Ever been to an EA focus group?

[ElfPuddle]

Very good for blubug, and very bad for my students.

[Li'l Brudder]

Tell them that unless they shape up, the Commies will be running America.

[ElfPuddle]

Quite a few of them wouldn't know what I was talking about...they're too young for Cold War references.

[blubug]

Hey, you spell much much better than most of native English speakers.

Is that good or bad?

Why thank you very much! I went to an American elementary school and since then I've read a lot not to lose the language. And I translate a lot of essays as well, so I guess the effort pays off. (Although I know my sentences could be structured much better)

And Elfpuddle, a lot of the students here (in Turkey) have terrible spelling and grammar. It's like the new generation just doesn't read.

Anyway, back to the subject, focus groups anyone?

[notveryawesome]

Hey, you spell much much better than most of native English speakers.

Gah! Can I just take a moment to bitch about this, since my posts on the topic were deleted from PMBD during the Great Purge and even though this is not Retardo Land? I've tutored English off-and-on over the years, and English is NOT my native language. It's always amazed me how many native English-speakers were in need of English tutoring. They could speak the language perfectly well, but could not seem to transfer their instinctual knowledge of it to the written page. In other words, they could speak it, but they couldn't write it. I've determined that some people are just naturally better with words, whilst others are better with numbers. Those students who seemed to do well in English (or whatever language they happened to speak) were generally not very good at Maths, and vice versa (I fall into the former category). That said, if language is not your strong point, there are tools that can help you, such as dictionaries, thesauruses (thesauri?), and the like. Grammar is a bit more complicated than spelling and diction are, but simply being observant of how words are used by those who use them correctly can go a long way, and I often encouraged my students to read well-written books and to emulate what they had read. Sometimes this helped, sometimes it didn't. The point is, not presenting yourself in a way that is understandable really does make you look stupid, whether you are or not (the exception being non-native speakers, who have a valid excuse). It really doesn't take much time to read over a post before sending it, and this simple act alone will go quite far in making one appear to be at least marginally intelligent. For example, I just misspelled 'marginally' but I caught it and corrected it before posting this.

[/rant]

[rohina]

Wooot! Way to out yourself as a member of the fire-breathing grammar police! Awesome rant.

[notveryawesome]

Hey, where's my closet?!! *looks around suspiciously*

[blubug]

[ElfPuddle]

*tacklehuggleboogleglomps notveryawesome for a very awesome rant*

[Li'l Brudder]

Quite a few of them wouldn't know what I was talking about...they're too young for Cold War references.

Are you saying that a few of them are Baby Boomers and older?

That's insane.

[ElfPuddle]

No, silly, they're all too young, but some pay attention in *gasp* history class, so they would know to what I referred.

[Lana B]

*claps and cheers NVA for her rant*
I liked the PMBD one too. (still reeling slightly hence the post on the wrong site).
I also like Witch's sig, although I would add it's not that big a deal, OF nothing!!!
I tend to be better at numbers, but I love reading, lots of 18th and 19th century literature as well as sci-fi so I tend to be quite formal when writing. I try not to go overboard, but it really bugs me when people think it doesn't matter. If you want people to understand you, it does matter. If you're not prepared to make the effort, don't bloody type.

I don't live in US so no EA focus groups for me.

[witch]

I also like Witch's sig, although I would add it's not that big a deal, OF nothing!!!

Funny, I just noted that from the thread where Craigsters lost the plot. I'm planning to add that comment. It's that big a deal for me.

ETA: Oh and the 'then' 'than' issue.

[Lana B]

The funny thing about people who say the could care less is that they are being unintentionally accurate. If they really didn't care, they wouldn't talk about it.

[Sagana]

It's sarcasm, which people don't seem to get without a scorecard especially in writing. Intonation is everything.

cf "I should be so lucky" and "cheap at half the price"

[notveryawesome]

*tacklehuggleboogleglomps notveryawesome for a very awesome rant*

Awww, I feel so warm and fuzzy now. Thanks for the tacklehuggleboogleglomp (whatever THAT is, though I can guess at it from the context - yet another concept that many people do not seem to grasp, especially on the InterWeb, where everything seems to be taken literally, if not literately ).

Edited because I am living up to my screen name.

[ElfPuddle]

It's a phrase I learned from RainbowTigress and her wonderful Wiki skills.

[rohina]

I learned about yiffing from Assmitten and wikipedia.

[ElfPuddle]

*Is scared to ask if rohina yiffs as often as ElfPuddle tacklehuggleboogleglomps, but feels she should ask anyway, in the interest of full disclosure*

[rohina]

I don't think anyone does anything with the frequency of Elfie glompage.