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Study Says People Who Continually Point Out Typos Are 'Jerks'
HughPickens.com writes: Sophie Kleeman, writes at Gizmodo that according to a study at the University of Michigan people who are more sensitive to written typos and grammatical errors are indeed the kinds of 'Type A assholes' everyone already suspects them to be. Researchers gathered 83 people and had them read emails that either contained typos ("mkae" or "abuot"), grammar errors (to/too, it's/its or your/you're), or no spelling mistakes at all. Participants were asked at the end of the experiment whether or not they'd spotted any grammatical errors or typos in the emails, and, if so, how much it had bothered them. The researchers then asked the participants to complete a Big Five personality assessment -- which rates where they are on a scale of openness, agreeableness, extraversion/introversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness -- as well as answer questions about their age, background, and attitude towards language. People who tested as being more conscientious but less open were more sensitive to typos, while those with less agreeable personalities got more upset by grammatical errors. "Less agreeable participants showed more sensitivity to 'grammos' than participants high in agreeability," the researchers said, "perhaps because less agreeable people are less tolerant of deviations from convention."
Is something stupid people do to hedge their bets
- Rick
What are the people who carry out those studies?
I know...people who need something, anything to study for Federal Grant money.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Nothing more annoying than someone who cannot handle a simple typo - as the old saying goes, consistant spelling is the hallmark of a weak mind.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For obvious reasons :)
but I guess this study proves that I am.
I "could of" been a nice guy all this time...
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
... summarise the story for me? It contained so many errors and poor sentence structure that I couldn't follow what the submitter was trying to say.
Survey of 83? WTF?
articles that start with "study says" are utter drivel.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The people I know who often point out typos and grammatical errors are high-functioning autists or suffer from Asperger's syndrome.
So why is this submission launching such a blatant attack on the victims of autism and Asperger's? Why does it label those who are suffering from a handicap as "jerks"?
They can't help it! They were born that way! It is part of their nature.
If somebody who was paralyzed from birth can drive faster in their wheelchair than you can walk with your legs, does that make them a "jerk"?! I don't think so!
Why do leftists claim that bullying and namecalling is wrong, but then they'll turn around and label autists and Asperger's sufferers as "jerks", which is perhaps the ultimate form of bullying and namecalling?
Is it April 1st already somewhere on the planet? Crap.
I don't respond to or upvote ACs
Sophie Kleeman writes at Gizmodo that according to a study at the University of Michigan people who are more sensitive to written typos and grammatical errors
You should comma after an introductory clause, like this:
Sophie Kleeman writes at Gizmodo that according to a study at the University of Michigan, people who are more sensitive to written typos and grammatical errors
The only reasons I can think of that people get hung up on grammatical mistakes are:
1. They like to feel smarter/superior
2. They are OCD or have some kind of fixation
3. They are genuinely trying to help/improve someone's ability
But even if 2 or 3 are true, they still come off as number 1.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Jerks act like jerks. Who fucking knew?
is tihs The Onion?
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
For all "intensive" purposes, "your" a great guy.
Misuse of to/too, there/their/they're, your/you're, etc is ignorance. There's a difference.
How's that for pointing out errors?
That's weird, I always thought of myself as "Type B". I point out typos to help educate. I'll be damned if I put ending punctuation inside parentheses though (example: suck it).
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
If these conclusions rest upon the Big Five personality test, then they rest upon unfounded, unscientific cultural assumptions. Big Five axiomatically assumes extraversion = healthy and introversion = pathological.
So, I call bullshit on this whole deal.
We're actually helping educate you to use the correct spelling and to double check your spelling, so you stop making your self look like a moron.
"your self" or "yourself"?
People can makes all the grammatical errors they wants. There not going to loose my respect
It does not help that the article in question has both spelling and grammatical errors.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I don't need a university study to tell me I'm a jerk. I'm comfortable with that fact already.
Popisms.com - Connecting pop culture
"Less agreeable participants showed more sensitivity to 'grammos' than participants high in agreeability," the researchers said...
So people who are less likely to let small errors slide without comment in general turned out to be less likely to let small errors slide in one specific context?
Mind. Blown.
