We want a teacher

[ICantSpellDawg]

I was reading something that I wrote and thought - Hey, maybe if we had a poster or two who enjoyed correcting writing and grammar, they could go over some of the longer or better posts and highlight incorrect usage?

It would help all of us write more convincingly on the forums, sure, but it would also aid us in our actual lives.

I'm a big enough nerd to sit around and memorize international capitals and facts - I'm sure that there are a few master grammar nerds out there who might get a kick out of sharpening their claws on us, eh?

[Prince Cobra]

I was reading something that I wrote and thought - Hey, maybe if we had a poster or two who enjoyed correcting writing and grammar, they could go over some of the longer or better posts and highlight incorrect usage?

It would help all of us write more convincingly on the forums, sure, but it would also aid us in our actual lives.

I'm a big enough nerd to sit around and memorize international capitals and facts - I'm sure that there are a few master grammar nerds out there who might get a kick out of sharpening their claws on us, eh?

I was also thinking of grammar section in the Mead Hall. The Problem is: who is ready to handle it.

[ICantSpellDawg]

I was also thinking of grammar section in the Mead Hall. The Problem is: who is ready to handle it.

I don't know. Who is ready to tackle the major geopolitical questions of our generation? Oh, that's right - nerds like us.

[LittleGrizzly]

As a university student i need significant help with my puncuation and spelling (something about incoherently written thoughts springs to mind as well) quite a few times on this board people have assumed english is not my first langauge....

So feel free to nitpick my grammar and spelling at all times... i shall consider it a personal favour!

Edit: who would have thought it possible... grammar has no e in it...

Edit 2: leave my overuse of full stops alone though, i think its makes me more sexually attractive to the opposite gender and thus is essential!

[yesdachi]

Personally I don’t mind poor grammar or spelling on the boards. I figure with all the different first and second languages here who needs to be all that specific. As long as the spirit of the post comes thru, who needs punctuation, grammar or spelling? :beam:

[ICantSpellDawg]

Personally I don’t mind poor grammar or spelling on the boards. I figure with all the different first and second languages here who needs to be all that specific. As long as the spirit of the post comes thru, who needs punctuation, grammar or spelling? :beam:

I don't mind the usage either, but somebody might enjoy correcting it and we will all write better because of it.

I'm sure that a few people might enjoy having a special title on the boards that allows them to provide a service that they might otherwise like to do anyway.

Anyone aspiring to be a teacher might hone their skill on their off time with no pressure.

[yesdachi]

I don't mind the usage either, but somebody might enjoy correcting it and we will all write better because of it.

I'm sure that a few people might enjoy having a special title on the boards that allows them to provide a service that they might otherwise like to do anyway.

Anyone aspiring to be a teacher might hone their skill on their off time with no pressure.

For that purpose, knock your selves out aspiring teachers!
Perhaps I will start writing worser to help you practice.

[Louis VI the Fat]

I was reading something that I wrote and thought - Hey, maybe if we had a poster or two who enjoyed correcting writing and grammar, they could go over some of the longer or better posts and highlight incorrect usage?sure, il'l help a lending hand if some of you struggling width writing coherent sentenses or forming you're grammer. :2thumbsup:

[ajaxfetish]

I don't much mind ungrammatical posts, but if you really want someone to go over some, I'm willing.

I just finished up my BA (in history) and have been working at my college writing center for 3 years. I'm currently applying to linguistics graduate programs. Grammar has long been a passion of mine (not so much in the grammar-nazi sense, but more in the desire to understand the underlying workings of the English language), and it's a pleasure for me to work with words.

Ajax

[Sasaki Kojiro]

All of my speling mistakes are intentional.

[Strike For The South]

I'm no nerd

I fight bears for Christ's sake

[Rhyfelwyr]

I don't mind how accurate the grammar is in a post, so long as it's intelligible. It would be a bit boring if we all wrote absolutedly perfectly.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Sounds like you lads need Evelyn Woodhead... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRXJUI4n82M) ~;)

[Yoyoma1910]

Proper grammar is a tool of imperialist pigs!!!!!


