Spelling

[daftbovine]

A friend of mine is dyslexic and like Paul80 it went undiagnosed throughout her school career and she was branded as being stupid. Spelling mistakes don’t bother me too much although I’m not over fond of abbreviated ‘textspeak’ Which seems like another language.

 

The only time I’ve really battled to understand a post was one that had absolutely no punctuation, it was just one long sentence. At the moment my arm is in a sling and I’m finding typing difficult, so perhaps that was the case with the non punctuated post.

[melmerby]

 

I sometimes use a tablet when posting (I prefer not to - but I don't always get the choice). Every time I try to sign off with my middle name, followed by a full stop, the auto"correct" changes this to "His." - for some reason, I don't like this very much (and that's saying something, when I'm generally one of the most mild-mannered, easy-going, people you're ever likely to encounter).

 

Another issue concerns "special treatment" of the characters and words I type - "italics", bold type, stuff like that - which the tablet won't let me do. It will, however, allow me to add "umlauts", "accents" and various "special characters", which my Windows PC doesn't seem to like.

 

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

Hi Huw

Does your tablet allow autocorrection to be "off"

I have both a cheap Android phone and a cheapish Android tablet and they "advise" me of corrections which I can choose to accept or ignore.

 

Re: the Windows PC. have you investigated the character map?

You can choose any character and add it to text or quite often just using ALT + Number will do it directly

 

E.G. ALT + 225 = ß, ALT + 248 = °, ALT + 235 = Ù etc.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

['CHARD]

Somewhere on RMWeb there's a topic running for those of us who struggle NOT to baulk at some of the really irritating common and relatively MODERN, mistakes. 

 

These aren't spelling mistakes per se, but incorrect words and phrases that just simply grate.  When you know it's wrong, some people can't unsee it. 

 

I reckon so long as we keep discussion of those to that thread and don't pull people up for use of Train Station and 'brought' instead of 'bought' on individual posts, then everybody's happy nowadays.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Many people (probably many more than we realise) suffer from dyslexia and other conditions which make it difficult for them to communicate in writing.

 

Others are just too lazy to bother about correct spelling and grammar and/or were abandoned by the education "system".

 

Either way, on a forum like this, it does not matter unless it makes the content incomprehensible.

 

Over the course of my life, I have met many dyslexics and come to the conclusion that, like those who suffer with autism, they are usually of more than average intelligence. One can only admire the many people who have achieved so much in their career despite this handicap.

[Talltim]

The time I will correct spelling is if someone is searching for information about a subject and they've spelt it wrong. The correct spelling will reveal a whole world of new Google results (although Google seems to be quite good at knowing what you meant anyway).

Edited October 2, 2018 by Talltim

[johnb]

I am fussy about spelling and grammar on things that I post, but that's me. However provided I can understand what a poster is saying then I don't bother about things like 'their' and 'there' and other wayward spellings and grammar. I would not dream of publically correcting them, indeed I do not recall ever pointing out anything by PM.

 

My interest is railways and I'm not on this forum to nit-pick anyones posts. Just go ahead and post guys, I'm sure that most of us will work out what you are on about!

 

John

[johnb]

The time I will correct spelling is if someone is searching for information about a subject and they've spelt it wrong. The correct spelling will reveal a whole world of new Google results (although Google seems to be quite good at knowing what you meant anyway).

 

Ah! Google, yes it does a pretty good job. Sometimes though a mis-spelling or a case of finger trouble produces results about a world that you never knew existed  

[Ian J.]

Hi Huw

Does your tablet allow autocorrection to be "off"

I have both a cheap Android phone and a cheapish Android tablet and they "advise" me of corrections which I can choose to accept or ignore.

 

Re: the Windows PC. have you investigated the character map?

You can choose any character and add it to text or quite often just using ALT + Number will do it directly

 

E.G. ALT + 225 = ß, ALT + 248 = °, ALT + 235 = Ù etc.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

 

Be careful, any number above 127 in ASCII has been superseded by Unicode in many places, so you might not get the character you're looking for.

[Pteremy]

Well said Clive.

 

999 out of 1000 times the intention is perfectly clear despite spelling, grammatical or technical errors. Let us stick to the modelling and prototype insights rather than marking homework.

[eastwestdivide]

Guilty as charged, usually (misguidedly?) trying to get a laugh.