They may be perceived as "disagreeable assholes" by the illiterate, but they are still right.
And no, I don't think, a study mixing typos (like "mkae" instead of "make") with illiteracy ("your" instead of "you're") is actually valid.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Your welcome.
I'm about as individualistic and non-conformist as you can get but I can't stand seeing those kinds of mistakes. Typos don't bother me. What bothers me is people not giving a crap about whether what they have written is intelligible.
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
...each and every time a plane crosses the equator yet computes it's trajectory correctly, every time your car adjusts properly to changes in air temperature, and every time your pacemaker properly tells your heart to beep.
Jerks rule the tech universe. Others participate, but the Jerks keep them in line and the Jerks rule. Without Jerks all would be chaos.
Learn to spell. Pay attention to grammar. Get the errors out of your maths. Become a Jerk, not an uneducated slob! Then get a high-paying tech job and contribute something to the future of mankind.
I usually don't have an issue with spelling when folks are posting on blogs or FB. What gets my goat is when journalists and other 'professional' writers misspell stuff.
Most word processors and even the Comment editing box here on /. highlights misspelled words with a red squiggly underline so there should be no excuse for people that write for a living to misspell anything.
My .02 cents.
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
Ah, the downfall of spelling/grammar nazis, despite their bravado, they make just as many errors as everyone else. I love the irony.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
"perhaps because less agreeable people are less tolerant of deviations from convention."
So now standardized spelling and grammar are just optional conventions? They make it a hell of a lot easier to read and understand text. If you care so little about what you are writing that you don't want to take a few extra seconds to make it readable, then I don't care to spend the time reading your worthless drivel. In that case, you're the type A asshole for expecting people to parse your trash.
... all dem ejoocated types iz assholes.
Study says people who incessantly make the same typos are idiots.
The first comma was unnecessary. I wrote a sternly-worded letter to the president.
I suspect this has to do with personalities that tend to favor order, logic, and organization, something that's obviously beneficial to programming or engineering, but could be a hindrance when dealing with messy and unpredictable human interpersonal relationships. As a programmer myself, seeing typos and grammatical errors tends to trigger something in my brain that screams "that's not correct - it needs fixing!" in the same way a crookedly hung painting will irritate people who strive to create a sense of order in their environment.
Of course, general social awareness prevents me from reacting too negatively to things like simple typos, but there are some people who simply don't have those sort of brain-to-mouth social filters. If you've never worked with someone like that, you know how awkward or unpleasant it can be unless you've got an *extremely* tolerant personality - which I'd admit I probably don't have.
I'd imagine our brains have evolved to recognize patterns and draw our attention to things that break those patterns, because in nature such a thing has a high probability of being either be interesting or dangerous. I think this could theoretically explain why bugs on streaming videos (logos overlaid in the corner of the video screen) tend to bother me more than most people - my brain recognizes it as something "different" and so it constantly draws my attention away from the content of the video.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
So I'm an asshole because it irritates me to no end that some people can't even be bothered to learn the difference between there, their, and they're? Typos ar one thign, even I makes thme, but when a 'typo' is really pure, unadulterated ignorance, is it really the readers fault that they're bothered by it? The English language is complex and full of silly rules, but there are some things so basic and so often called out that there really is no excuse to continually make those errors past grade school.
Agreeable to whom, by whom ? You have to wonder how they can measure a subjective in absolute terms. Typos don't really bother me, the bad grammar leads to misunderstandings and communication failures, which already plague internet communications to a high degree. We can do without the additional impediments.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Umm, as someone with mild autism, I can say that no, as the study states, it's not whether or not it bothers you, it's whether you're enough of an ass that you must point it out to the world that they're wrong. There are many things online that bug me. My usual response? Move on to something else. That is what people who try not to be assholes do. Autism doesn't make you an asshole; being an asshole makes you an asshole.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
The article implies that this is a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with getting shit done and doing it right the first time.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
There is a reason they are called grammar nazi and similar names, and not holy nice defender of grammar. Same with spelling.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I hate you so much.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
What about those illiterates still living in the 19th century who think Every Word In A News Headline requires a capital letter? Even though it becomes obfuscated when you can't tell which words are names, proper nouns, and which are just ordinary words...
