It's call punctuation. USE IT!!!

[looney_librarian]

We have a chat program for our library that allows people to talk to a librarian when/if they are not able to come to the reference desk.

Today this patron comes on and proceeds to ask her question. In one long run-on sentence. My co-worker and I have to stare at her question for 2 minutes before figuring out what she wants. Once we find out what she is looking for, it takes another 20 minutes to get the actual specifics of her request. Then another 10 to lead her to the right page to look. And finally we have a 10 minute talk on how most psychological journals are going to use APA style formatting. (HELLO!!! APA STANDS FOR AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION <---my thoughts during that part of the conversation).

Why do I seem to get the people during my shift that don't seem to belong in college?

[Shadowwalker]

can you recreate what she said at first that you couldn't understand? I'm just curious (i thought it was gonna be in the post lol)

[looney_librarian]

Here's the initial problem she asked for help on. (verbatim)

yes i am trying to find a research article for my phychology class... i went to the databases and article section where can i find the srticles it will just give me the databases not articles from the western nc library system and even with the databases it says they are restricted to asu students?

Here's what she said 2 minutes later (verbatim)
sorry i meant it will not give me articles from the western nc system , and the other databases are restricted

[myswtghst]

One of my guy friends, whom I love dearly, and who is currently attempting to keep me entertained at work via email, cannot get ahold of capitalization to save his life. It drives me nuts, but I try to ignore it in emails, because I know he isn't a stupid guy. I have the same problem with numerous coworkers on the internal IM as well - no capitalization, limited punctuation, and terrible misspellings.

[rerant]

I have a few friends who can not spell or punctuate for the life of them.
Errors are one thing, and always overlooked, but it really makes me angry that at 30 and without any learning disabilities, one of my friends is still spelling it "defanatly".

Some people just don't care enough to write things properly, and I think assume we read in the same tone that they think, which leaves us able to decode their mess of stupidity.

[bigjimaz]

This is one of my pet peeves. As some know, I admin a website and forum. People write stories and post them. I once had someone who submitted a story that was 475 words in length. In this diatribe, they used a grand total of one capital letter, and that one wasn't any of the thirty or so singular letter I's that he used to indicate himself. He also used only one period and two commas, of which one was used in place of an apostrophe. They misspelled 78 words and used one paragraph.

I have it pinned to the top of the board with the title: "How NOT to write a story."

I hate misspellings but I do understand that some people cannot spell. But if you can't spell, use proper punctuation and capitalization along with proper syntax, you really need to go back to middle school English class.

[looney_librarian]

I can understand sometimes that people don't use proper grammar and english when talking to your buddies on any IM or in a game, but not when it's a semi-professional setting where someone is trying to you.

[air914]

I'll forgive maybe one misspelling every now and then - but an e-mail full of them or something - that drives me nuts. Especially b/c you can use SPELLCHECK for goodness sakes! Even on our horrible Lotus Notes crappy e-mail system, there's a spellcheck that you can set to check every e-mail before you send it out.

I used to get e-mails from my old boss all the time with horrid misspellings. I chalked it up to the fact that he had a Blackberry and probably couldn't figure out how to press the right buttons to spell things correctly - or just didn't care. But it always made me feel like he was an idiot - being that he was my boss and sending me instructions that were so horribly written and misspelled.

[Geek King]

This is one of my pet peeves. As some know, I admin a website and forum. People write stories and post them. I once had someone who submitted a story that was 475 words in length. In this diatribe, they used a grand total of one capital letter, and that one wasn't any of the thirty or so singular letter I's that he used to indicate himself. He also used only one period and two commas, of which one was used in place of an apostrophe. They misspelled 78 words and used one paragraph.

Wow, you have e e cummings as a forum member!

<Runs away>

[guywithashovel]

A lot of people today in the under 20 age category have gotten used to being very informal when communicating online. That's probably how she talks to her friends over IM and in emails, and so she did it in this situation, too. Not saying that this excuses it. This was a professional situation and deserved to be treated as such.

Hopefully, she is just a young college freshman who will soon learn how to make such distinctions.

As for spelling, grammar, and the like, I am only bothered when it's obvious that the person isn't trying. It isn't necessary to berate someone or downplay his intelligence simply because he accidentally used "they're" when he should have used "their," or maybe wrote "its" when he was supposed to write "it's." We all make mistakes like that from time to time. But to write things like "omg...wat u doin 2 day" is never a good way to communicate.

[SuperB]

I would have shot back the location of the book, "Eats Shoots and Leaves".

Mistakes happen but I do wish more people would pay attention to spelling and grammar. I'm even tough on the kids when it comes to texting, abbreviations and the way the kids like to "spell". It's ok for the phone but never in their emails. Even emails to friends. (and I insist on their passwords to keep an eye on their online activities so I'll know)

[Stormraven]

I have a friend who cannot spell, and often fails at basic word order and grammar. Blames it on being a programmer.

It's a bit of a pain because I'm a grammar and spelling 'nazi', as it were, and trying to read emails from my friend is difficult to say the least. I have managed, however, to not send reactive emails or posts, as I've found it rarely does any good save to cause flamewars.

[Reyneth]

This is one of my pet peeves. As some know, I admin a website and forum. People write stories and post them. I once had someone who submitted a story that was 475 words in length. In this diatribe, they used a grand total of one capital letter, and that one wasn't any of the thirty or so singular letter I's that he used to indicate himself. He also used only one period and two commas, of which one was used in place of an apostrophe. They misspelled 78 words and used one paragraph.

It's times like these when I think "Global warming? Sure! Humans don't deserve to live anymore, we're too stupid. Leave the planet for the bugs."

*sigh*

It drives me batshit crazy when the director of my department at work sends emails with blatant misuse of you're/your and apostrophes and plurals - things like "Put you're reservation's in now!" THIS is the guy in control of my job?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This is one of my pet peeves. As some know, I admin a website and forum. People write stories and post them. I once had someone who submitted a story that was 475 words in length. In this diatribe, they used a grand total of one capital letter, and that one wasn't any of the thirty or so singular letter I's that he used to indicate himself. He also used only one period and two commas, of which one was used in place of an apostrophe. They misspelled 78 words and used one paragraph.

I have it pinned to the top of the board with the title: "How NOT to write a story."

1. My personal example of "How Not to Write A Story" is The Fanfic That Shall Not Be Named (aka My Immortal)

"I jumped secxily in front of da bullet!11"

2. Would you mind linking us to that particular story? My morbid sense of curiosity is now piqued and I have an urge to see this steaming pile of grammatical crap.

[ArcticChicken]

I hate, loathe, and abhor "netspeak." Drives me up the fucking wall. I don't mind the occasional acronym, in fact, I use some of them, but anything that has more symbols than letters in it makes me want to kill. Someday I am going to respond to something like that by spelling out my response as in: one bardashbarfourseventhree yoo