A rant

I have long wondered about the poor grammar and punctuation rampant on English speaking forums. It is as if native English speakers delight is showing disregard for their mother tongue. For those of us who have studied hard to master this challenging language, it is most difficult to understand why the native speakers do not take pride of it. I do not see anywhere as much disregard in the casual postings in French or German. Most annoying is the use of text-speak which can be all but impossible to understand. It has come to the point that I do no longer participate in discussions where that is the means of writing. I do not boast of excellence in English, but I do try to follow standard rules so that understanding may take place. My partner has suggested that it is due to a lack of education. I suspect it is a sign of laziness and a disregard of others.

I would find it interesting to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.

s99fan wrote:I have long wondered about the poor grammar and punctuation rampant on English speaking forums. Most annoying is the use of text-speak which can be all but impossible to understand. It has come to the point that I do no longer participate in discussions where that is the means of writing.My partner has suggested that it is due to a lack of education. I suspect it is a sign of laziness and a disregard of others.

S99fan - it's simply a sign that we are getting old !!!! Children are growing up these days with access to so much technology that we never had as children, and mobile phones and texting are just a part of that.

Perhaps. But it also causes a loss of subtlety and elegance to use u for you and r for are.

S99fan. I know what you mean about the lack of care using grammar and proper English. I work as a Teacher's Assistant in a secondary school (11 to 16 year olds) and I get rather annoyed when the kids use text-speak in their books. I admit to using some text-speak on my phone texts (the usual one being 'u' rather than'you') but I try to refrain from using it in forums. Seeing the level of grammar (and spelling) from the students in schools these days is quite a scary experience I can tell you!