I shall never surrender my right to write poorly!

Never!


Is that what my ancestors fought for in the American revolution? So that one day we would have to write proper English? No, they fought to move the British as far away from us as possible. So that we would never have to write proper English.

And then what happened? An Emperor born of Corsican blood sold us off like an old sweater to the thrift store that is the United States.

Never!






Unless of course someone can help me with Chicago Style... so I can do well on this dang 15 page term paper. I'm really only familiar with MLA.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

As a university student i need significant help with my puncuation and spelling (something about incoherently written thoughts springs to mind as well) quite a few times on this board people have assumed english is not my first langauge....

With you they assume it's not, but since I'm an American they're sure mine isn't.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Unless of course someone can help me with Chicago Style... so I can do well on this dang 15 page term paper. I'm really only familiar with MLA.

See if this works for you: http://citationmachine.net/

[CountArach]

I was also thinking of grammar section in the Mead Hall. The Problem is: who is ready to handle it.
You forgot to put a question mark at the end of your sentence.

[Husar]

I can point out those I notice, and sometimes there are many, but I cannot guarantee for anything as it's my second language only, I'll take corrections if anyone knows better.

You better look twice whether you have to put apostrophes or not from now on. :whip:

[ICantSpellDawg]

Can some big-whig appoint a few official "Grammar Correctors"?

Give them editing rights or a small forum where they can take posts that they are impressed by and make them professional looking. It might be fun to have an area of well thought out and well written gems of the ORG chosen by judges.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Tuff, this kind of suggestion would be best made in the Watchtower for wider consideration. It strikes me that such a forum would fit in well to the Mead Hall.

In fact, you might want to post some material for correction in the Mead Hall and ask its learned patrons for support and help. If it proves popular, a sub-forum might naturally grow out of the exercise.

[pevergreen]

I'd love to. But then again, sometimes it is out of laziness/slang/intentional for humour.

Then again, you'd have multiple people correcting local use of language. Grey and gray and so forth.

[Fragony]

Being too picky on grammar isn't very fair towards us non-english speakers, a grammar-nazi is a bad idea imho. It is bound to become a running joke, scaring away fresh blood.

edit, scaring of <-see?

[LittleGrizzly]

Excellent grammar by the way fragony, i was desperatly seeking a mistake to jump on!

In the right places i think it could be good, obviously the person shouldn't be jumping every non-english speaker everytime they make a mistake. For others, like me, who want to improve thier grammar for various reasons it could be good.

^ That all looks right to me, grammar wise.

[Husar]

Being too picky on grammar isn't very fair towards us non-english speakers, a grammar-nazi is a bad idea imho. It is bound to become a running joke, scaring away fresh blood.

edit, scaring of <-see?

What i always wanted to tell you mia muca, to the point of almost writing a PM because it kills my heart...

It is than in a comparison, not then, then is chonological!!!

Thanks, I feel better now. ~;)

[Fragony]

What i always wanted to tell you mia muca, to the point of almost writing a PM because it kills my heart...

It is than in a comparison, not then, then is chonological!!!

Thanks, I feel better now. ~;)

Still haven't mastered dutch, which is impossible anyway, but nobody ever managed to teach me the difference between 'beter als/dan' (better then/ohmy). Language is complicated, english is really compact and logical compared to german and french and most of all dutch. But I will never be able to just write down a word such as 'dungeon'. I got it right in 3 attempts in this post.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Excellent grammar by the way fragony, i was desperatly seeking a mistake to jump on!Personal names are capitalized: 'Fragony'.
'i' is always capitalized: 'I'.
'desperatly' is correctly spelled as 'desperately'.

Your syntax leaves a lot to be desired as well.


