[Improve content] Word abbreviations

is it that you simply can't wrap your heads around differences in
poster's styles of expression or that, yours is the only way that
is right regarding anything at all? 

No, it’s that such “rambling stream of consciousness style” tomes
are just too difficult to read. When you get what is essentially one
long, page-length paragraph which is a string of sentences where you
can’t tell where one sentence ends and the next one begins, it’s
just a real struggle to make sense of what the writer is even trying
to say.

Putting a full stop at the end of a sentence, inserting a space,
capitalizing the first word of the next sentence and pressing the
return key twice for a paragraph break takes no extra (or not a
significant amount of extra) time when writing a post, but it makes
all the difference when it comes to ease of reading.

Even my dyslexic daughter uses correct formatting of paragraphs and
sentence construction, and she finds writing English difficult. She
would, however, find it impossible to read the badly formatted posts
that often appear on Orchid, as would those for whom English is a
second language.

Orchid is a wonderful forum and yes it is full of freely-given
but that doesn’t mean that we should be lazy in our
English when responding to people’s queries or offering advice.

Helen Hill
UK
http://www.hillsgems.co.uk
http://helensgems.ganoksin.com/blogs/

People rely on "spell check" to make sure that the words are
spelled correctly. 

Au contraire. I hate spell check, a) for the reason you state, and
b) because for me it is lazy (personally). Whether I’m writing a
post, a personal email, an essay, a dissertation, etc - I always
check my work by reading it through thoroughly afterwards. Spelling
mistakes fortunately jump out of the page at me, so I don’t need to
use spell check. I have used it in the past and found that I’ve sent
out work with the odd typo as a result, so I won’t use it anymore.

In a similar vein, may all that is holy to you help the youth of
the world when their computers and or calculators break 

Goodness me, they’ll actually have to put pen to paper! Sacre bleu,
how will they cope?!

Helen
UK

If anyone out there in Orchid Land plays competitive Scrabble, they
will know that the USA uses a different ‘Scrabble dictionary’ from
that used by England, Australia and New Zealand - and many words
’allowed’ by the one dictionary are NOT allowed by the other. I’m
rather interested in etymology - or where words come from - and
English has, without a doubt, adopted, stolen, borrowed or otherwise
brought into common use, words from every country with which England
and English speaking peoples have come into contact - not
forgetting, of course, the ‘classical’ languages of ancient Latin and
Greek.

There are, for instance, over 25,000 words directly taken from the
Dutch, and most of them relate to the sea or seafaring. Our days of
the week come from the Vikings.

The language continues to evolve and change, which overall is a good
thing, because lack of change becomes stagnation. Not that I’m fond
of current abbreviations or keyboard shorthand, but I suspect that
many acronyms and abbreviations from yesteryear have long become
fully accepted as words in their own right - one that springs to mind
is the quango, or quasi autonomous government organisation! :slight_smile:

The true sadness is that our use of grammar is becoming increasingly
sloppy, and few youngsters today even know what the words ‘parse’,
‘syntax’ and paraphrase mean!

Ah well, that’s my rant. Nothing to do with jewellery (English
spelling, of course), but fun just the same. Anyone for Scrabble?

Jane Walker

Here’s a good example of the usefulness of punctuation. Make sense
of the following sentence, if you can.

Smith where Jones had had had had had had had had had had had the
examiners approval

Give up?

Here it is with punctuation.

Smith, where Jones had had ‘had’, had had ‘had had’; ‘had had’ had
had the examiners approval.

Regards, Gary Wooding

I wrote a long response to this, and then deleted it. I decided that
what I think is important, is that the point of this forum is to
share ideas. We are sharing both with native English speakers and
non- native English speakers. Anything any of us can do in writing
our posts to make our ideas easier to comprehend by both groups is
to be commended, just as anything that makes it more difficult for
our ideas to be understand should, I would have thought, be something
we personally would wish to improve.

If others can’t understand my ideas because of the way I write them,
then I’m not being successful in my efforts, am I?

I would think that as much as the run-on sentences and long text
blocks cause trouble to native English speakers, they must be much
more difficult for non-Native English speakers to decipher. Thus the
poster is, in fact, defeating their own purpose in posting by doing
this.

That said, I would much rather have you post at all, than not to
post at all! I do read the long posts when the topic is one I’m
interested in, and the poster is one I know from previous posts to
have knowledge that makes it worth my trouble to wade through the
verbiage to try and retrieve. If I’m busy or uninterested, I just
delete. No biggie.

Being certified in working with people with disabilities, including
learning disabilities, I realize that not everyone can write at a
level that even comes close to their level of intelligence or
knowledge, and I make allowances for that. I would hope that others
would also.

Those who post to this list who have English as a second language
have my sincere admiration - there is no way I could participate in
this list if it was a second language for me! That you post at all is
a triumph in my book, and I appreciate getting ideas and views from
those different perspectives. Please don’t let this topic put you
off posting!!

Thanks to all for the continued sharing of knowledge and ideas.
Orchid rocks.

Beth Wicker in SC where you may understand my writing, but might
have trouble with my Southern accent [grin]!

Three Cats and a Dog Design Studio

http://bethwicker.ganoksin.com/blogs/

Greetings all:

English has, without a doubt, adopted, stolen, borrowed or
otherwise brought into common use, words from every country with
which England and English speaking peoples have come into contact -
not forgetting, of course, the 'classical' languages of ancient
Latin and Greek. 

There’s an old joke about English:

“Some languages borrow words. English knocks languages down and mugs
them.”

I’ve heard it said that English has more adverbs and adjectives than
most other languages have words. I don’t know that to be true, but
the size of the “reduced” OED on my desk would tend to bear it out.
(It’s printed quarter size, four pages per leaf of onionskin, and
comes with a magnifying glass.) It’s still a foot thick.

