Spelling does count in life!

Again, while I am reformed English teacher, many spelling errors don't bother me. Its when I have to read it aloud to understand it that it becomes tiresome.
I'm guilty of laziness as much as others, forget punctuation, don't look up spelling....That's not a problem.

Now, for those of you who say "oh, I don't have to be able to spell well, that's what computers are for".... keep in mind: you WILL have to spell some time on your job. I just had a police report made (drunk high school kid drove through my yard, took out a few trees). The car owners insurance DENIED MY CLAIM because of the spelling errors. My name, address, as well as the description of the accident had so many errors it was incomprehensible. Now I have to pay for things and hope its reiumbursed.

Warning: small rant follows:
I grew up during the preppy/valley girl era (think: Fast Times at Ridgemont High). We had a whole lexicon of our own, a whole grammar, the way we talked. We teased our parents for their silly way of talking, but, I would never have forced my "in speak" on others who were older, younger, of a different culture.... it's sign of respect to communicate in the manner of the majority. I also don't buy the notion that its THE way language and communication are handled on the web. Language/communciation is my CAREER, and that's NOT how it's done on the web. And it's not okay to force on others, or expect others to put up with.
okay, I'm done. Whew. :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by babolaypo65
Now, for those of you who say "oh, I don't have to be able to spell well, that's what computers are for".... keep in mind: you WILL have to spell some time on your job. I just had a police report made (drunk high school kid drove through my yard, took out a few trees). The car owners insurance DENIED MY CLAIM because of the spelling errors. My name, address, as well as the description of the accident had so many errors it was incomprehensible. Now I have to pay for things and hope its reiumbursed.



Warning: small rant follows:
.... Language/communciation is my CAREER, and that's NOT how it's done on the web. And it's not okay to force on others, or expect others to put up with.
okay, I'm done. Whew. :D

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First of all... :eek: I sure hope they caught that drunken creep! After having worked at the DWI Office, I've heard too many say "I wasn't drinking" or "I only had 2 beers" or "I wasn't drunk" (yeahhh, so why'd was your BAC .21 when the legal limit here is .08?!)--more importantly, I've heard of too much heartbreak.
:( Babo... I hope you're reimbursed and I hope this kid learns his lesson before it's too late.


A reformed English teacher? Is that like a recovering English teacher? (how about a recovering Lobo... ?!:eek: :D lol) Actually, the language/communication career intrigued me -- what is it that you teach and do you do so on-site or through distance courses?

Just curious... I attend Texas Tech University (MA Tech Comm) through online classes. We actually had a discussion on web-based education/language/etc. not too long ago. :)

So far, sadly, nothing from insurance. The parents of the drunk kid (who wrecked his mommy's volvo in my yard then ran) are saying that it was "stolen" but they haven't made a report to say it was stolen. What great role models they are for their kid, who was 16.

I teach in the linguistics dept at the university. My background is in teaching English, (my degrees are in language acquisition/rehabilitation, education and linguistics), and now I teach linguistics and signed language courses. I LOVE my job! I have done some distance ed courses, but mostly out of state (washington, etc.). I guess you could call me a reformed Lobo, in that I don't follow their games anymore!;) You're studying at Texas Tech? How do you like it?

Quote:

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Originally posted by babolaypo65
So far, sadly, nothing from insurance. The parents of the drunk kid (who wrecked his mommy's volvo in my yard then ran) are saying that it was "stolen" but they haven't made a report to say it was stolen. What great role models they are for their kid, who was 16.

I teach in the linguistics dept at the university. My background is in teaching English, (my degrees are in language acquisition/rehabilitation, education and linguistics), and now I teach linguistics and signed language courses. I LOVE my job! I have done some distance ed courses, but mostly out of state (washington, etc.). I guess you could call me a reformed Lobo, in that I don't follow their games anymore!;) You're studying at Texas Tech? How do you like it?