Being too picky on grammar isn't very fair towards us non-english speakers, a grammar-nazi is a bad idea imho. It is bound to become a running joke, scaring away fresh blood.

edit, scaring of <-see?
Mind your capitalization: 'non-English', 'Nazi'.
'New blood' is the standard phrase.
'imho' has no place outside of a text message.
One is picky 'about' something, not 'on' something.

'isn't very fair' is a typical Euro-English construction. More natural is 'unfair'.



It is than in a comparison, not then, then is chonological!!!'Chonological' misses an 'r'. More importantly, your construction is so crude as to render the sentence almost incomprehensible. A more natural English construction would be: ''Than' is a conjunction used in comparisons. 'Then' is an adverb pertaining to time'.




*runs :eeeek:*

[InsaneApache]

I vote Louis, I do. Now he will learn us all to type proper, like what I do. So lets boldy go where no one has gone before.

[Fragony]

POne is picky 'about' something, not 'on' something.


May the rats eat your eyes

[Louis VI the Fat]

May the rats eat your eyes:no:


English sentences are always ended with a full stop. A full stop consists of a small dot placed at the end of a line of text, such as at the end of this sentence.

:book:

[Hosakawa Tito]

I vote Louis, I do. Now he will learn us all to type proper, like what I do. So lets boldy go where no one has gone before.

Now all he needs is a virtual ruler to rap offender's knuckles with. Those Catholic school nuns knew a thing or two about focusing young minds on their lessons.:smash:

[KukriKhan]

My inner Grammar-nazi tolerates almost all spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, with one screaming exception: 'of' in place of 'have'.

'Should have' becomes, when spoken: 'Should've', which sounds like 'should-uv', which morphs to 'should of', which makes no sense when written.

I blame it on that pesky 'have' word. Supposedly constructed to indicate possession, it gets abused when it's used more esoterically with verbs and modifiers.

Please: 'Should have' or 'Should've' = OK.
'Should of' = not OK. Ever.

[Husar]

Personal names are capitalized: 'Fragony'.
'i' is always capitalized: 'I'.
If there is one thing that always happens to me when typing, it's that I let loose of the 'Shift'-key before pressing the actual letter or other key for the desired sign/letter. I've been aware of that for years but I grew a bit tired of correcting it all the time and my mechanical failure has hardly faded, I blame my arms. but otherwise you can usually just imagine a capital letter where one belongs, if there is none, it's usually a purely mechanical failure in my typing process or I just didn't know when exactly adjectives are capitalised and when they are not. :sweatdrop:


'imho' has no place outside of a text message.
This is a text message, or do you have someone read it to you? ~;)
I would, however, spell it in capital letters, 'IMHO', to make clear that it is an abbreviation.


'Chonological' misses an 'r'. More importantly, your construction is so crude as to render the sentence almost incomprehensible. A more natural English construction would be: ''Than' is a conjunction used in comparisons. 'Then' is an adverb pertaining to time'.
You are correct about the missing 'r', I am somewhat ashamed of myself now.
You missed the non-capitalised 'i' in my post, not being aware of my first paragraph in this here post, you should have noted and corrected it, or maybe you thought doing that for Gizzly's post was enough?
What you find more natural is purely your own opinion, clearly Fragony and I have a different opinion about that and understand eachother perfectly. :sweatdrop:


*runs :eeeek:*
They say that's what the French can do best. ~;p

[Sarmatian]

They say that's what the French can do best. ~;p

Ouch! This has got to hurt. I mean, even I felt it :smash:

[ICantSpellDawg]

Tuff, this kind of suggestion would be best made in the Watchtower for wider consideration. It strikes me that such a forum would fit in well to the Mead Hall.

In fact, you might want to post some material for correction in the Mead Hall and ask its learned patrons for support and help. If it proves popular, a sub-forum might naturally grow out of the exercise.


I agree, but to be honest I have visited the suggestions portion of this site maybe 3 times. I figured that we might have a better shot getting people pumped or interested in the backroom and then moving the thread to the Suggestion forum.