Yeah, I really do have a copy of the OED, on the desk. In my own
defense, it was a gift. Really…

(Of course, it was a gift from a friend who’d just decided to go out
and get a full-on, full-scale copy of the OED. All those volumes,
stacked on their sides on the floor, are taller than his 10 year
old.)

Regards,
Brian.

PS–

Apropos of non-native speakers of English. I’ve traveled abroad
extensively, and spoke German as a child. Combine that with
schoolboy latin, and I can at least read the signs pretty much
anywhere in Europe. (Except Hungary and Finland…wow. That was a
sudden education in illiteracy. Not fun.)

My rule about non-native speakers is simple: Until I speak their
language better than they speak mine, they get all the assistance and
forbearance I have to offer.

English is notoriously tough. The rules are simple, but it almost
never follows the rules. So there’s a lot of brute-force
memorization involved. What’s worse, it often follows the rules of
the original language
it stole the words from…[at the time that it
stole them] So modern French and German speakers often have a devil
of a time with cross-cognates, because their rules have changed in
the years since, but our versions of their rules haven’t.

Cheers-
Brian.

I can’t resist messing about with words but, in the end, I do wish
that those to whom I address them can understand what I mean. Why
else bother to write or speak?

Writers who use an excess of acronyms and abbreviations do not seem
to share this desire.

Writers who use spell-checkers run the risk of sabotaging their
intended meaning while spelling every word perfectly. A+ for
spelling. F for content.

Herewith is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to our local paper, the
Victoria Times-Colonist. Should you Google the T-C you will find it
is infamous for the frequency of its typographical errors.

Beware the Spell Checker.

Marty Hykin in Victoria where Spring is something that pops up from
old sofa cushions.

I use spell check and proofreading, and still miss the occasional
blooper.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

One other thought I had about this thread is this, we have all, or
mostly all, been on the internet, lurking, surfing, posting in
forums, what have you, for anywhere from 8 to 10, or so, years.
Surely most of us have seen many forums that use copious amounts of
emoticons, or other cartoons to express emotions. Some of those
forums are thick with not only bad language, or grammar, but nasty
language too.

What I find refreshing on Orchid is the level of professionalism, or
rather, politeness. Certainly we don’t need to be completely staid
but the community is comprised of polite people, who don’t always
agree, but remain civil and courteous. It is nice indeed.

Not everyone has a degree in writing, and it is not necessary, but
most= give it their best shot and it is greatly appreciated and
cherished. I enjoy reading the digest every night before retiring.
Thank you very much, all of you!

Nel

After living in Asia for 11 years I’ve learned the value of clear
communication. With a community such as Orchid with members
worldwide it would behoove us to write as clearly as possible using
standard grammer and limiting the use of abbreviations and acronyms.
If I use abbreviations or acronyms I try to spell it fully the first
time followed by the abbreviation (abbrev) or acronym following in
parentheses.

It is easy to fall into our habitual patterns forgetting not
everyone is privy to the cultural knowledge we all take for granted.
Sometimes this means we have to try a little harder to make sure
we’re understood by as many people as possible.

Yeah, I really do have a copy of the OED, on the desk. In my own
defense, it was a gift. Really.... 

Oh, I have one too, bought it myself.

That’s how I was able to look up lapidary, when the subject came up
here, and found the word lapidate just above it. Funny word that
one.

Elaine
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com

Nel,

You are so right on. Thanks for recognizing the good in most here.
This thread had its origins in May of '07, another cycle in '08, and
here we are another year, and another go round.

Original, we ain’t.
Hugs,
Terrie

On the subject of clear, understandable writing:

I’m no scholar, but I was taught from first grade to write in clear,
understandable sentences and to use proper spelling at all times. As
a result, I grew up with a spell and grammar checker built into my
brain.

As an adult, I’m a hobbyist writer (never published, I write for my
own entertainment) in my rare free time. As I age (I just crossed the
half-century line) it frustrates me more and more to read some of
the gibberish that is posted on lists and in forums by people who
really do speak English as their first language. I immediately delete
posts that don’t use proper punctuation, capital letters and spacing;
it’s painful to me to even try to read them. I don’t care what
knowledge they may have to offer. If deciphering their writing gives
me a migraine it’s just not worth the attempt.

For those who know they could do better but don’t know where to
start, I’d like to recommend a few links to sites that may be of
assistance.

“EnglishChick”, a site that has a series of humorous remedial
grammar and punctuation lessons. Grammar Lessons

“Common Errors in English”, a site that is, among other things, of
enormous help when you’re not sure which version of a sound-alike
word to use. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html

And last, the online version of “Elements of Style” by W. Strunk
Jr., possibly the most famous grammar book ever written. Not as fun
as the other two sites, but it holds the definitive answer to almost
any grammar question. Strunk, William, Jr. 1918. The Elements of Style

Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Jewelry
http://www.featheredgems.com
http://www.fgemz.com

My rule about non-native speakers is simple: Until I speak their
language better than they speak mine, they get all the assistance
and forbearance I have to offer. 

A good rule. It reminds me of a Henry Kissinger story. When a lady
complained about his accent, he said something like “Yes, Ma’am, and
I have the same problem in five other languages.”

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

I agree that there is no that is worth a migraine, and
I’m known as “The Queen of Picky” at work for my ability to find
errors in writing and in code (I’m a computer programmer).

But… how do you know if English is their first language? I find the
only safe answer is to give the benefit of the doubt, and go for
content, unless it is truly beyond my ability to cope.

What difference does it make if English is not the person’s first
language?

French is not my first language, but if I write something that is
not right I would appreciate a correction so that my skills might
improve.