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That's awesome! I've always wanted to take a linguistics course...learn all the different brain 'controls' etc. Very cool!

Texas Tech... well, it's MUCH CHEAPER ...which I find odd. I'm not too impressed with the admin.--harder than heck to get a 'real' person on the phone; whereas I had no problem finding answers to my questions at NMSU. ('Course I'm dealing with a larger institution.)

All in all, I really like it! The faculty is GREAT and I really love distance courses; I can attend in my pajamas with my furkids and perhaps the best part...... NO FIGHTING FOR A PARKING SPACE! lol

OK! I am sticking my head in the sand on this thread.
I too, tend to get a bit lazy on the spelling etc.
Many of times when I write my posts
I think to myself, "Now only if Pet Talk had spell check in it's softwear" lol

I try to spell words correctly, but I do make typos.

Oh my gosh. I JUST came into the Dog House to start a new thread with this exact topic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You read my mind.

I am so utterly sick of trying to decipher half the crap people write.

I can't stand it when people confuse the words 'their', 'there', and 'they're'. Also 'your' and 'you're'. Its not that hard. Its just complete laziness.

PEOPLE, PLEASE LEARN SOME GRAMMAR AND SPELLING and have some respect for those of us that have to read what you type!

Correct me if i'm wrong hehe.

Their dogs.
They're cute.
They're over there.

You're funny
Your dog is cute.

I'm not sure whether I have any room to speak in this thread or not....:o

English has never been my best subject. I'm not that good at spelling, nor grammar. And indeed, if you have been in an aol chat with me you will notice that well....I'm the typo queen, and I never bother to use capitals or care about the spelling.

However, I feel the Pet Talk forum should be different then a chat room. I do try to make my posts legible...I try to spell correctly, or just avoid words I'm not sure about...I fix typos if I catch them.

What really bugs me is the lack of PARAGRAPHS. If I see a huge post with no paragraphs, I simply refuse to read it. And would it really kill people to put periods and capitals to make real sentences?

Honestly though, I've never been THAT particular about my spelling on here, so I hope my posts haven't annoyed anyone....

Yup KayAnn, you got em! You win a piece of cake for that :)

Amy, what the heck are you talking about? Your posts are fine. You know the kind of posts we're talking about - ones that seem like they come off that AOL translator site.

Ahh I am not alone.

Grammer and spelling were never my strong points I admit that. However when posting I make an effort to follow the correct rules and use proper english, true sometimes you get a weird mix of the British and the American spelling because well I'm Canadian, and if I'm having difficulties remembering the spelling of a word I don't use it, that simple either that or I look it up.

What's getting me lately is that more and more it seems difficult for people to do that, some of the time i don't mind all of the time well let's say it frustrates me.

In fact at times it makes me wonder if they really can't spell or if people are just being plan lazy, if it's the latter then maybe they should rest up a bit and when they have the energy to post proper posts then go right ahead.

I an os anoyed with al the spelin mistaks mad her. I relly hop that Caran dose put up a spel chek son.

LMAO.. :p

Some people have an impairment of the ability to read. So it makes them confused when looking at the keyboard. It is called Dyslexia, I am dyslexic. Some people are just young here and dont know how to spell, except for sounding things out.


I think adding a spell check is a good idea.

Quote:

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Originally posted by tikeyas_mom
I an os anoyed with al the spelin mistaks mad her. I relly hop that Caran dose put up a spel chek son.

LMAO.. :p

Some people have an impairment of the ability to read. So it makes them confused when looking at the keyboard. It is called Dyslexia, I am dyslexic. Some people are just young here and dont know how to spell, except for sounding things out.


I think adding a spell check is a good idea.