[yesdachi]

Related side note: A northern woodcutter once told me “The Elements of Style” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style) was a great book to read if you want to learn grammar and such. I read it and it really is a great book, mandatory for anyone that wants to write much. :2thumbsup:

[ajaxfetish]

Personal names are capitalized: 'Fragony'.
'i' is always capitalized: 'I'.
'desperatly' is correctly spelled as 'desperately'.

Your syntax leaves a lot to be desired as well.


Mind your capitalization: 'non-English', 'Nazi'.
'New blood' is the standard phrase.
'imho' has no place outside of a text message.
One is picky 'about' something, not 'on' something.

'isn't very fair' is a typical Euro-English construction. More natural is 'unfair'.


'Chonological' misses an 'r'. More importantly, your construction is so crude as to render the sentence almost incomprehensible. A more natural English construction would be: ''Than' is a conjunction used in comparisons. 'Then' is an adverb pertaining to time'.




*runs :eeeek:*

Don't forget to point out all the comma splices!!

Being too picky on grammar isn't very fair towards us non-english speakers ---> , <--- a grammar-nazi is a bad idea imho.

Excellent grammar by the way fragony ---> , <--- i was desperatly seeking a mistake to jump on!

In the right places i think it could be good ---> , <--- obviously the person shouldn't be jumping every non-english speaker everytime they make a mistake.

It is than in a comparison, not then ---> , <--- then is chonological!!!

Language is complicated ---> , <--- english is really compact and logical compared to german and french and most of all dutch.

Also, Louis, be sure you remember that quotation marks should be placed after final punctuation, unless the punctuation must be identified as part of the quoted material, a situation usually relevant only to question marks and exclamation points.

'Chonological' misses an 'r'. <--- More importantly, your construction is so crude as to render the sentence almost incomprehensible. A more natural English construction would be: ''Than' is a conjunction used in comparisons. 'Then' is an adverb pertaining to time'. <---

And Tuff, if this were to work there are two things that I think would be necessary. First, all material should be submitted for editing voluntarily by its author. Otherwise, the entire project would be, well, mean. Second, I think it would be silly if the posts to be edited were created specifically for the purpose of being in an editing thread. They should be posts from other threads that the author then chooses to copy to the editing thread to see what comes of it.

Ajax

[ICantSpellDawg]

And Tuff, if this were to work there are two things that I think would be necessary. First, all material should be submitted for editing voluntarily by its author. Otherwise, the entire project would be, well, mean. Second, I think it would be silly if the posts to be edited were created specifically for the purpose of being in an editing thread. They should be posts from other threads that the author then chooses to copy to the editing thread to see what comes of it.

Ajax

I think we can counter the "mean" issue if the posts chosen are the best or most interesting around. If someone wants to feel humiliated because people are pointing out that their post is one of the best around...

Besides - If the usage guru's are being sent articles, they run the risk of being swamped or doing someones homework.

Make it something where posts are selected based on merit; on an schedule and at a rate that those correcting the posts are comfortable with and can enjoy.

This is the perfect opportunity for aspiring editors, teachers, overly critical jerks, etc to cut their teeth on some interesting writing by some talented, bright and interesting people - irrespective of the topic.

[Lord Winter]

It dosn't neccarilly need a set leader you could just a thread apointed to the purpose then anyone with knowlege could edit it at their leasiure.

[Yoyoma1910]

It dosn't neccarilly need a set leader you could just a thread apointed to the purpose then anyone with knowlege could edit it at their leasiure.

It doesn't necessarily need a set leader. You could just [have] a thread appointed to the purpose, then anyone with knowledge could edit it at their leisure.


(Edit: Specify what it is, currently this clause is a bit ambiguous.)

[HoreTore]

I was reading something that I wrote and thought - Hey, maybe if we had a poster or two who enjoyed correcting writing and grammar, they could go over some of the longer or better posts and highlight incorrect usage?

It would help all of us write more convincingly on the forums, sure, but it would also aid us in our actual lives.

