h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i am blond & an e is added when spoken as joke t both sex's......!

Shake:

Sentences always begin with a capital letter.

I (when referring to oneself) should always be a capital letter.

An ampersand is not intended to be used like that in a sentence.

By 't' I presume you mean 'to'.

The plural of sex is sexes, not sex's. An apostrophe should never be used to denote a plural.

Using a written language correctly is not optional. If we intentionally forget the conventions of a written language, we lose the ability to communicate effectively. These basic rules are among the first things to be taught to a child upon starting school. So, presuming you are more than six years old, why have you forgotten such basic rules of written communication?

I disagree with almost every one of your assertions. Although they would hold true in formal writing. Certainly in an informal post or even for other reasons such as different speech registers a person might choose to write in that way.

well excuse me... when putting words & letters down here, i do it as if i am using my mobile for text msg. Does that satisfy you?? Oh by the way spelling is not my strong point.....!!

I feel I have to weigh in on Empty Sky's side on this one. I had to read that post three times to get the sense of it.

i under stood it the 1st time, but i am dyslexic which kinda helps when reading sumthing not written in the usual way.

though i notice that wirrting properly does make a difference

if im typing an essay and ive been using abreviations when typing in postings or IM i will inenvertantly start using hat in the essay, meaning i have to retype parts of it.

if you use it it becomes habit, which would then become general practice

not gd when you have to write lots

I am sorry, i can write properly when it suits me....

i can't

"i can write properly when it suits me"

Then why don't you? Please try to understand that it's not up to you, it's not optional. It's very easy to completely alter the meaning of a sentence, or at least render it ambiguous, simply by:

spelling a word incorrectly

inserting incorrect punctuation

leaving out correct punctuation

omitting capital letters.

Any one of those can change the meaning of what you say. It's not unusual for you to manage them all in one sentence.

That's why writing a language correctly is not optional. Those conventions are there for a good reason and if we ignore them we lose the ability to communicate effectively.

There's no excuse for using phone-type text language on your computer. Text message abbreviations are designed to save time. But when typing on a keyboard, leaving out capitals and punctuation saves no time at all. In fact it costs a great deal of time if your sentence is ambiguous.

It's not informal, it's incorrect.

I agree mostly with what Empty Sky says, but I believe that the rules for the English language were codified before the mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French really had a chance to sort itself out. Perhaps a couple of hundred more years of illiteracy would have resulted in a language that is more logical. English spelling is soooo confusing -- Gs that sound like Js, Cs that sound like Ss, and those awful OUGHs. I recall that G. Bernard Shaw left money in his will to fund a program to address this mess. But his family took it to court, and won, so they got all the money.

Just to let you know, i do not have a keyboard. I try my best with what i have..

"English spelling is soooo confusing"

True but irrelevant to this discussion. The rules of spelling are firm, they're understood and they apply. So there's no excuse for ignoring them.

Shake, if you don't have a keyboard then what do you use?

my remote!!!

'Remote' is not a noun.

why do you always have to pick me up, on what i write???

Have you never been made an example of before?

Who the hell do you think you are? If it makes you happy to make an example out of me, fine do what you have too.

It seems to have worked.