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My friend's little brother has dyslexia and he's 9 years old and is just starting to read. I see how he reads and stuff, so I know how you feel. :)

I agree that its annoying when people deliberately mis-spell words, but we all need to understand that many people posting here speak English as a 2nd language and may not know it well enough to spell everything right or type with perfect grammer. Others are still young, and some kids just happen to catch on with spelling slower than others. Spelling was always my favorite subject and I always did well on it, but I know that I do still make spelling mistakes every now and then. It just happens while typing. For people that spell like:

Dats reely kool...............etc..............

that's REALLY annoying. I know that many people try their best in spelling, and I think the foreigners do a great job for their 2nd or 3rd language, but there are some people who tend to type on PT with chat language, and that just doesn't seem right on a forum. Forums aren't chat rooms, so there's no need for typing so fast you need to spell every word wrong, and make it unreadable. :p

I know I am a horrible typer..I think MUCH faster than I type and often can't keep up with myself. As a result letters end up in the wrong words, or the I type the wrong letters altogether. My husband recently pointed out to me how bad some of my posts are, by taking one, correcting it in red, and Pm'ing it to me. Since then, I am trying to reread what I wrote and correct my mistakes.

I don't mind the "cutesy" words thrown into a post. Some posts are done all undercase, in slang, with no division of paragraphs, and no puncutation. These are the posts that bother me.

Phred-Ralph and I love reading Cinder and Smoke's posts. Their dog language is priceless and no one can tell a story like them! Don't change a thing!!!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Kfamr
Correct me if i'm wrong hehe.

Their dogs.
They're cute.
They're over there.

You're funny
Your dog is cute.

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Yep KayAnn these are examples of some of the things that drive me crazy. I always did well in English and grammar in school (many, many moons ago) and am a little quirky about forming sentences and using proper grammar and punctuation and breaking up ideas into paragraphs. As a medical transcriptionist it is very important that I spell correctly so I really can't separate "work" from "fun" (Pet Talk).

I can totally understand some of our Pet Talkers who do not speak English as their first language having trouble with some of the goofy parts of the English language. (A few pop into mind here - hair, hare, blue, blew, threw, through, etc., etc.) It sure can be confusing! I think they do a beautiful job with their posts, though, and put lots of us to shame. :o I agree with SAS. I think it is the chat language that is most annoying. A typo here or there is easily excused. We are all human and I too have had mix-ups between my brain and the keyboard and will often go back to edit.

I am sorry if the initial comment to this thread ended up being taken as a personal insult. It was not meant to be. It was a plea for some of the typist to clean up their acts.

Slow down, type, re-read and maybe even use a word document (allowing you to spell check) and then cut and paste it to the response/posting section.

I think some people use their laziness as an excuse to continue a bad habit. Not every person here is Einstein - including yours truly, but a little time taken while typing and consideration to the readers would be appreciated.

As I said in a previous post, Phred is exempt, of course...and anyone else bright enough to type in "pet language"....and also those not having English as their first language.

We are not the spell/grammar police, just asking for some common courtesy.

Paragraphs are NICE - I too just blow right past the massive postings......all one paragraph.

Thanks guys - for your support on this topic and you have my permission to PM me noting all my misspellings and grammatical errors.

Also, keeping the paperback dictionary / thesaurus next to the computer keyboard may help some of the misspellers/typists!

SAS
:D :eek: :D

As I'm not english, I have a few questions for you all. :)

I've often noticed (latest in Cincy's mom's post here, but also in many others) that people write "then" where I would have used "than" - E.g. ...I think MUCH faster then I type and often can't keep ... Is this the right way - perhaps in USA? I'm really not sure, because in Great Britain I'm certain that people would use "then". :confused:

Another strange use of words is: E.g. I would of been .... instead of: I would have been. I've seen it used that way quite a few times in posts and wondered ...

I find some of the al/all words a bit confusing sometimes: allright/all right - already etc. Especially when I'm tired.

Can anyone enlighten me? :)

Randi - excellent observations!! :cool:

First off - "Than" is used as a comparative statement - comparing this to that. (example: I am older than you!) "Then" usually refers to a time or sequence (example: "Then" we went to the store.)


