L.D. Best wrote:
>If someone had a question s/he were hesitant about asking,
because it might be "a dumb question," chances of participation
would be greatly lowered by hypercritical commentary and
messaging. <
I really don't think so. I think any individuals who are
afraid of asking "dumb questions" would be rather more
intimidated by the expertise of some on this list than because
their grammatical errors could be highlighted.
>To some it may be a joke, to some it may be essential, but
language is - -- in fact -- worthless if people fear to use it
because they might get jumped on. <
The "jokey" approach softens the criticism, to an extent.
It's far better to comment lightly about an error than to say,
for example, something like this: "Hey, you moron! You stupid
idiot! You blew it! This is how you should have written that,
Dummy. Don't you know anything?"
>I would, therefore, suggest that English lessons be made illegal
on this list. Rather than citicizing for misuse of aposthrophes,
or misspellings, or typos, or poor sentence structure, we should
remember that many of the people who do -- or who would *like* to
-- participate in this forum don't even speak English as their
primary language. <
I think most to whom English is not a native tongue would
welcome the instruction -- so long as it is done tactfully.
English does, after all, have some rather contradictory rules and
awkward spellings -- all of which can be most confusing to ESL
people.
Even people to whom English IS a native tongue frequently
misuse it, to judge by much of the writing posted on the web and
many mailing lists. Somebody needs to tell them of their error,
or they will continue repeating it time after time after time
after time. Improper practice should not to be ignored.
I scarcely think comments about correct language useage
detract in any fashion from the primary focus of this list. I
don't know why we can't do both here.
Terri
Official Grammar Sheriff
