Monday 8 August 2011

Grammar like what I know

I was browsing the forums instead of doing housework and I saw a post. I read through it several times.

Apparently, judging from the replies, a young lady is in a spot of bother with her gentleman friend. I couldn't understand what on earth was going on. At this point I should say that there were a lot of posts pointing out that they couldn't understand it and could the person who started the thread please put in full spelling, punctuation and paragraphs. At least that would have helped.

I felt a bit awful, and I didn't post to the effect that if they wrote clearly then they could get more help, and to be fair I am not a great fountain of wisdom and I am sure someone else would be able to more than cover anything I could come up with. However it was really awful, incomprehensible txtspk and careless writing.

It may be a 'joke' post (very funny, as far as I can see domestic violence was being mentioned) but it did raise a question. If you want to ask for help, surely you should write in a way that lots of people can understand so that you have the best chance of getting help? Or am I being a bit simplistic. Is this a symptom that people think it funny to make up upsetting circumstances and post them for a joke to see how many will bite? Is it a symptom of our education system, especially ten years ago? Or is it a symptom of a society where people expect help to be handed to them on the proverbial plate, that they shouldn't need to ask, that there should be someone hanging round to do the hard work of thinking without anyone needing to ask because 'it's obvious, innit?'

Or am I just being a grumpy old bat again?

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