I am afraid that "could of" is just slopping speaking which gets translated into sloppy typing. It should always be "could have!" You are one that certainly puts us English speakers to shame. :o

Oooh, the of/have one makes me a little crazy too. I got a paper last semester that spelled it ov, believe it or not.

And right, THEN is a temporal sequence word, THAN is a comparative word.

the of/have one seems to be an artifact of the popularity of conjunctions.
No US/British distinction between have/of that I'm aware of.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Pam
Randi - excellent observations!! :cool:

First off - "Than" is used as a comparative statement - comparing this to that. (example: I am older than you!) "Then" usually refers to a time or sequence (example: "Then" we went to the store.)

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That is one rule I could NEVER remember, and every time I type something I'm sitting here, then/than. then?than? And usually it gets left "then". Now hopefully I will remember which is which!!!!

I have to say I absolutly HATE those huge paragraph posts. You have no clue where a sentence starts or ends and it's absolutly CRAZY!

Most of the time I skip over them

~Rachel

Quote:

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Originally posted by Pam
Randi - excellent observations!! :cool:

First off - "Than" is used as a comparative statement - comparing this to that. (example: I am older than you!) "Then" usually refers to a time or sequence (example: "Then" we went to the store.)

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Thanks for the nice words, Pam! :) I felt pretty sure that I had it right, just didn't know whether Americans used it in a different manner, because I have seen it quite often. ;)

Quote:

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Originally posted by aly
[B]I can't stand it when people confuse the words 'their', 'there', and 'they're'. Also 'your' and 'you're'. Its not that hard. Its just complete laziness.

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ack...I mix those words up all the time! It's not laziness, I just forget. Sorry. lol I realized I had been saying 'your' instead of 'you're' a lot. lol

I also used to write in all small letters. I didn't know it bugged anyone until somebody in another thread mentionned it. Glad I changed or I would never get any replies :p

I agree, paragraphs are important. I try to paragraph my posts when I can, because I know a big post that seems like it has no end just doesn't interest me.

I don't know if I can even stand this thread. It sounds like English class all over again. lol :p The things that bug me most are pretty much mentionned already. No capitals (it bugs me too now), no paragraphs, easy words mispelled (not including type-o's - I think I spelled that wrong :o ), ect...

If you want to say a word you can't really spell, I find (sp?) very useful :cool: hehe

I think that this has been a good and productive thread. At least everyone was able to get a few things off of their chest. Hopefully it will make others more aware and they will want their posts to be taken seriously when they have something to say.

Pet Talk is just different. The very forum deserves respect and thought before we post. And then it becomes more fun for all of us.

I wanted to add that the one thing that probably bugs me the most is seeing "u" instead of "you". I mean come on........it is only two more little letters to type.........:)

Quote:

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Originally posted by popcornbird


Dats reely kool...............etc..............

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um, it's supposed to be KEWL:) :) :) :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by lovemyshiba
um, it's supposed to be KEWL:) :) :) :)

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:) :) :)

Sure glad you caught that!:) :) :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by popcornbird

I agree that its annoying when people deliberately mis-spell words, but we all need to understand that many people posting here speak English as a 2nd language and may not know it well enough to spell everything right or type with perfect grammer. Others are still young, and some kids just happen to catch on with spelling slower than others.

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I wasn't directing my complaint towards them. Its those people who speak with the internet lingo and replace 's' with 'z' and stuff like that.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Cincy'sMom
My husband recently pointed out to me how bad some of my posts are, by taking one, correcting it in red, and Pm'ing it to me.

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Hehehehehe!!!! That's REALLY funny :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by Randi

Another strange use of words is: E.g. I would of been .... instead of: I would have been. I've seen it used that way quite a few times in posts and wondered ...

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I think people say 'would of' because it sounds sort of like 'would've' (which you can use in place of 'would have'). I guess they just get used to saying would've and some people think its would of.

