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+--- Thread: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? (/showthread.php?tid=13058)
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - FreelanceWizard - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 11:00 AM)Gegenji Wrote:(08-19-2015, 10:57 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: I can even grit my teeth and suffer through "irregardless," "for all intensive purposes," and "mute point."
What would happen if someone used the phrase: "Irregardless, for all intensive purposes its a mute point"?
A friend of mine said that once...
In real life...
In all seriousness. (He didn't know those were incorrect.)
I just stared at him for a long moment before moving on.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - LadyRochester - 08-19-2015
I would never correct a typo in RP. Typos are accidental, not out of ignorance. I usually don't correct people unless I think they can handle criticism.
I am only deeply annoyed at incorrect usage of words.
I once saw an rper make an emote about their character writing on a paper notepad with a "stylus".Â
I didn't correct them, but oocily it made me scoff and roll my eyes, mainly because they used that word thinking it would make them come across as more eloquent.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Unnamed Mercenary - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 11:12 AM)LadyRochester Wrote: I would never correct a typo in RP. Typos are accidental, not out of ignorance. I usually don't correct people unless I think they can handle criticism.
I am only deeply annoyed at incorrect usage of words.
I once saw an rper make an emote about their character writing on a paper notepad with a "stylus".Â
I didn't correct them, but oocily it made me scoff and rill my eyes, mainly because they used that word thinking it would make them come across as more eloquent.
At least they weren't tapping on a stone tablet with it instead?
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Sylentmana - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 10:21 AM)Gegenji Wrote:(08-19-2015, 09:55 AM)Sylentmana Wrote: There is also the fact that many of this current generation are a bunch of coddled babies and pointing out their mistakes can hurt their poor, poor feelings.
That's a bit of an unnecessarily rude way to put it, Syl.
Well, since it wasn't directed at anyone in particular and it was more a bitter comment on the current state of society, I have to say, no, it isn't a rude thing to say. If I had directed it at another person, then it would be rude.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Rising - 08-19-2015
For me, it depends on a lot of factors. The one factor in which I will always ask is when it's so bad that I cannot understand what they are trying to communicate in the RP. A misspelling, a word out of order or left out, simple errors that could be guessed at in more than one way, etc., those I always whisper for clarification. I never ask in public channels so if the person is prone to over-sensitivity, it hopefully comes across as more constructive than criticizing.
There is a lot that I let slide just because I don't know who I'm RPing with. Are they native English speakers? If so, which English? I find that non-native speakers are more conscientious and make fewer mistakes than native speakers and also are the most open to grammar help (I refrain from spelling help since most use British English - that's a horse of a different 'colour') but that's besides the point.Â
If it is spelling in specific to the game world and I see it more than once, I may whisper them to point it out. However, this is not something I do in random RP. It is more with people I know, people I've RP'd with several times, friends, FC, etc.
As for it being offensive and why, the obvious answer is that depends entirely on the person receiving the correction. Most of that depends on personality. I am very self conscious, overly sensitive, and I hate undue attention. It's something I struggle with. To be honest, if someone I was RPing with corrected me in a public channel, I'd die of shame. I'd probably throw out some IC "Gotta go now" excuse and walk away. Drawing attention to me, especially negative attention, feels like an attack.Â
Granted I am on the far side of the spectrum, with the other extreme being the one who could care less for your 'help' and blast you with profanity. So the middle ground is likely to result in the most acceptance both as the giver and receiver of such help, and is probably the best place to be either way. Still, people are people and you're going to get the spectrum of responses.
In the end, I have to say I agree with Caspar, Graeham, and Lilia Lia (above 3 posters) said, and in game RP, if it's understandable, I just roll on. Ain't nobody got time for that stuff.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Lilia Lia - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 11:12 AM)LadyRochester Wrote: I didn't correct them, but oocily it made me scoff and roll my eyes, mainly because they used that word thinking it would make them come across as more eloquent.
