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Forums - General Discussion - the grammar debate

pearljammer on 19 January 2010
SamuelRSmith said:
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

'Well, I'm a panda', he says, at the door. 'Look it up.'

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'


---

Give credit to Lynne Truss, though I'm sure she got it from somewhere else... so, don't.

She has plenty of other hilarious examples in her book, though I can't think of any off-hand.

It certainly was a great read.



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Kantor on 19 January 2010
SamuelRSmith said:
SciFiBoy said:
SamuelRSmith said:
SciFiBoy said:
CommonMan said:
SciFiBoy said:
who cares? its the internet...its not like its gonna change the world whether you put a comma after you troll the 360...

I always use semi-colons after trolling the 360. . .

okay, lol, I just post whatever, I couldnt care less about grammar, this isnt exactly academia here, its a video game forum not a thesis for a masters degree

I didn't realise that the sole intention of grammar was to be a determinant between what is, or isn't, a thesis.

im assuming you understood the context of my post, im not saying that, what im saying is that having good grammar on an internet forum is not neccessary nor particularly important, certainly not compared to a thesis for example.

But good grammar is always important. There's a reason why "Grammar Nazis" (I prefer "Sticklers") harp on about it so much: because an ill-placed comma, or total lack of, can make a huge difference to the final render of a sentence.

To take the age old example,

A woman: without her, man is nothing.
A woman, without her man, is nothing.

The words are exactly the same, and yet the meanings of the sentences are completely different thanks to the changes of a couple of markings.

Or to use the one that's been going around Facebook:

Let's eat, grandma!

Let's eat grandma!

COMMAS SAVE LIVES.



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

SamuelRSmith on 19 January 2010

Did anyone ever watch that episode of Jonathan Creek where somebody mistook a love letter for a suicide note because a fly landed in a place which made it look like a comma, thus rendering the letter to be way different from its original intention?



Kantor on 19 January 2010
SamuelRSmith said:
Did anyone ever watch that episode of Jonathan Creek where somebody mistook a love letter for a suicide note because a fly landed in a place which made it look like a comma, thus rendering the letter to be way different from its original intention?

That sounds interesting.

Do you remember what it said?



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

O-D-C on 19 January 2010

perfection is obviously not that important, but some people really take it too far, it almost seems like they just punched the keyboard and hoped their sentence would come out all right



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SamuelRSmith on 19 January 2010
Kantor said:
SamuelRSmith said:
Did anyone ever watch that episode of Jonathan Creek where somebody mistook a love letter for a suicide note because a fly landed in a place which made it look like a comma, thus rendering the letter to be way different from its original intention?

That sounds interesting.

Do you remember what it said?

To be honest with you, mate, I haven't a clue.



Kantor on 19 January 2010
SamuelRSmith said:
Kantor said:
SamuelRSmith said:
Did anyone ever watch that episode of Jonathan Creek where somebody mistook a love letter for a suicide note because a fly landed in a place which made it look like a comma, thus rendering the letter to be way different from its original intention?

That sounds interesting.

Do you remember what it said?

To be honest with you, mate, I haven't a clue.

Here's something similar:


1) Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy --will you let me be yours?

Gloria

2) Dear John:

I want a man who knows what love is . All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

yours,

Gloria



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

twesterm on 19 January 2010

I don't demand that every post be in perfect grammar with zero spelling mistakes, but at least try to make it readable.

Readable does not include any sort of IM speak, text message speak, random abbreviations (what the fuck is MML?), or things like that, readable is actual words.

Of course if you don't want people to read posts, then post however you want.



 

gurglesletch on 19 January 2010
twesterm said:
I don't demand that every post be in perfect grammar with zero spelling mistakes, but at least try to make it readable.

Readable does not include any sort of IM speak, text message speak, random abbreviations (what the fuck is MML?), or things like that, readable is actual words.

Of course if you don't want people to read posts, then post however you want.

I agree except about the text message speak. And we will just forget about the part that is crossed out.




Get your Portable ID!

FaRmLaNd on 20 January 2010

I don't expect peoples writing to be perfectly correct in regards to grammer, spelling etc. Since I don't go crazy over how correct my own posts are. Howeve it does annoy me when the writing is so horrible that I can't even understand what they're trying to say!