Quote:

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Originally posted by primabella
ack...I mix those words up all the time! It's not laziness, I just forget. Sorry. lol I realized I had been saying 'your' instead of 'you're' a lot. lol

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Oh Prima, it doesn't bother me at all when you do it. If someone just doesn't know, thats fine and really doesn't bother me. Your posts are very well written so I can forgive some grammar slip ups :D (jk)

Although we should all try to do our best with the spelling and proper grammer, mistakes do happen. Half of those who were mentioning different things that bothered them had errors in their posts, so let's not get too critical in calling people lazy.

Skills that aren't used can be lost. I'd hate to think that there will be Pet Talkers who are hesitant to post for fear of making an error. Many of us have a limited amount of time to spend reading and posting. Yes, I do want my posts to be coherent and to present myself in the best possible light, not only here at Pet Talk but anyplace I put two words together, but let it be known that I will make mistakes, and I realize others will too. I'd rather people are able to communicate their stories and feelings, and express themselves freely, than to be too hesitant to post because they aren't confident in their written word.

Think what you want, but some of the people here either don't care or are lazy or maybe both. The majority of the people posting here are fine, fine, fine and that is not the group I am addressing.

We let way too many things slide here in the USA and we end up with lackadaisical, indifferent workers in the end.

This is not a dress rehearsal, this is it. These are real time experiences and we are presenting ourselves to the world when we type here.

Of course there are mistakes made - no one has said that they are troubled by simple mistakes. It is not that difficult to spell correctly and/or maybe check your post. What about dictionaries? We're not talking perfect Rachel, just so that it makes sense.

I think we need to have much higher standards if we want to gain respect in this ever so quickly changing world ...and then keep the respect. I think it is called language skills..... minimum not maximum - that's all we're asking!

I have said just about as much as I can say about this. It is not to make anyone feel stupid or dumb or to make them feel uncomfortable so they don't want to post.

Amen.

SAS

Quote:

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Originally posted by aly
Oh Prima, it doesn't bother me at all when you do it. If someone just doesn't know, thats fine and really doesn't bother me. Your posts are very well written so I can forgive some grammar slip ups :D (jk)

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lol thanks :o

Skills not used can be lost. What concerns me more is that
I feel these skills were never acquired in the first place.I don't
know if it's the quality of classes offered in today's schools, the
experience of the teachers, or lack of parental involvement in
children's education. Do they even teach phonics or sentence
structure anymore? Do students still learn how to diagram a
sentence? It's really sad that these basic language skills have
not been mastered by the time students reach their teen years.

I understand typos, I do it myself, but the" every other word"
glaring mistakes makes reading some posts impossible.

Quote:

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Originally posted by lizbud
Do students still learn how to diagram a sentence?

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Ya know, I didn't learn how to do that until college...and even then it was glossed over!

I learned to diagram a sentence in 4th or 5th grade. It was painful to learn, as I recall..... I suspect the practice bit the dust a while ago. We also had spelling tests nearly every day and were made to write the word over and over again if we spelled something incorrectly.

I remember once handing in a paper in 6th grade that had the word radio misspelled throughout the entire paper. To this day I don't recall how I DID misspell it - I think I erased the incorrect spelling from my memory. The teacher was livid when she saw it, graded me harshly and then required that I write the word radio, 500 times. Talk about remembering how to spell a certain word!

I think our schools are dumbing down for some reason and it just doesn't make sense. Could it be "main-streaming" that is requiring our standards to drop? I can recall the children/students being classified and put in certain reading groups and I wonder if that is still being done.... Or is everyone in the same group in a very neutral learning mode? This is what I mean by dumbing down.... Going to the lowest level in expectation rather than the highest.

I know that special education is nearly a thing of the past and many of the learning disabled are main streamed.

Since I am not in the education field I should keep my trap shut about the schooling thing! I don't want to offend anyone any more than I have already done!

Off to the lake for a swim.

