Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hpda!fortune!amd70!decwrl!daemon From: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Cacology Message-ID: <4663@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Tue, 20-Dec-83 10:53:14 EST Article-I.D.: decwrl.4663 Posted: Tue Dec 20 10:53:14 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Dec-83 11:16:57 EST Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Los Altos, CA Lines: 70 From: Lisa Chabot Contents: 69 lines, the counting of meaningful points is left to the reader. Yeah! A truly trivial discussion! Flaming fun for everyone! Don't the rest of you have this problem with you're typing--look, right there, a prime example. I know the difference between "your" and "you're". At least, my brain claims to know the difference. I'm cooking along, composing this scintillating sentence, and my brain says "Uh, next word, ah, yes, I want a possessive pronoun, second-person, uh 'YOUR'! Hey, fingers! Next word is 'your'!" Fingers say, to themselves, "Ok, great, 'Y', 'O', 'U', now stick that right little finger out --''', (and once I've hit that key, I'm committed to continue) 'R', 'E'... What's next, brain?" I was taught touch-typing, so I know it's a Sin to watch what you're typing (actually, it is only a waste of time, and then only if you're transcribing). But even if I do, I don't always catch "your"-"you're" or "its"-"it's" problems, just like spell programs. Those of you who have learned touch-typing or to play a musical instrument know there are certain patterns that you were drilled on, and certain sequences that occur frequently, so that inadvertantly a mispelled word will pop out because your fingers think it feels right to follow that "E" with an "R" (or "F#"), so you end up with "there" instead of "their", and "grammer" instead of "grammar". Alot of the mistakes we see are simply that--mistakes. They demonstrate ignorance of correct spelling and grammar no more than (we hope) do typographical errors in the NYTimes. Why aren't all these mistakes tracked down and corrected? Because they aren't seen. I didn't catch it the first time, because I thought I saw the correct word. So on my editting pass, I know what word is supposed to be there, "your", just like I knew what word I wanted to write, and I think I see the correct word there again. Maybe I only really read the first two letters, and my brain filled in the rest. It's like the blind spots on your retinas--they sort of get filled in by something appropriate. Other mistakes indicate to me an ignorance of or carelessness towards to what I consider proper grammar. Sometimes I raise my eyebrows in a superior way, saying "Tut, tut, some poor gnurd just hasn't learned to spell." Sometimes my reaction is "Wow, this character is so excited about the topic all punctuation has been dropped in the interests of speed." I used to be a fan of Archie the Cockroach. He could never manage shifted keys (think about it--a cockroach on a manual typewriter), but his output was quality. Unfortunately, few of us possess such wit (although many of us believe we do). Therefore, few of us can offer genius to the reader in return for the struggle of parsing our meanderings. Many dictionaries are inadequate for helping those in doubt. This one I have next to my terminal cannot quell all my doubts about the number of "t"s appropriate to "inhabiting", although it bears the banner "Office Edition". Besides, if the boss walks by and sees me consulting a dictionary, he can safely guess I'm not debugging a program. As is demonstrated over and over again, it makes little sense to criticize others for their spelling and grammar mistakes, since the demons inhabiting the keyboards have a especial fondness for insuring that similar mistakes will be found by others in our letters of criticism. But I don't ask anyone to stop for that reason, because there are some of us who enjoy giggling about this. More importantly, if you want to flame because someone's letter has enraged you, nit-picking about spelling and such detracts from your creditability. Nit-picking, name-calling,... if you really have a point to make, make it! Inspire us with your originality! Don't expend your energies on things worth neither your time to type them nor ours to read them! This is net.flame, not net.decay. Trust ye only in the O.E.D, :-) Lisa S. Chabot UUCP: ...{ decvax | allegra | ucbvax }!decwrl!rhea!amber!chabot ARPA: ...decwrl!rhea!amber!chabot@{ Berkeley | SU-Shasta } DEC, MR03-1/K20, 2 Iron Way, Marlboro, MA 01752 (less frequently ...mit-vax!lisa)