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"Huh huh huh (trying to impersonate Beavis & Butthead laugh)he said sextet!"
"heh heh heh ya Butthead, SEXTET!"sorry sombody had to say it....
As I am not an english major, have not attended school in over twenty years, and know not the first thing of punctuation, I must apologize in advance. You will find that most of my words will probably be misspelled, my sentence structure will make you shudder, and my grammer? Well, we'll leave it at that. However, I do not consider myself illiterate. Even the most brilliant may not be able to articulate their thoughts into writing, just as the greatest writers may not be able to speak coherently. It's a poor way to judge a person. Even now, I fear every word I write, every comma I forget, worrying it will be judged in my disfavor.
Only grammer gurus are worth listening to?
There is absolutely no need to apologize for not being an english major, nor for not having attended school in over twenty years. Neither is a prerequisite for communicating clearly.
I don't consider you illiterate either though if, as you say, you know nothing about punctuation it might be worth learning. If you spend much time writing - even if it is only posting on message boards, improving your skills is not a waste of time. Elements of Style (3rd Ed.) by Strunk and White is an excellent, inexpensive, and highly readable guide to writing and includes all the basics of punctuation, usage, and style.
I've taught at the university level for many years and have never met a brilliant person who was not able to articulate themselves in writing, nor a great writer unable to speak coherently. In fact, I believe there is a clear link between being able to develop complex thoughts and being able to express them.
Obviously no one is judging every word you write or every comma you forget. Mistakes and typos happen. I was clearly speaking of people whose writing was unintelligible. I suspect that you were being disingenuous when you suggested that I implied that "only grammar gurus are worth listening to." In fact I said that those unable to write intelligibly seldom have anything to say that is worth reading. If you doubt this peruse through the message boards. There is no coincidence that the most vitriolic, hateful posts (and I saw one such just the other day ranting about Nazis) are also the most incomprehensible.
Most bad writing however, stems not from ignorance, but laziness - particularly in the case of cryptic abbreviations - and occurs because people are in such a rush they can't take the few extra moments to write a complete sentence. If someone can't be bothered to write clearly then I can't be bothered to read it.
I've seen your posts; I'd personally rate your communication skills at "well above average." (And I think there are fewer mistakes in your post than you suspect. You could capitalize "English," correct the spelling of "grammar," and maybe tweak the next-to-last sentence a bit to improve readability, but none of those things actually prevented you from getting your message across.)
lol. I hope she recognizes that tongue so firmly planted in cheek.
Thanks everyone, as I said, I am just cranky today, not so much anymore thanks to you wonderful people. Oh, and I'm starting college this fall,*shudder* rest assured English will be one of the first courses I sign up for :)
"Ho, ho, ho. That's what a lot of people think Sebastian, but the truth is, spelling and grammar are more important here on the internet, not less important. The primary communication method is through the written word, and to the degree that the written word is indecipherable, due to bad spelling, lack of punctuation, or what have you, communication is impaired. That is why you should always take the time to post coherently, otherwise people are likely to disregard your message."
Hallelujah, brother!
I am so sick of seeing illiterate gibberish posted on message boards. Anything worth writing is worth writing correctly, concisely, and coherently. Some posts are so bad I can't understand what the author was trying to say. On the rare occasion when I take the trouble to decipher the gibberish, I find that people who aren't able to articulate their thoughts in writing usually don't have thoughts worth reading.I would add to the list of unacceptable practices the use of internet chatroom abbreviations (e.g. IIRC, etc.). The two extra seconds it would take to type something out in proper english makes your message so much more readable and conveys respect for your readers and for yourself.
Thanks for the pithy rejoinder, Sebastian. You made my day.
Sebastian totally killed me on that one. I want to point out, though, that there are a good number of members on these boars that are non-English speaking. Or more precisely, English is their second language. In their cases, you gotta cut them a little slack since they're actually doing pretty good at communicating in what is for them a foreign language.
Edit: Just so you don't think I'm picking on you, I really hate the abreviated phrases, too. It took me months to find out what IIRC meant. I am guilty of using this lazy lingo myself, though, so I can't complain too much. But, hey, I picked that bad habit up from these boards :-p
I happened onto this stream by dipping into the messageboards at random and it's amazing how quickly it developed from a (somewhat rabid and irrational) anti-WOTC rant, into a back-and-forth argument on the relative merits of Palladium products and then onwards into a campaign for the proper usage of spelling and grammar on internet messageboards, before finally embracing a message of love and tolerance for all despite the occasional spelling mistake.
It really is quite a beautiful example of how fine and worthy results can be drawn from the least promising beginnings if people will just work together.
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Contributor
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"Huh huh huh (trying to impersonate Beavis & Butthead laugh)he said sextet!"
"heh heh heh ya Butthead, SEXTET!"sorry sombody had to say it....
Heh. I wondered if someone would do that. ;D
It really is quite a beautiful example of how fine and worthy results can be drawn from the least promising beginnings if people will just work together.
I hear you, man. :)
Shalom, everyone.
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I played 2nd edition for years, and while I liked the game, I was extremely frustrated by the rules. I always tried to play a rogue that could actually do something in combat, and it never happened. The most effective character I had was a bladesinger, which was of course more powerful than standard classes. Let's face it. For most people combat and loot are the most entertaining part of the game. The combat rules of 2nd edition were horrible. The classes weren't even close to being balanced even with the separate exp charts. If you want a game with more role-play than roll play, that's up to you and your group, not the edition you are playing. In fact, 3.0/3.5 has way more rules for resolving sitiuations without combat than earlier editions ever thougt about having. Charisma is actually a useful stat for many classes, instead of something only used to qualify for bard, paladin, or druid with no reward for having said high charisma. Dungeon and Dragon going away have made many people (including me) mad, but it won't mean the end of the game. If you want to play 2nd edition, go ahead, but there isn't any reason to bash the current edition of the game because it has interesting options for combat.