SAS

Quote:

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I can recall the children/students being classified and put in certain reading groups and I wonder if that is still being done....

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some schools have LRP, I tranfered to several schools in my 9 years of elementry school I had tranfered 5 times, and all the schools learned different things at different times, so I really did not learn several things because of all the transfers, but in grade 2 after my first transfer I was automaticly put in LRP but its only for reading mostly. I dont know why I was in it, the only thing they did not like was my a's they forced me to make them with a tail:confused: I had been tought to make then straight at the school before that, anyway I was one of the best readers in the class, and I was paired with the not so good people to teach them to read, so why I was in LRP I have no idea, but I hated it, it made me seem dumb. so my mom and dad wrote them a note asking the school to take me out of it lol, and they had a thing for the really smart kids to, and then everyone else was just normal. I dont know if they do it any more, grade 1-6 was a long time ago lol:p

Quote:

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Originally posted by zippy-kat

I have no problem with 'cutsie' words so long as they are used intermittently within a larger, grammatically-correct, and essentially typo-free narrative. :)

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Ditto Zippy. That is exactly what I was thinking. I concur with everyone else who has proclaimed that this is a message board and not a chat room. Things like "how r u?" irk me. Is it really so hard to add those extra couple letters to each word? And I was being generous by adding a question mark. Too often punctuation is simply left out.

I don't mean to be overly critical but is it too much to ask for to have some basic grammar skills incorporated into posts? Paragraphs, please! Upper and lower case were created for a reason. It is difficult to read when a post is typed in either all lower or all upper case. Using punctuation to separate sentences goes a long way in making a post comprehensible.

As far as "there, they're and their", I'll admit to making those mistakes. I try to catch it and I'll usually go back and edit it. But, there(see I got it right :) ) are times I don't catch it, and I don't hold it against anyone who has the occasional lapse.

In the question of "would of " and "could of", it's always been my understanding that the correct contraction for could have is could've which sounds like could of.

Sas! Is your PM box full? ;)

I feel guilty. :o I remember back when I first got the internet, I had spelled 3veRyTh4nG LyK3 DiZ. I got annoyed with it really fast because it takes ALOT of effort to write like that believe it or not. I soon figured out that if it takes that much effort to type like that, it probably takes more effort to read that.

I really dislike seeing "u" instead of "you" or "2" instead of "to". Come on! A few more letters isn't going to hurt you. In fact, my friend mentioned that she used "u" in her english essay.:eek: The irony is that she used less letters and it hurt her (mark).

As for punctuation, I'm horrible at that. It's not that I'm lazy but a force of habit combined with the amount I've learned. I admit, I barely passed English this year. I often find myself doing this "..." in almost every sentence I write INCLUDING in class.:rolleyes:

Primabella knows this already, I'm trying to limit myself in saying "lol" and "...". I think it's going good so far, don't you think?

As for spell check, I hate it. Although, I admit to using it right now. :rolleyes: Here’s a wonderful piece written by a fellow named Taylor Mali. Here’s the link x. It’s very funny. Although, it sounds a lot funnier in the recording. :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by binka_nugget
I'm trying to limit myself in saying "lol" and "...". I think it's going good so far, don't you think?

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I'm trying to cut back on using "..."' as well. I didn't even realize I did it so much until I was on AIM chatting with one of my friends one day and he said "You use ... WAY TOO MUCH!!"

I know I still do it a lot, but it's a hard habit to break :rolleyes:

But I do agree, wRiTin LyKe DiS gets really annoying and can become very hard to read :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally posted by binka_nugget
Primabella knows this already, I'm trying to limit myself in saying "lol" and "...". I think it's going good so far, don't you think?

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lol :D You can do it! ;)

My friend was in English class and they had to write this story explaing a book they read and then exchange with a partner for peer-editing. My friend got this paper that said something like, "He was trying 2 to well and his friend said u should be a teacher and all..." lol How pathetic :rolleyes: