Grammar Nazi?

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Does anyone have problems with grammar?.... Specifically with other people using bad grammar?

I'm having problems at work in a job I've previously been pretty good at (testing software prior to its release) and I believe part of the problem is I get distracted by other people's bad grammar when they speak. It's bad enough that I don't really understand what they're talking about.

Previously the section that I was working in had a very structured and basically written culture for the reporting etc. Everything was emailed and if I did have to talk to someone it would be a developer about a specific tech issue.

Now I'm in a section where just about everything is done verbally and although that generally isn't a problem with the dev team (tech specific), one of my co-workers has pretty atrocious grammar and litters his speech with buzz-words and neologisms.

Counter-issue is I get on pretty well with him and consider him a friend, also he has asphedic dyslexia, so even if I could get the rest of the team to follow the structured, written approach that most of the rest of the dev teams use, it would effectively cripple him... I don't want that.

Given that there are other QA/test teams at the company does it sound sane that I ask for a transfer into one of them so that I won't have to deal (in terms of technical discussions) with someone whose speech I struggle to follow at times?

I'm finding that I'm lapsing into the sort of displacement activities I associate with a fairly major breakdown and I want to avoid that. I seem to be stimming more having not done so for nearly three years.

argh


Chrisc

No I have a problem with the people who constantly say about my grammer and spelling. All I can say is if you can understand the sentence even with the spelling and grammer mistakes it doesn't mean that much. I hate it when people other then my teachers and that always comment how my grammer is wrong and you should improve otherwise your a prat etc. I don't care...and if you keep saying it i will always ignore you.

People HATE grammar Nazis. You need to learn to get past this, becuase not everyone has perfect grammar.

I'm ok with bad grammar when it's written down. It's when it is spoken that I have a problem. Written down I can go through it several times and work it out properly, spoken it just short-circuits my ability to process the information.

I've never had to deal with it before, the two schools I went to you could get beaten (first school back when corporal punishment wasn't uncommon) or detention/expelled for persistent bad grammar (in both speech and your homework etc).

At college I was studying science/engineering, and since then I've always worked in tech environments with people with tech degrees... they tend to be fairly precise when talking tech..... I've just never had to deal with bad grammar as a major form of information before and I find that I can't seem to do it....

chrisc

...not everyone hates grammar nazis. In fact, some grammar nazis make great money as technical writers or editors. One of my favorite editors in my 'old career' was a mild Aspie -- she kicked grammar butt.

Now, it is rather rude when you are with people you don't know really well to correct their spoken grammar. It's sort of like telling someone they are fat. Even if you are correct, you'll hurt their feelings or piss them off. If you don't understand them, you can always ask -- 'Hm, not sure what you mean by that...do you mean....?" and then paraphrase what you think their intent is.

Remember, also, that spoken grammar is often far more colloquial, and so more fluid and less precise. That's actually a good thing, because that is how language changes over time. If language didn't change, we'd be speaking Old English today. All Hail, William Shakespeare...language has to be flexible or we could never convey anything new. And creative writing would be non-existent.

My particular grammarian bete noir is using 'since' as causal (meaning: because) rather than in it's correct usage (meaning: a period of time).

I get pretty annoyed by bad grammar, I try not to correct though cause that got me in trouble before.

what I absolutely hate though is when people make logical mistakes or use vocabulary that is not very precise.

When i speak i have problems finding the right grammer and my brain tries to get in the way of it so yes even when i speak sometimes i use the wrong type of grammer. But a lot of people are brought up in different ways and use words that they think is one thing but another person is completly different.

I am a compulsive proofreader... If I find a print-out and it has spelling mistakes, I tend to correct them, even if not asked or not supposed to. However, even with my preference for perfect language use, it really bugs me in online arguments when people will disregard someone's entire argument for one spelling mistake or something. I understand someone's frustration if it's a giant wall of text in all caps or lower-case and "tyepd liek thiz," but when someone generally knows how to spell and write properly and slips up once or twice, it's neither fair nor intellectually honest to disregard what they're saying because they made a mistake.

I am with BokeKaeru on this. Grammar, punctuation and spelling errors in any printed material stands out like a sore thumb to me. In a sense, I feel embarrassment for the author and printing company for letting an error go unnoticed.

Don't even get me started on yard signs that read: "Kittie's 4 Sale".

I find that both poorly spoken, and poorly written grammar drive me nuts. I was recently reading an article on traveling for the disabled, and found so many typos and examples of poor usage, that I wanted to tear my hair out! It greatly distracted me from what the author wanted to say, because I couldn't stop mentally wielding a huge, red pencil! As a professional writer, I must say that this is one of my pet peeves.