The 'new' Slashdot still looks very old to me.
Thank goodness for real journalists who take pride in their work elsewhere.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Ah, the downfall of spelling/grammar nazis, despite their bravado, they make just as many errors as everyone else. I love the irony.
Ha ha, there were NO TYPOS AT ALL in your post - that makes you a spelling/grammar Nazi. Tea hee.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
I'm not an english nerd or someone that likes to correct other people's errors online but, I just wanted to let you know that I really hate you right now.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
We're actually helping educate you to use the correct spelling and to double check your spelling, so you stop making your self look like a moron.
"your self" or "yourself"?
"yooz"
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Let me get this straight -- people who care about correctness and doing things right are assholes?
I completely disagree. Yes, people who constantly correct others in a rude way can come across as arrogant condescending assholes. They also can come across as Insufferable Know-it-alls.
But you know what? I consider people who don't care about being correct to be assholes, and if they bitch when corrected, I consider them to be coddled unique snowflake assholes. I guess that makes me an asshole.
So to the author of this study and all the lemmings who will parrot its findings for the next thousand years, I have to say "My god, it's full of assholes!"
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Except this damn language we're using can't follow rules, even its own, and you have to be completely obsessive about it to use it "correctly." Fuck that. I use it well enough to get by and everyone else can deal.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
True story:
Yesterday I was scolded by a person for saying aspic.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
The people I know who often point out typos and grammatical errors are high-functioning autists or suffer from Asperger's syndrome.
The geek plays the autism-Asperger's card so often that I would to see how his estimates of the numbers compare to those of actual, documented, clinical diagnoses.
"I can't believe those stupid jerks demanded we scrub the launch, just because of some stupid made-up bullshit about 'O-rings'!"
Purists may find a couple of nits to pick, like email instead of e-mail, and a comma before the word or.
Shouldn't "Jerks" be in double-quotes ;-)
No, he made a mistake. You made several.
Type-A asshole.
Such a compliment.
Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
I say "anal retentive and PROUD of it!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I always knew I was an a-hole, but it's nice to have a scientific study that backs it up.
/. looking for validation after years of shitty editors and butthurt.
You should have put the word "or" in quotes.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Dear people who type in all lowercase,
We are the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Sincerely,
Capital Letters.
Someone you trust is one of us.
Why? It's a term familiar to any western chef. According to dictionary.com, "Aspic is a savory jelly usually made with meat or fish stock and gelatin, chilled and used as a garnish and coating for meats, seafoods, eggs, etc."
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
When I see the "spelling errors" for words, usually homonyms, such as there, their, they're or it's and its, I'm a bit bothered and and either ascribe the error due to the writer being too concentrated on getting the idea across clearly or the writer is ignorant and might be concerned whether he or she knows what they're talking about.
However, when people misuse technical terms I get upset. One of my pet peeves is when folks misuse the words energy and power. I'm a physical scientist and definitely know the difference. One hears tech journalists talk about how much power is in the battery of a cell phone in units of milli watt hours, mwhr. Then again the operative word is journalist.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Critiquing someone that requests it is a whole different scenario. That's usually trying to be helpful rather than trying to be an asshole.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Less agreeable to who?
.
For example, TFA seems to be concentrated upon how typos affect a person and not what the person does as a result of the typos.
So people who point out typos are not really the subject of TFA.
So am I now a jerk for wanting a discussion on this?
Just proves that people are assholes. Not as much as cats, but, still assholes. I had to look the word up but, other than that, it's no big deal. Sadly, people suck.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
I never understood this logic. Assuming the errors they point out are actually errors and they're not being mean about it, what does it matter if they also make errors that are pointed out?
Does the fact that you've written code with bugs in it somehow prevent you from being allowed to point out bugs in other peoples code while reviewing it?
Fuck you and you're "grammo's".