I'm a big enough nerd to sit around and memorize international capitals and facts - I'm sure that there are a few master grammar nerds out there who might get a kick out of sharpening their claws on us, eh?

Seconded. Especially for us non-english users.

I try to improve my english all the time, but at the end of the day, I really have no idea whether it's actually getting better, and if my "improvements" are actually improvements.

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish; is it any good?

(oh, and Louis, don't mind my non-capitalization of nationalities, like "english" or "polish", I keep that lower-case by choice, see it as my own personal hate-campaign against the english language :laugh4:

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Seconded. Especially for us non-english users.

I try to improve my english all the time, but at the end of the day, I really have no idea whether it's actually getting better, and if my "improvements" are actually improvements.

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish; is it any good?

(oh, and Louis, don't mind my non-capitalization of nationalities, like "english" or "polish", I keep that lower-case by choice, see it as my own personal hate-campaign against the english language :laugh4:

It's readably, grammatically at least.

Grammar is not actually something which is set in stone. To begin with, everyone has their own internal grammar, and, further, grammatical use is an element of style.

[CountArach]

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish; is it any good?
Please say that again, slower this time.

:wink:

[Fragony]

Seems fine to me. I like to think that my english is pretty good, but it is another language and you are bound to make silly mistakes. There is a world of difference between 'speaking' english and being able to put it down properly. I often noticed that I speak dutch with english words.

[ICantSpellDawg]

Seconded. Especially for us non-english users.

I try to improve my english all the time, but at the end of the day, I really have no idea whether it's actually getting better, and if my "improvements" are actually improvements.

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish; is it any good?

(oh, and Louis, don't mind my non-capitalization of nationalities, like "english" or "polish", I keep that lower-case by choice, see it as my own personal hate-campaign against the english language :laugh4:

Sure. I wouldn't normally have any idea that English isn't your native language.

[ajaxfetish]

Seconded. Especially for us non-english users.

I try to improve my english all the time, but at the end of the day, I really have no idea whether it's actually getting better, and if my "improvements" are actually improvements.

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish; is it any good?
Your English/english is very good, HoreTore. The only suggestion I have for this post is not a correction, but rather a potential improvement. The semi-colon in the last sentence is acceptable, but it would be a bit classier to use a full colon, especially since it's a chronically underused or misused punctuation mark.

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish: is it any good?

Ajax

[Lord Winter]

It doesn't necessarily need a set leader. You could just [have] a thread appointed to the purpose, then anyone with knowledge could edit it at their leisure.


(Edit: Specify what it is, currently this clause is a bit ambiguous.)

Didn't read through it, sir, sorry sir I will try to improve sir. :whip:

[TevashSzat]

Seconded. Especially for us non-english users.

I try to improve my english all the time, but at the end of the day, I really have no idea whether it's actually getting better, and if my "improvements" are actually improvements.

Speaking of which, I have a question to all of you who read my gibberish; is it any good?

(oh, and Louis, don't mind my non-capitalization of nationalities, like "english" or "polish", I keep that lower-case by choice, see it as my own personal hate-campaign against the english language :laugh4:

Your english is great. Seriously, if my chinese(may native language too) writing was half as good as your english writing, I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, but it isn't, so......

I have a feeling that my grammar/syntax at times is really atrocious. I've often found that I have poor thought organization and just seem to ramble on or start writing redundant things too. My spelling is spotty at times too (see? feels bit repetetive already)

[Yoyoma1910]

Didn't read through it, sir, sorry sir I will try to improve sir. :whip:

Ein, Zwei, Ein, Zwei!!!! Schneller! Schneller, mein kleiner Student. Dieser Stiefel wird sich nicht polieren.

[Husar]

Ein, Zwei, Ein, Zwei!!!! Schneller! Schneller, mein kleiner Student. Dieser Stiefel wird sich nicht polieren.

It's 'Eins' and I would rather say 'Dieser Stiefel wird sich nicht selber polieren.' but otherwise that was very good.