[Nearholmer]

Most of the spelling and grammar ‘pointing out’ that I’ve seen on here comes into the bracket of banter, picking-up on the humour created by the mistake ........ and we all make such mistakes, especially when autocorrect and insane grammar software ‘helps’.

 

Maybe some pedantic, small-minded stuff happens, but some people are pedantic and small-minded, so it always will. It sometimes helps to ‘call’ such people, but sometimes they find it just as hard to resist the compulsion to pedantry as others do to spell correctly.

 

I try to achieve balance by being both a poor speller and pedantic.

Edited October 2, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Blandford1969]

Most of the spelling and grammar ‘pointing out’ that I’ve seen on here comes into the bracket of banter, picking-up on the humour created by the mistake ........ and we all make such mistakes, especially when autocorrect and insane grammar software ‘helps’.

 

Maybe some pedantic, small-minded stuff happens, but some people are pedantic and small-minded, so it always will. It sometimes helps to ‘call’ such people, but sometimes they find it just as hard to resist the compulsion to pedantry as some do to spell correctly,

Sadly i have had at least one making assumptions about where I lived based on my user name and saying bluntly you should know how something was spelled. Like many i cannot see either my spelling or grammar errors unless it is left for at least a day, a bit difficult on a forum. Most though are understanding.

[jcm@gwr]

Both my sisters were 'diagnosed' with dyslexia in the early '60's, by my mother, 

who was a teacher, and didn't like being told the reason for their lack of progress 

in class, was 'bad parenting'!

 

The ages of my sisters, at that time, was 10 and 12. The older of my 2 sisters still

gets flustered and embarrassed if she makes a mistake during a conversation.

The younger has always coped better, probably due to the ages they were when

diagnosed.

They are now both in their 50's, and I can still reduce my younger sister to tears,

(of laughter!) by ribbing her about what she just got wrong

.

Classic example, when trying to let me know where we (the crowd of friends)

were going for a drink one night, she couldn't remember the name of the pub,

but knew it was rude if she got it wrong. "that'll be 'The Fallow Buck' then!'

 

I will only correct people (grammar/spelling/punctuation/etc) when I know them

well, and they will know it was meant to be helpful not critical.

[Reorte]

Ah! Google, yes it does a pretty good job. Sometimes though a mis-spelling or a case of finger trouble produces results about a world that you never knew existed

I sometimes wonder what Google thinks I could've meant. Quite often I've typed in an entirely innocent word or phrase only to be told "explicit results have been filtered"!

[GeoffAlan]

The spall chicken can get it wrong, and if you think spelling, grammar and appropriate capitals are bad in a post here, you should try one of the Facebook  tropical fish groups I'm on.

I am not the world's best speller, and my 'grammar' was learned by reading and listening, not by rote. But some of the posts on that group are streamofconshonsnes inn akure ate lee spelled none sens.

[chris p bacon]

Putting another side to to this.

 

I attend a regular meeting where one of the attendees has difficulty with spelling & grammar,  another attendee is on the Autistic spectrum and because what he reads or hears isn't correct he has to correct him. It annoys the hell out of each of them but that is how they're wired.  

 

Personally I subscribe to the Eric Morecombe teaching method.....all the right letters, not neccarsarily in the right order... but I have to say that there is a thread on here that I get cheesed off with, it has some good modelling but I get fed up with posters grammar being constantly corrected. 

[JJGraphics]

Many people cannot see their own spelling or gramatical errors, despite having a clear knowledge of both. Years of experience in the printing and graphics industry has confirmed this to me time and time again. Having served my compositor’s apprenticeship many years ago in a small but very professional print shop, I had it drummed into me that you NEVER proofread your own typesetting.

 

As other people have posted, this is a forum for modellers so unless something is significantly misleading in terms of spelling or grammar, when perhaps a polite PM to the original poster suggesting a correction would not go amiss, let it go and get on with modelling.

 

John

[melmerby]

Be careful, any number above 127 in ASCII has been superseded by Unicode in many places, so you might not get the character you're looking for.

So was quoting Windows character map incorrect then?

 

 

Keith

[dhjgreen]

So was quoting Windows character map incorrect then?

 

Character map.JPG

 

Keith

You don't use Times New Roman font do you 

[Colin_McLeod]

Dyslexia is one explanation for incorrect words in a post. So is auto correct. So is a typo.

 

So is lack of education.