For someone that lives by formulas and rules, it's a fucking nightmare. There was no one that could explain how english consistently worked because it doesn't. I didn't start getting anywhere with it until I finally got it through my head that the whole language was fucked, stopped caring and moved on. My last high school english teacher saved my ass here and showed me ways to make it work 90+% of the time and told me not to worry about the rest. I now know enough to make it work thanks to him.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Bad spelling, grammar, and English in-general is a virus. The more people get lazy and don't bother, the more it's spread around and seen by others... who then in-turn become further de-sensitized themselves to it. This affects their own usage, and it propagates further.
What's worse is that people will 99% of the time respond, "oh I know better, I just don't bother". Except that after a while, they DON'T know better anymore. They become so accustomed to bad spelling and grammar that it permeates even their formal writing where the "I know better" part should've kicked in... but doesn't. Now they look like idiots.
I'm sorry... but if you want to be taken seriously, you need to not write like a 20-something who spells like a 1st-grader. There/their/they're. To/too. its/it's. Your/you're. "Couldn't care less" vs the nonsensical "could care less". And so on.
It's not being a "jerk" to give a shit about the quality of English writing and trying to preserve some semblance of sanity and education to written communication.
That was certainly the meaning I was trying to convey.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I've got a co-worker who is a jerk. They may have a handicap or not. I have no idea. That doesn't belittle the fact that they're a jerk. Jerks are the outward abrasive personality of the person regardless of the reason for it. I could also call Psychopaths jerks too, but I wouldn't know it unless they told me.
On the complete flip-side argument, people who suffer from skin/lung cancer are much less likely to receive sympathy and charitable donations than those with ovarian / prostate / etc.. cancer because in the case of skin / lung cancer, they're assumed to 'deserve' it based on vice (sun tanning / smoking). Obviously not all skin/lung cancer victims have lived lives of vice, but they're emphatically/financially punished as if they were. It sucks, but I don't see human nature changing to correct such a disservice.
Bye!
My empirical findings are that most people who make those mistakes ("I would of", "They're/there/their", "your/you're", etc...) are 'millennials', native American speakers who most likely went to school in the US and often appear a few steps removed from functional illiteracy. This because texting probably accounts for the majority of their writing. For whatever reason it seems to me that -even though they may have other glaring grammatical issues- most foreigners who write in English are far less likely to make these sorts of embarrassing typos.
While some of these are most certainly due to autocorrect, it still remains that many of the errors I mentioned above are due to those writers being lazy, complacent, not bothered in the least; the part of me that tries to write nicely as a way to show respect to the readers gets a bit flustered when I am subjected to witnessing our language sinking in slow-motion into machine-assisted idiocracy.
I would indeed love to see a study illustrating what proportion of those making these constant and embarrassing blunders are claiming English as their first language.
Yes, the phones are so very smart. But what does that make the users?
I don't agree with their definition of a jerk. A jerk does harm without good reason. There are good reasons to be "disagreeable". Basically, I think what the study actually reveals is that people who don't correct or notice grammar are less particular and more easygoing...which I would have thought was obvious.
The study found that while conscientious people noticed, less agreeable people (assholes) were bothered by typos. Quoting the fine summary:
Participants were asked at the end of the experiment whether or not they'd spotted any grammatical errors or typos in the emails, and, if so, how much it had bothered them. ...
People who tested as being more conscientious but less open were more sensitive to typos, while those with less agreeable personalities got more upset by grammatical errors.
-nt-
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I'll stop bitching about typos and getting resumes with shorthand text'ing on them when the illiterate fucks learn how to properly write.
I'm not Type A. I'm GRADE A TYPE A. You fuck.
I'm one of those Type "B" assholes. Use spell check! here are some simple ones to keep in mind. hear not here. you're not your.. eg. I hear that you're going to move. Here are your keys to the new house.
--AD
Abuot the New Yorker?
Do they also drive BMW's?
What is going on with this method?
If the summery is correct, it is no where near coming to that conclusion.
What the study seems to have found is that people who are bothered by typos are more likely to be harsher when rating themselves.
