Terrymac Loc: LONDON U.K.

From a teacher -- short and to the point.



In the world of hi-tech gadgetry, I've noticed that more and more people

who send text messages and emails have long forgotten the art of capital

letters.

For those of you who fall into this category, please take note of the following

statement:



"Capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse,

and helping your uncle jack off a horse."



Is everybody clear on that?

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Very, very good and so to the point. I loathe texting.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Indeed if, when teaching, we could examples like that the students would search for similar examples and become more aware of the Capitalist system that the politicians always talk about. Ooooops, wrong Capital system.

After retirement from Engineering/Chemistry I taught 9th grade ESE Math and Science for 3 years. No, not taught, rather we are learning facilitators. The amount of time spent with texting during class is unbelievable. Perhaps in teaching the teacher should not speak, rather text the conversation in incomplete sentences and abbreviations.

Ravynne Loc: Toronto, Canada

LOL, I just spewed coffee onto my screen while reading this..it does make a lot of sense

AnnaZ Loc: SW Wis.

I abhor people that cannot take time to spell correctly. I admit, there are people that have difficulty doing so; I had a great-aunt that had to have a dictionary beside her when she wrote a letter. Those are not the ones of which I speak. I am referring to those that are just plain damn lazy. I also hate texting. It encourages abbreviated spelling, no caps, non-extinct punctuation and use of numbers for letters.....R U going 2nite? If I had a penny for every time I have seen the word "lense" here I would be rich. And there are those that have tried, in a nice manner, to correct the error and that was met with nasty remarks on the line of picky, picky, picky.

I was lamenting the fact to my mother once about how pathetic it is people cannot spell and she told me "the reason it bothers you so much is because you READ all the time". She is correct............I AM a voracious reader.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

AnnaZ is right - those who read have an appreciation of - and love of - the language. While I am sure we all welcome all comers to our forum, the lack of language skills on the part of some posters is shocking and sad.

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Of late I have been seeing such horrors as "me and my girlfriend" etc.

AnnaZ Loc: SW Wis.

And the ATROCIOUS grammar............everywhere, not just here. The one that makes me want to whap people upside the head is "I seen..............." ARRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

You have made my day, unfortunately, it started with me feeling up beat and enthusiastic... now some one, representing many, abhors me... oh! I feel better now, you spelled adore incorrectly.

While a dictionary may be useful to some, it requires knowing a close spelling. Some of us, especially dyslectics, can not spell and it is not lazyness (laziness). The advent of spell check has saved me a great deal of embarrassment. Your statement regarding spelling does not consider that "if you can not spell the same word 3 ways on the same page, then you lack emaginination. ooops imagination. While I can not spell well, I a can instructed by phone disassemble an injection chamber of a $75,000 ICP (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) analytical instrument and put it back together (correctly and repaired) by memory and vision logic. Indeed a complex task, requiring different brain type from the speller.... both, especially in english, complex.

Brains are wired differently. And the missing clue we must all respect is that the new generation (Flip Flop - Hi Five) is reshaping communications and will be the society of the future. The think different from us, learn different, and have different morals and ethics (except in Texas where sex will soon be outlawed, with women at least). We, the older generation, must observe and adapt and must follow Bob Dylan's warning.... "Don't stand in the doorway.... the times are a changin'..."

By the way, I love the word, voracious, not common. Indeed voracious readers have an extensive vocabulary. My vocabulary became extensive searching for a word to substitute for the one I could not spell that particular day. Spelling also is perhaps influnced (influenced) by a hearing ear malformation (or damage) or ear/brain connection. If you do not hear or recognize the vowel, then it is not there. By the way, when I taught for the three years, I was an ESE, special education, teacher for 9th graders, I understood their pain, embarrassment and frustration. Look upon us with challenged spelling ability more softly, please.

cz3056 Loc: Somewhere in Michigan or Texas

I also have problems with correct spelling when writing. I blame it on the education system. When in the first few grades some educators decided that teaching phonics to young students was a waste of their teaching time and felt that memorization teaching and recognizing the word was the way of the future. By the time the experiment was done, students had a hard time trying to learn to phonically spell. Thus many of my generation are poor speller. Just another government program gone bad with lots of monies spent and poor results.
:-(

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

No offense but try reading all the posts in here, when for 3 years you were a proof reader for a newspaper. All my books have hi-lighted marks for spelling errurs. ( LOL )

The worst is the mixup of you and yours ie., set you lens at....

Sarge69

AnnaZ Loc: SW Wis.

Ok, if you will look back, I did say that I admitted there were people that had difficulty with spelling. And those are NOT the ones I am referring to. (oops, I suppose if I were to come off my high horse I would see that previous sentence should read "those are not the ones to which I am referring......"). MY peeve is those that are just plain lazy, know better and will not, for whatever reason, do it correctly.

For many years our local newspaper has not had any proofreaders. It almost gives me a rash reading the "news". Oy-vey. (banging head against wall)

Beowulf Loc: Aquidneck Island, RI

Among my favorite usage gremlins found on UHH are:

--a frequent inability to distinguish among THEIR, THERE, and THEY'RE

--the same problem with YOUR and YOU'RE

AnnaZ Loc: SW Wis.

Amen!!!!!!!!!

eye2eye Loc: Chicago, Illinois

I understand the need to abbreviate on text's due to the screen size and the amount of information someone needs to send to get their point across. What I don't understand is why people use this as a main form of communication. 15 minutes of text's back and forth? Or a simple phone call done in 2 minutes, if that. To ask a question, fine. To have a conversation, idiotic.