 

It's hard to know which when looking at a single post in isolation but looking at several posts from the same poster can be a clue.

[robert17649]

I'm pretty anal about my own spelling, barring the occasional typo, and I do try to disable any spell checker on any devices I use.

 

However, to criticise others over poor spelling is, at best, impolite.

It's often also an indicator of a lost argument.

 

Grammar is an interesting subject, personally I don't study grammatical rules but if it looks all right on a page, then I'm happy with that.

I'll bet I've made at least a couple of grammatical errors within this post, does it really matter?

No.

Lord Denning was alleged to have once said that any statement should make perfect sense without any punctuation.

 

wot u sed makes perfect sens.

[melmerby]

You don't use Times New Roman font do you 

That was picked at random to illustrate that Windows character map shows the Unicode value and a keyboard shortcut for the selected character.

I suggested that you should look at the Windows character map and there is quite often a keyboard shortcut. What was wrong with that?.

 

Keith

[Clive Mortimore]

Dyslexia is one explanation for incorrect words in a post. So is auto correct. So is a typo.

 

So is lack of education.

 

It's hard to know which when looking at a single post in isolation but looking at several posts from the same poster can be a clue.

Hi Colin

 

Irrespective of why a word is spelt wrong a friendly PM is better than showing someone up in open forum.

 

I have dyslexia, it not only causes me to spell things wrong, it also means when confronted with a new word I often do not know how to pronounce it.

 

Auto-correct has been suggest in the past, but if you cannot spell the word how do you know if it is the right word.

 

We are all capable of pressing a wrong key when typing.

 

As my written English is quite poor I have been labeled as thick, stupid and uneducated more than once in my life. 45 years after leaving school I can still do quadratic equations, but never have had to except helping those who found them hard to do.  I can get myself to and from most major towns in England without a map, I liked geography. I have a liking of history and an understanding why past events mould our lives. But because I cannot spell I am uneducated.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Clive Mortimore

[Reorte]

As my written English is quite poor I have been labeled as thick, stupid and uneducated more than once in my life.

To be honest I hadn't noticed (I hope this doesn't sound patronising), and I do get annoyed by really poor writing, at least if I suspect that the writer simply can't be bothered. Perhaps it would be more obvious if you were writing a formal technical document but for the informal nature of an internet forum nothing stands out. Looking back at your whole post I have spotted an error - apologies for doing so, but it makes a handy on-topic example, but it just looks like the sort of typo everyone makes anyway and it would be daft in the extreme to expect every forum post to be proof-read.

[ikks]

Hi Colin

 

Irrespective of why a word is spelt wrong a friendly PM is better than showing someone up in open forum.

 

I have dyslexia, it not only causes me to spell things wrong, it also means when confronted with a new word I often do not know how to pronounce it.

 

Auto-correct has been suggest in the past, but if you cannot spell the word how do you know if it is the right word.

 

We are all capable of press a wrong key when typing.

 

As my written English is quite poor I have been labeled as thick, stupid and uneducated more than once in my life. 45 years after leaving school I can still do quadratic equations, but never have had to except helping those who found them hard to do.  I can get myself to and from most major towns in England without a map, I liked geography. I have a liking of history and an understanding why past events mould or lives. But because I cannot spell I am uneducated.

 

Hi Colin

 

Irrespective of why a word is spelt wrong a friendly PM is better than showing someone up in open forum.

 

I have dyslexia, it not only causes me to spell things wrong, it also means when confronted with a new word I often do not know how to pronounce it.

 

Auto-correct has been suggest in the past, but if you cannot spell the word how do you know if it is the right word.

 

We are all capable of press a wrong key when typing.

 

As my written English is quite poor I have been labeled as thick, stupid and uneducated more than once in my life. 45 years after leaving school I can still do quadratic equations, but never have had to except helping those who found them hard to do.  I can get myself to and from most major towns in England without a map, I liked geography. I have a liking of history and an understanding why past events mould or lives. But because I cannot spell I am uneducated.

 

 

 

Nonsense Clive, I have followed your posts on many threads, no problems for me to know what your'e saying and as in many replies here, people obviously know what you mean......spelling/grammar or whatever bullsh*t the pedants wish to purvey(and aren't they generally the same ones!!) doesn't really matter as long as the post carries the meaning/message you want it to and yours are readily understood.

 

Rgds........Mike

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by ikks