There is absolutely no exploration of what types of people correct typos, and no evidence of the actual personality of the people who notice them, just how they perceive themselves.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
What about those of us who sometimes enjoy the intellectual banter involved in pointing out logical fallacies often made in weak arguments? As an example: In the argument made herein by this team at the University of Michigan, it seems to me that they're assuming that people who would notice and be bothered by errors, would naturally overlap with people who arrogantly correct every stupid little error that they notice. This sounds a awful lot like a "False Cause" fallacy to me. Likewise, it appears that they make no distinction between actual jerks, and professional educators and/or parents who would very obviously be negligent if they didn't comment on errors made by children and/or pupils under their tutelage... which could easily bin their argument into both the "Black-or-White" fallacy and the "Faulty Generalization" fallacy.
(I have a sneaking suspicion that the U-of-M team would instantly label me a jerk -- especially if I'm right -- but somehow, this doesn't really bother me all that much. Does that also make me a jerk?)
FYI, according to the current DSM, Asperger's syndrome no longer exists, it is now just on the autism spectrum.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Few young people are willing to be corrected about anything these days. Even if it's a factual issue about which they're wrong, they'd rather chalk it up to a "typo" or difference of opinion, thereby accepting no responsibility for ignorance, and move on with their crummy knowledge. It's a bad state of affairs as it makes learning very difficult.
This study has far too many typoes for me to take it seriously.
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
Either the study sample is in complete, or people like me, who are professional proofreaders, are jerks. It's our JOB to point out spelling and grammatical mistakes, people.
The fact that I have, on record, one month where the publisher had me do every book they were publishing establishes their opinion of me.
Seems the people with higher IQ will be more likely to notice the errors and what the correct grammar should be. Lower IQ individuals probably don't pick up on the errors. So basically they are saying smart people are jerks, a prejudice that is hardly new.
Complaining about typos in non-published stuff? What do they think, we all have a professional editor who vets our stuff before hitting submit? Not to mention not everyone in places like /. are typing in their native language.
Obviously a certain line can be crossed where our opinion of the commenter becomes so low as to dilute whatever point they are making, but anyone who comes onto a tech board to complain about someone's typing mistakes has some pretty serious priory issues.
To me this comes under the same category about all arts majors complaining that tech people don't take enough arts courses and thus aren't "Well rounded"
I'm not likely to point out grammatical flaws in other people's writing, usually chalking it up to human error. Maybe they already know better and just made a mistake. Maybe they don't know better but it doesn't fucking matter to me unless I'm specifically proofreading it with an eye for correctness; so long as I understood, it's fine.
But if an argument has started over whether or not something is in fact an error (not whether or not the error matters in the moment), I cannot fucking stand so-called "descriptivists" who are in fact prescriptive relativists (which, like all relativism, is tantamount to nihilism): people who say that because something is done some way, it's OK to do it that way. Mind you, ACTUAL descriptive linguistics, documenting what is or isn't done, is great, and is a completely separate activity from saying anything at all about what is or isn't OK. But a nihilistic form of prescriptivism that just says "anything is OK", or pretends "not just anything is OK, but so long as people actually do that, it's OK" (which is still tantamount to just "anything is OK") is not just descriptivism, that's a pants-on-head retarded kind of prescriptivism itself, trying to bad-mouth prescription as an activity even while engaging in it.
And the alternatives to that are NOT limited to from-on-high authoritarian prescription, any more than the only alternative to moral relativism is authoritarian religious moralism. It is possible to reason about these, things, fallibly and critically but objectively, pragmatically. It is possible to have a rational argument about these things, and in such an argument, it is possible for someone to be right or wrong.
I don't fucking care if you write "I could care less" when you mean "I couldn't care less", I know what you mean. But if for some reason a discussion is happening about whether "I could care less" is in fact in error, and it ought to be "I couldn't care less", the people saying that are fucking right and shut your relativist fucking pie-hole if you think otherwise, unless you have a goddamn reasonable argument why otherwise, not just "people say that, you know what they mean".
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
When I hear someone say they are "detail oriented", or "produce work of high quality" or "make sure to get it right", but at the same time their presentations or other written communications have misspellings, grammatical errors or other problems, it's really hard to believe them.