People just do that in RP and in amateur writing generally. They try to find unusual words to describe things instead of more ordinary words that have the same meaning. There are some words that are almost exclusively used this way. Example, there's no semantic difference between the words "while" and "whilst." But people will still say "whilst" because they like how it sounds vaguely archaic.Â
Now you're starting to touch on writing quirks that actually do require me to hold my tongue, but even so I still wouldn't point this kind of thing out to someone.  I find mostly this is something young people do, or at least I remember doing it a lot when I was younger. It's different from grammatical errors in that mistakes of grammar are unintentional, but this kind of thing is something people go out of their way to do. If you can pin it down to a semantic error then it might be easier to point out to someone.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Blue - 08-19-2015
I am Italian, English is a self-taught language to me, so I am doomed to make several typos still. Whether being corrected offends me or not depends on many factors, the most important of which being:
1 - Is the person correting me someone I consider a friend? Corrections by strangers or just acquaitances does irk me some.
2 - How often does this friend correct me? Even if it's a friend correcting my typo, if they do it over and over, not giving me a break, I might get irritated.
3 - Is the typo funny, or at least bad enough to change the meaning of the sentence? I understand if you correct me if I say "I'm broken!" instead of "I'm broke!", since it can be misleading, or if I emote my character to "shit on a chair" instead of "sit on a chair", cause that's hilarious and worth a laugh. But if you want to correct me for typing "misunderstantment" or "hte"... then you're nitpicking and that's not funny.
At the same time, I've found that since English is not my main language, and it's actually an exercise for me to use, I tend to make typos a lot less than my English-speakers companions, and if those typos are funny, I tend to make fun of them, a lot >.>
Like here: (I'm Kenjii, my friend is Avina)
![[Image: 51d07c85a068d631baccd668.jpg]](http://cdn.guildwork.net/albums/images/51d07c85a068d631baccd668.jpg)
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Caspar - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 11:06 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:The one I had the joy of witnessing was "the scent is very vagrant," back in hs.(08-19-2015, 11:00 AM)Gegenji Wrote:(08-19-2015, 10:57 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: I can even grit my teeth and suffer through "irregardless," "for all intensive purposes," and "mute point."
What would happen if someone used the phrase: "Irregardless, for all intensive purposes its a mute point"?
A friend of mine said that once...
In real life...
In all seriousness. (He didn't know those were incorrect.)
I just stared at him for a long moment before moving on.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Sylentmana - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 12:07 PM)Caspar Wrote:(08-19-2015, 11:06 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:The one I had the joy of witnessing was "the scent is very vagrant," back in hs.(08-19-2015, 11:00 AM)Gegenji Wrote:(08-19-2015, 10:57 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: I can even grit my teeth and suffer through "irregardless," "for all intensive purposes," and "mute point."
What would happen if someone used the phrase: "Irregardless, for all intensive purposes its a mute point"?
A friend of mine said that once...
In real life...
In all seriousness. (He didn't know those were incorrect.)
I just stared at him for a long moment before moving on.
Well, vagrants do often have a scent.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Aya - 08-19-2015
The only times I do is when dealing with a non-native speaker who has expressed an interest in improving his English skills. Otherwise I may notice, but rarely comment on it
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Kage - 08-19-2015
It's my experience that many already notice their mistakes. Repeat misspellings will make my eye tick and it depends on my rapport with the other roleplayer whether or not I will tell them. The thing is, most people I know in live RP will already have seen it. I may comment on it in a different linkshell that I share with them but I don't want to place it in /say, even if it is (( ))
Why? Well, it seems to break the flow a bit. I'm not sure about immersion because that's not a big deal for me, but the flow of the words and the story is broken just to fix a minor typo.
I will fix things with ((OOC)) chatter if it is important for the scene and for clarification.
If one of my friends posts up a large IC post in the IC section and it has a typo, I will point it out.
