 PM   
DarkSteven


Posts: 28072
Joined: 5/2/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Aynne88
You also can not begin sentences with the word "And."



And if I do?


_____________________________

"You women....

The small-breasted ones want larger breasts. The large-breasted ones want smaller ones. The straight-haired ones curl their hair, and the curly-haired ones straighten theirs...

Quit fretting. We men love you."

(in reply to Aynne88)
Profile   Post #: 36
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 3:08:11 PM   
sunshinemiss


Posts: 17673
Joined: 11/26/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz

There is no such thing as incorrect spelling or grammar, only differences.



Now that is a load of hogwash.

You mix up your Subject and your Direct Object and who knows who got hit by whom.? That's usually pretty important.


_____________________________

Yes, I am a wonton hussy... and still sweet as 3.14

(in reply to hertz)
Profile   Post #: 37
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 5:28:43 PM   
thornhappy


Posts: 8596
Joined: 12/16/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250
Hmmm, "OCD?" It could be I guess.
I notice it a lot when the lefties are losing an argument (which is very common) they start correcting people's spelling and punctuation. After that they go to name-calling.

Damn, dude, do you always have to inject politics on threads that have nothing to do with politics?

(in reply to popeye1250)
Profile   Post #: 38
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 6:12:54 PM   
LanceHughes


Posts: 4737
Joined: 2/12/2004
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: YoungBlondeSlave
quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyPact
quote:

ORIGINAL: YoungBlondeSlave
i feel the same way, when someone states in their profile that they are a "Dominate" instead of a "Dominant" it makes me feel like my head is about to explode. 

Same here.

You must have missed the post where someone corrected the terminology, saying that the poster who had written didn't have the ability to be a verb or adverb.  The person following that comment decided that he had to say his piece that 'it's not another person's decision'.  I sincerely felt like asking if the guy could prove he was an adverb.   Arrrggghhhh.

Somebody just started a new post about how he's a "dominate".  Now, how in the world am I really supposed to take that seriously?


Damn, i did miss it. i think i have to see it out of sheer morbid curiousity...i don't know if i can believe it without seeing it. i'm going to have to look for it now.

Here it is: http://www.collarchat.com/m_3484523/tm.htm
And it's more morbidly interesting than I could have thought.  Lots of  "off" instead of "of."  OR should that be: Lots off  "of" instead off "off." - LOL!

Seriously, folks..... that is why standardized spellings and usages are useful.  When one runs up against an oddly spelled word, or a correctly spelled word that doesn't "fit," the reader's train of thought is broken.  Understanding becomes fragmented and often the point is lost.  At worst there is an unresolved ambiguity as shown in this cut-n-paste from SirDragonKing's post that uses "Dominate" where he means "Dominant." :::SIGH::: Please, do NOT get me started on that user name.

she has given me plenty off informative sites thus far
and I really want to fulfill her desires, because I know that would make her truly happy.

Which does he mean?  Does he mean "She has given me plenty from informative sites..." (and plenty of what?) -OR- "She has given me plenty of links to informative sites..."

My head exploded, too.

Let's all try to hew to standard usage and spellings.  It seems to me to be simply polite.  As Martha would say "It's a good thing."

_____________________________

"Train 'em the right way - my way." Lance Hughes
"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't." Erica Jong

10 fluffy points
50 nz points

Member: VAA's posse

(in reply to YoungBlondeSlave)
Profile   Post #: 39
RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? - 11/30/2010 6:34:04 PM   
LanceHughes


Posts: 4737
Joined: 2/12/2004
Status: offline 		OP:  Yep.  I'm right there with you as to the anxiety. (It's anxiety you describe, not OCD.  OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  OCD as to this subject would be, ....I don't know.... maybe copying out their mistakes long-hand and keeping an alphabetical, indexed notebook of same with cross references as to date and time.  Sure that would reduce the anxiety, but you don't relieve the anxiety through meaningless behavior, rather you are trying to help them to speel gooder.....LOL!.)

My least favorite is "your" when I know they meant "you're."  Never do I see the reverse as in "I like you're new perfume." It's always "Tommy, your going to be late if you keep playing with your toys."

For a while there, "it's" versus "its" was my least favorite.  And "too" and "to" was in the running for awhile.

BUT!  Guess what?  No amount of correction will sink in.  And worse, you will come across as rude and overbearing.  Been there, done that, have the T-shirt, washed it so many times it's falling apart. As is often said of teaching Latin, "It's like trying to teach a pig to dance, it's a waste of the teacher's time and it only irritates the pig."

You can only reduce your anxeity, never eliminate it. 

So, what to do?  Do what my anti-anxiety classes have taught me:

Take a deep breath and apologize to yourself for not having enough time to fix all the world's grammar and spelling faults.  Remember that you have much better (and important) things to do.

After a deep breath (or two) I realize that I do have such things pending, and off I go.  The anti-anxiety classes have a mantra: "Notice, release."  It really does get me through the day.

< Message edited by LanceHughes -- 11/30/2010 6:50:52 PM >

_____________________________

"Train 'em the right way - my way." Lance Hughes
"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't." Erica Jong

10 fluffy points
50 nz points

Member: VAA's posse

(in reply to LanceHughes)
Profile   Post #: 40
Page:   <<   < prev  1 [2] 3   next >   >>
All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> RE: Spelling and Grammar OCD? Page: <<   < prev  1 [2] 3   next >   >>
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts




Collarchat.com © 2025
Terms of Service Privacy Policy Spam Policy

0.094