For me, it really depends on who is making the typo (or grammar error etc). If it's just an email from a co-worker , some random Joe posting on the internet, or a blog then I tend not to care. If it's in an article from a "professional" person/entity - in particular one that should have editors - then I certainly have less sympathy for errors. For example, I would not expect to see glaring grammar errors from a a newspaper or major magazine, or on a billboard (except in the fun occasions where it is an purposeful error used to gain attention). As somebody who has worked (in IT) for the education industry, some of the worst cases I have seen were actually teachers.
I don't necessarily expect a secondary-school math teacher to have perfect English skills, but from teachers I would often get notes that were barely readable due to the poor grammar and/or spelling. Keep in mind that these people not only educating our children in their given subject matter, but setting an example. If Mr [insert Math Teacher] name can barely spell his name correctly, it sets a pretty poor tone for why students should hone their own language skills. The same applies to professional publications. If the "Washington Post" or "NY Times" start producing magazines full of mistakes, then it's saying "see kids, even professional magazines don't think it's important to use proper grammar!" Thankfully this is not currently the case with those particular publications, but certainly others seem to be "slipping" lately.
Autists are painters and sculptors from Boston.
I can see the fnords!
Sorry but that part of my brain is also screaming right now:
My sense of humor was also screaming. So if you have worked with someone like that then you have no idea?
Now I wait for someone to point out some funny mistake I made in this comment. (Good thing I did preview and caught a dumb html mistake.)
Are we supposed to meekly accept the dumbing down of the population. I can understand ignoring typos and spellings, many are hard to catch by proofreading if the type is small. But misuse of words, their/there, for example, is illiterate, and inexcusable. And shorthand in notes, such as "u" is just dumb. I have seen people refuse to use punctuation, making their posts unreadable, then take offense when someone criticizes them.
Are fucking annoying.
And people who run "studies" like this are ignorant shitheads.
And people who write summaries like "Study says" are slack-jawed mouth breathers. Because studies don't "say" anything. And this study was basically "in the opinion of the lackwits we interviewed"
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Better yet, both: helping Uncle Jack jack off a horse.
People who tested as being more conscientious but less open were more sensitive to typos, while those with less agreeable personalities got more upset by grammatical errors.
I think that you ignored the difference between typos and grammatical errors, they are not the same.
Fuck that. I use it well enough to get by and everyone else can deal.
This just in... less agreeable people use language and grammar well enough, end expect everyone else to "just deal", because they are the most special snowflakes on Earth, and, hey, fuck everyone else.
I shall write a harsh follow-up correspondence pointing out the incorrect use of single rather than double quotation marks in the title, they shall know my righteous wrath.
Ok, you have two very different examples here that have little to nothing to do with one another.
The first one, pointing out errors about spelling or grammar on boards like this serves no purpose other than to stroke your own ego. There's a good 75%+ chance the person you replied to will never read it followed by 99%+ of the ones that do read it either being annoyed or not caring. So all you've done is cluttered the board with nonsense that no one but you cares about and on /. I will mod you Offtopic every time.
Trying to apply the same logic from forums to code projects has no basis in logic. Forums post are unsolicited advice/corrections that no one wants to see and serves no purpose. Code projects are a collaborative effort (I originally wrote error by mistake... still appropriate) where checking and correcting other people's code is an expected part of the process. Though not always appreciated by the other coder, the project, as a whole, is improved when you correct others mistakes. This can help prevent system crashes, security vulnerabilities and a whole host of other problems. This benefit does not apply to english and internet forums.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Depends on your feelings towards the oxford comma. I personally prefer the Walken comma:
http://imgur.com/gallery/l4vGY...
Indeed the summary doesn't make clear
I accidentally submitted too soon. That's true, the summary does say they tested both misspellings/ typos and grammar errors.
However, it ALSO says participants were asked a) if they noticed the errors AND b) how much it bothered them.
To fully understand the results one might have to (gasp) read the article.
Lol, damnit! I double-checked my post too, since I didn't want to make any silly grammatical or spelling errors. So naturally there's a typo that completely reverses the meaning of a sentence. I suppose that's why I try not to give people grief when they make silly little mistakes. Glass houses and all that...
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I do object to the geeks who complain about common spelling and grammatical errors in a post to forums like Slashdot.
Some will be posting from a mobile device without a proper keyboard. Others will be nor be native English speakers. Cut-and-Paste doesn't always work as expected and quotations are mangled. It can be a fussy business getting the formatting right.
