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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!ihlpf!gifford
From: gifford@ihlpf.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: "Re: In Defense of Grammar and Spelling - (nf)"
Message-ID: <277@ihlpf.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Jul-84 03:00:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpf.277
Posted: Mon Jul  2 03:00:36 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Jul-84 02:22:32 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 56

#R:decwrl:-214200:ihlpf:17600014:000:2965
ihlpf!ctb    Jul  2 00:15:00 1984

.

when i first finished reading your letter(lecture) on grammar etc.
i thought of that great quote from blazing saddles...' you use your
tounge pretty'er than a $20 whore!'  actually, that was a pretty
good piece.   i wanted to expand on your discussion of replying to
someones mistakes.  i HATE people on the net who jump all over somebodys
case for a typing/spelling boo-boo.  take me for instance: i 
don't use the 'shift' key a whole hell of a lot.  call it lazy,
call it e.e.cummings, call it i just don't do it!  but MY GOD, from
some of the letters i get you'd think it was against a few religions to not
use caps in a letter.  

the point i'd like to make is that no one likes to see someone come
on the net with a big "LOOK AT THAT SPELLING" because a person has
misspelled a word someplace.  this recently happened to me
over in net.jokes.d.  i used the word moniter instead of monitor, so
some jerk had to fly back with a letter devoted entirely to that single
typo.  give me a BREAK!  he could have sent the letter to ME (no one
else seemed to care about the typo) and then i could have written him
back personally telling him to go jump in a lake.  why make such a big
deal about a simple typo?  if i really thought the spelling was that
important i would have looked the letter over, maybe ran it through a
'spell' of some sort.  why generate all that data on HUNDREDS
of machines, just to tell the world 'hey, *I* know how to spell 'monitor',
unlike that dummy ron!!'  god, i bet his/her parents are PROUD.

while your letter on good grammar/sentence structure/spelling etc. 
has the best of intentions, you may be going to far for this medium of
communication.  i mean, even in your plea for better letters, you had
a few typos yourself.  did you follow all of your recomendations about
asking other people if you're unsure etc. etc.??  guess not,  unless
no one you know can spell grammar(and a few other words).  how can we follow 
your good advice (and it WAS good) if you don't follow it yourself?
NO, i'm not picking on your spelling. i've already said i hate the people 
who think they're helping me by showing me (and everyone else on the net,
as if they care the littlest bit) how to spell words i ALREADY KNOW 
how to spell.(do ya' hear me, dartvax!rccall??)  
i just want to point out that in letters in which the author was probably 
being careful about things like spelling, the boo-boo's can slip in.  i'm 
a human plugging away on crappy teletype-5420 keyboard.  i went through 
the american public school system, where english classes were as big a 
joke as all the other classes.  were ALL victims of bad keyboards, a
slumping school system, plain ol' goofs, *something*, etc. Etc. ETC..  i say 
lighten up on the subject.  don't throw the dictionary out the window, 
but don't throw it at ME!


	sinserely :-),
	ron		(replies not concearning spelling to:  ihnp4!ihdev!rjv )


ps:  i really liked that last line.  kinda' catchy....