We want a teacher

[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.

'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.

*runs *

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

[Sarmatian]

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

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

[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” 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.

[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 *

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

[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

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.

[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

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.

[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

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.

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.