The point being that you could cut a poster some slack and no harm done.
"It's" breaks the rule in English that noun-apostrophe-s should be read as a possessive and not a contraction. That is why the error persists despite the best efforts of the last five generations or so of grade school teachers who have tried to stamp it out.
First, it seems very clear this article is a 'projection' attempt by /. 'editors' to cover for their atrocious and sloppy practices. We are all jerks, you see. As agreed upon by 83 people. Eighty three. Okay.
Second, I suspect this thread has had the highest ratio of correct (self conscious) spelling and grammar than any thread EVA!. Perhaps in the entire history of Slashdot? And there you have it.
Jerks are the people who are too lazy to study at school, and later on in life, too lazy and disinterested to even care about proper writing.
And that attitude typically is not limited to proper writing; it is all too often indicative for attitude in general. Attitude towards other people, towards your nation, towards your earth.
People pointing out spelling mistakes are mostly the good people; the people that actually care about this world.
People who lack experience in advanced cooking may be unaware of the respectable definition of the word "aspic". They instead may incorrectly assume it to be a disparaging neologism for "Latino with Asperger-type autism": "aspie" plus "spic". Compare "niggardly".
Ok, you have two very different examples here that have little to nothing to do with one another.
I completely disagree with that premise, so at this point I don't think we're going to change each others minds. Thanks for the perspective though.
Words mean things, and spelling is important. So is proper grammar. I am not an asshole for trying to help you improve the way you use language. You should consider being grateful that I care enough to try to help.
Perhaps harboring hatred towards me is not the best approach for you, as hatred has seldom accomplished progress. I don't hate you for failing to possess a reasonable command of language. It's not necessarily an indication of your personality or character, so I do not assume so. I would therefore appreciate you not assuming similar things about me when I politely try to help you improve.
Maybe all the study is showing is that people will express the less friendly side of their personality if they've just been through an experience they find irritating.
I wonder if there is a correlation between bad spelling and the kind of unclear thinking that leads to such an obvious design flaw in an experiment as not testing personality first.
Solid sample size.
Except not really. That was sarcasm.
Because I'm a jerk. A jerk who will correct your grammar for you
This signature is false.
I'm curious - when you went through high school was reading Shakespeare part of the course?
I've got a wild theory that reading something that not completely modern English with modern spelling and grammar raises reading comprehension abilities enough to reduce annoyance when reading other things with less than perfect spelling and grammar.
Maybe that explains why younger generations with a different education seem to be less tolerant and gasp in horror at things like the quickly written and error laden spur of the moment posts by "Raster" of enlightenment window manager fame for example instead of considering the content at all.
I was lucky to meet people who worked with the real thing and had some interesting stories before playing that card became fashionable.
Cat in the wrong place? Pick up and throw hard versus just getting annoyed.
I doubt that there is a single poster on this site that would be considered close to non-functional.
I proofread a textbook back in the day when I hid in academia for a while when manufacturing crashed, but that didn't turn me into a person that wishes to notify people of errors on a site with casual posting such as this.
Reports, books, signs, GUIs etc are one thing. Slashdot posts and informal emails are another.
Try understanding fluid flow. Empirical formulas and rules change a lot according to the situation there as well.
My research shows that people who perform or bring up a study about someone who corrects them being a jerk are jerks.
Do you want bugs in your code? Because this is how it starts...squashing typos is good warm up practice for coding.
But taken phonetically and out of context, some people will choose to hear ass-pick.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
...to consider is that:
1. Not all Aspies are jerks.
2. In fact, there are conventions to written language that, if people who SPOKE the language followed those conventions there would be fewer conflicts because there would be no ambiguity.
3. Those who insist on using such rapist written language as "TXTSPK" are the jerks for expecting everybody else (or indeed just their clique members) to be able to read and understand the underlying message beneath their lexical drivel. Written English has simple rules, please FOLLOW THEM.
4. Those who do insist on employing deliberate typographical error because they think it makes them "look cool" are in fact "utter jerks" because knowing how to write is not something you are born with: you are taught it at school. Being taught, you can either do it well or not at all; doing it poorly is the epitome of JERK and fucking LAZY.
