Encourage public opinion online
Grammar policing online is not that bad because the use of language has changed a lot on the internet (‘Stop shaming people for online grammar errors’, Gulf News, April 21). Messages and greetings are in abbreviations nowadays and some may call it lack of time, but the new slang people have started using online to get attention is unethical.
But, shaming online for grammatical errors should be given a second thought. People find online social networking sites as a platform to voice their views, develop and socialise. We need to understand that not all are having proper language skills. These skills improve when we use them. For people who feel shy to speak in public, they have online platforms before them. Shaming them online would just lower their self-confidence. Instead we should support their growth.
We should let common sense prevail to understand if grammar mistakes are purposely done or not, and act accordingly.
From Ms Atheena Mohammad Chulliyil
Kozhikode, India
No need to throw insults
I am really bothered by grammatical errors, wherever I see them. Born as the grandson of an English professor and the son of an English teacher, maybe I have got this flair for the English language. I find it very easy to spot errors, but I don’t try to insult people. Everybody cannot have the same talent or skill. I feel we can correct them in a decent manner.
From Mr Achilles Ash
Dubai
The evolution of English
This article describes in detail about the scientific analysis about how, why and in which possible circumstances people tend to make spelling errors. While giving due respect to these factors, it can be stated with a fair amount of conviction that, these days, people make spelling errors for various other reasons as well, such as saving time, fashion and twitter-like character constraints.
It has become a fashion these days, particularly among the youngsters, to use abbreviations for commonly used terms. God only knows how is one able to attain riches of any kind by saving the time in writing ‘see you’ as ‘c u’.
This is also resulting in a genuine problem concerning vocabulary-building among children. The children of this generation, who chat incessantly, tend to use language as a tool for conveying messages only and are least bothered about the established grammatical rules.
Extrapolating this phenomenon, it would make any language scholar shudder to imagine that these teenagers are going to be adults in the next decade and what kind of language skills they are going to impart in their children. Grammar is really in a danger of facing extinction in a decade or two.
Nevertheless, a basic rule of evolution is that the species adapts to the changing environment quickly and improves upon that till another invention happens.
From Mr Suhas Inamdar
UAE
Grammar is paramount
Online writers, especially bloggers, are guided largely by the number of ‘likes’, ‘hits’ and positive feedback, than an awareness of the basic rules of writing, where grammar plays a vital role. It’s a pity that online interactions make us judge strangers not only by what they post, but also how they frame the same.
However, since we humans are prone to err, we often discount occasional lapses and inadvertent typos, but frequently writers and bloggers pepper their posts with incorrect tenses, sloppy punctuation and an overall feeble language structure. Readers who care for adequate standards in writing are put off at once and no matter how tolerant they are of other people, their backgrounds and their differences, poor grammar often drives them up the wall. Shoddy language, for this reason, can damage not just the credibility of one’s communication, but of their personality as well.
In spite of everything, there are many who argue that laying too much emphasis on the finesse of grammar is an elitist thing. What matters is the ability to express oneself without having to bother about rules. A whole slew of language users will jump to defend the leftist claim, but perfectionists insist that grammar is the foundation of communication and proper grammar conveys a message clearly to the audience.
From Mr Arvind Sahay
UAE
Grammar police must follow ethics
People at times take pride or feel amused when correcting grammatical mistakes in comments and posts shared by other people on social media platforms. These mistakes are done in status updates or in the comments section of a post. Some bloggers also make mistakes and the grammar police are there to highlight every error. These grammar police, however, are a small group of people who feel excited when identifying grammatical mistakes.
English is not a native language of many and doing grammatical mistakes or errors in syntax and parallelism is something that can be ignored. However, there are some who pinpoint these mistakes either to show their superiority or to belittle others. Such people must understand that people ignore grammatical mistakes because message is more or less disseminated properly. Moreover, social media users do not have time to rectify all grammatical mistakes and this grammar police wastes its own time in doing so.
In addition to this, the person who has made a grammatical error feels demotivated when their mistakes are openly discussed. The grammar police must follow ethics and send a personal message or email to the person making the mistake so that the person can learn from the mistake without the mistake being openly publicised over social media.
From Mr M. Omar Iftikhar
Karachi, Pakistan
Scholars not always successful
There are things in life that we tend to blow out of proportion by criticising them harshly and grammar policing is one of them. It seems as though, those who try to castigate social media posting by just looking at the grammatical follies rather than focussing on the content or message are missing the critical point.
It has always made me wonder why all English language professors whom we consider experts in grammatical structure are not necessarily known to be great writers or poets. It could also be puzzling why all economic scholars don’t end up being successful businessmen and get immensely rich. These facts tell us something very insightful, that expertise in your chosen field does not necessarily mean you are immaculate and never failing. On the other hand, rules concerning syntax and brevity in sentence constructions should have to be viewed as significant matters regardless of the media one chooses to write.
Blatant criticism on the imperfections of a write-up solely based on its grammatical errors does not help either the writer or the reader. We all know for sure that someone who is capable of writing something reasonably well wouldn’t be too dumb not to distinguish between the term “four” from “for”, so why does it becomes so hard for us to accept the fact that we are all humans and we make mistakes?
From Mr V. I. Mohammad Sageer
UAE
We all make mistakes!
Readers should read and understand the concept of the sentence and story as a whole rather than a single written word. Clerical errors or just negligence may be the cause of these mistakes and not really because writers or commentators are less familiar with the correct words. We are humans and we make mistakes, and no one should be ridiculed for that.
From Ms Melda Aghaali
UAE
Absolute perfection doesn’t exist
Language is for communication. If a writer successfully conveys a message across, usage of grammar has little significance to do with it, though a write-up with grammatical errors and wrong usages will look extremely awkward at the outset. In cases where grammatical errors do exist, but the message is clear enough for readers to make out, such errors are forgivable provided they are genuine slip-ups.
At the same time, it goes without saying that pointing out the mistakes of writers and shaming them in public is the most condemnable of all. No human is perfect in anything. Leave alone the art of writing. It is natural for people to strive for perfection in all that they do though, absolute perfectionism still remains and will remain a myth. It is a social responsibility of all to encourage people to express themselves in all formats, of which writing is a vital tool.
Having said that, when it comes to language I am very conservative. I am from the orthodox school of thought that believes grammar needs to be preserved without damaging the soul of language. Any attempt to modernise language by inculcating purported wrong usages cannot be tolerated.
From Mr Rejees Choolayil
UAE
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