I honestly just don't see it as my place unless someone asks me for help. There's a ton of RPers I would comment on about their typing. I have done so with others who I know would rather avoid that interaction. (Closer to chat speech, tends to capitalize things for no reason, constant misspellings, reminds me of the way I wrote when I was 10, etc.) I just don't see it as my place. I'll rib friends for it or point it out for an IC post but unless they ask me to check over their words or their language, I'm not going to 'school' anyone.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Nebbs - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 09:38 AM)LadyRochester Wrote: I personally take no offense when someone corrects me, even in a public channel. However, many people disagree and say correcting someone else is wrong.
How are we supposed to improve if we are never made aware of our mistakes? As long as you are being polite and not an ass about it, I (personally) don't see a problem.
First, who is the "we" you are trying to improve? I get the sense that you think your role is to teach someone?Â
Don't is my advice, unless your role is proof reading or similar. I mean, would you like someone to comment on your own falts in public?
As a dyslexic I struggle, I have always struggled. Any such correction just makes you one of those folks in my life who want to point out my limitations rather than see past them.Â
In my view I see the inability to overlook errors that do not get in the way of the communication as your problem. What will you make of peoples diction, what about the struggling person where English is not there first language?Â
Honestly, unless people have asked for the feedback, keep quiet.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Virella - 08-19-2015
Depends. If they just hit their head against the keyboard, and reading their text ends up being a game of hints, yeah, I will tell them to stop doing that. As well people using auto translate in their roleplay is like... no please stop that.
But besides that? Meh. On WoW I was a bit harder on it, because everyone and his mum could download Misspelled.
That said, I am Dutch, I got Dyslexia critting me over 9000 while roleplay often, I just slap open Google translate often. Not even to type in the Dutch word, but more so to have Google translate going "YOU MEANT X", and very rarely having to literally translate words from Dutch to English.
Dyslexia is not seeing the difference between whether and wether. And not, for example, spelling I constantly as i. That is all just bashing grammatical rules in your head, everyone had to do it. Gods, it makes me rage inside when people who claim to have dyslexia that they cannot capitalize their sentences, use punctuation ect.
But in truth? People with dyslexia tend to be the lot who takes care of their posts the most, because we know there is something off, just not exactly what.
Then and than for example? Explaining that to a non-native English speaker + dyslexia. Uh. I literally cannot see the difference. I know there is one, that there is a rule to it, but I just tend to wing it, or avoid it completely when typing. And explaining it to me is not going to change a thing. That said, I've been told native English speakers fuck this up all the time as well so... guess we aren't that far off
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Roen - 08-19-2015
I never correct someone during RP.
The little text window is terribly limiting, I don't get to see my full post most of the time before I hit enter, and most of the time I am furiously typing. I know what I want to say, but my fingers sometimes skip a word or misspell something. I know it happens to me, and it can happen to anyone. I don't feel the need to correct that.
Usually the person I am playing with can figure out what I was trying to say, although if it can be grossly misinterpreted, I will correct myself immediately (or two sentences later when I actually read what I said...). Else I would prefer that the scene just kept going, rather than be bogged down by corrections.
If I keep making mistakes, I usually stare at the screen in disbelief, bonk my head a couple of times, and apologize in party chat (( )) ... but I still just keep the scene going.
RE: Is politely correcting someone's grammar/spelling offensive? Why? - Flickering Ember - 08-19-2015
(08-19-2015, 10:14 AM)Aaron Wrote: If you can understand what they're saying in under 5 seconds there's no need to correct em because you got the message regardless.Â
If you can't for the life of you understand them then just ask if they could repeat it better spelled or something in /tells.
Â
Not all people are as adept at language (or care enough to type it correctly). Just pay it no mind. Because pretty sure if you try to correct them 7/10 times you'll never see them bother you again.
This. If you understood what they wrote, how in the world does it matter? There's no need to correct someone other than some vague satisfaction that you caught an error they didn't. Readability I do think is important too though. Like Septha said, break up your sentences. That's it though.
The only time I feel it is appropriate is if that RPer is looking for feedback.