(This post proofed after composition). Yes, I do put end punctuation outside the parenthesis. Correct English for the win.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
I. Prefer. The. ShatnerComma.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
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...is a better way to be an asshole. It's my personal method of choice.
I was just scanning down the page in full admiration that he'd managed to get half of Slashdot to spell 'totally' wrong (via reply) including all the pedants.
From a safe distance it's terribly impressive.
Language is useful to quickly determine the class of the person doing the speaking / writing which I never fully realized until I moved to France and sew how much care is put by educated French people into making sure that there are no mistakes in what they write - and how quickly they make note of mistakes that others make when writing or speaking.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
Making spelling mistakes online: First, an indicator your correspondent may be poorly educated. Second, proof they have failed to properly use a spelling checker. Third, a virtual guarantee that at least some of their audience will not read for content. Fourth, sufficient provocation that some of those individuals may disrupt the conversation in turn.
Language is a key means for communicating ideas. How well we use it directly affects how well our communications are received. It is, in fact, an art, like painting. However, also like painting, one can paint ideas like a master or finger-paint them like an addled child. Which do you think will be better received?
Learn to write coherently and correctly. It is well worth it. Knowledge is power. Communications skills are tools to exercise that power.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
We has met the enemy and he is us. Walt Kelly - Pogo
Yes, it does have a real scientific meaning, rather than the unscientific crap you spewed on the screen.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health...
Autism is a spectrum of disorders from fully functioning people all the way down to completely dysfunctional.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Slashdot your new owners are a bunch of nasty fuckwits. Sorry not sorry. It's a pity but it must be said. Slashdot is nothing like it was.
Programmers look at logic and and analyse / scrutinize their code for errors. We tend to also use editors of software to perform auto - indentation (readability issues).
Since we are proof reading, it's something that we do by habit. We are conditioned. When we scan code, we scan text messages to insure that they are gramatically perfect. That obligation spills over to non-programming i.e newspaper, internet blogs, and whatever.
We can't help ourselves. Sigh, I feel badly about my peers and myself being jerks. We jerks must hang together, that's all I can say about work related injuries.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
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It's fucking shit you learn in elementary school. If adults cannot use correct grammar, then there is no hope for humanity. Spelling mistakes happen, so does the occasional grammar mistake but really simple mistakes that happen too often piss me off. Competent adults should know the difference between "there", they're", and "their" and also "to", "too" and "two" It's not rocket science and is shit we learned in the 4th grade. Get it right or go the fuck home.
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!
It all depends. In a casually typed email from friends or family I do not bother pointing out any errors. I do so in published articles, books, and for comments in which people claim others are so stupid. Especially news outlets need to have their staff read and edit anything before publishing. Yesterday I came across an article where the author was writing about "censors" when it should have been "sensors". Language is their tool of the trade and showing the lack of mastering language makes one wonder how much care they put into finding reliable sources. It is like a bank having obvious calculation errors in their annual financial statement. I wouldn't trust that bank with a single penny. To be fair, spelling and pronunciation in the English language often make no sense. I will never understand why recipe does not rhyme with pipe, or why people think that "alot" is a word. Then again, for the latter there is spell check. Use it!
Who do you think did the study? People who continually make typos.
Every study and every statistic must be taken with a grain of salt. Personally, I don't believe the results of any study or survey because every one is biased in some way. Either the authors are biased in what they are trying to discover or "prove" or the choice of participants is biased. Regardless of who you survey, or how many people you survey, you are only getting results from people who respond to surveys, which is not the entire population. It doesn't matter if the survey is done over the phone, by mail, or over the Internet. The only thing any survey ever proves is that the results of the survey only apply to the people who were surveyed. It says absolutely zero about the general population.
As Mark Twain popularized, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
From years of looking at photos and editing them, my attention is distracted from the content/subject of the image by little things like a horizon or a vertical wall being slightly tilted - even as little as half a degree, unless it is clearly an artistic choice. For me, at least, flat appearing horizons and walls that are vertical (as I know and expect them to be) make the photograph easier to see and appreciate.