Thanks for your appropriately expressed opinion. Correct usage is essential
to real communication. Flaming is unnecessarily rude.

Mickey Gibson
Sequim, WA

At 06:56 AM 2/11/97 -0800, you wrote:
>On Tue, 11 Feb 1997, Craig Corder wrote:
>
>> Last week I said we should not be concerned with English errors in our posts.
>>
>> I received a little sympathy, but no support for my stand, so I yield. I
>> will do my best to proof my posts and will not be offended if you flame my
>> goofs.
>
>I must have missed Craig's original message, so I don't know exactly what
>he said, but I'll give you a viewpoint. I think people ought to be
>reasonably careful, but flaming someone for an error is definitely too
>harsh. A little teasing might be more appropriate for some errors. I
>think we tend to have the attitude that since these messages are just
>written in electrons, rather than paper, and since we write them fast,
>it's okay to be sloppy. I'd like us, instead, to take the same care we
>would take in writing a greeting card to a friend. As a professor at a
>college where we have students write a great deal, I get really distressed
>by the errors many students make, errors that my contemporaries and I
>never would have made beyond 3rd or 4th grade. So I do get concerned when
>I see people on tweeters or other such groups not knowing how to punctuate
>possessives, not knowing the difference between _its_ and _it's_, between
>_site_ and _sight_ (an important distinction for birders!), and making
>similar errors. My college professor's drive to improve people and make
>the world perfect leads me to suggest that as we give one another
>important information about birds, we might also give one another lessons
>to improve our writing, so we can all communicate better. I don't mean
>private reprimands or flames but, rather, an occasional impersonal
>reminder. For instance, let me remind everyone that _it's_ is a
>contraction for "it is" while _its_ is the possessive of _it_. There,
>that didn't offend anyone, did it? :-) And now we can all be morally
>and grammatically superior for the rest of the day!
>
>Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
>The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
>Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794
>
>Reunite Gondwanaland!
>
>
>