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

Could putting correct use of grammar and new volcabulary in childrens tv shows and cartoons help children. I was only thinking of this yesterday when I was in a conversation about old factory evidence. I learned the word old factory from a cartoon show.

Almost anything which could attract children away from 'Texting' english would be desirable. I'm one of those old pedants who text in full, punctuated language! ( to the xasperationof younger family members!)

Novo

PS

I also make spelling mistakes - exasperation -

Its not a youth thing its a medium thing. I know plenty of people in their 30s and 40s who do it too. Presumably person responsible for "the Sun" headline "GOTCHA" or the people responsible for the naming of stores such as phones4U and toysRus arent children.

I know they arent children but for catchy titles spelling takes up to much space so they reduce letters. I am talking about speaking in formal conversation and formal writing.

>>Could putting correct use of grammar and new volcabulary in childrens tv shows and cartoons help children.<<

It certainly would, but perhaps those examples should be split - TV shows, definitely yes, including more recent types of animated shows, but old-style cartoons are different (Bugs Bunny etc) and obviously so even, I reckon, to quite young children.

There was a time when (most) adults made some effort to speak 'properly' when there were children around - as properly as they knew how, anyway - but now, I'm not so sure. Mobiles and www seem to have a disproportionate influence.

Newspapers & TV especially, should be encouraged - starting with the beeb insisting on practice 'before' reading the news.

And what is the meaning of the quotation marks on the word /before/, Rod?

TRiG.

Just emphasis?

Perhaps they 'are' required to read it before they read it out, but sometimes it doesn't seem so.

When I leave, there'll be one fewer (ha!) trying to be 'correct' when it's appropriate.

'Rod'

I guess if the boards allowed it you'd put those words in italics or bold in order to put the emphasis. I tend to use asterisks for that myself, but sometimes that gets confusing too.

The use of quotation marks for emphasis is one of my pet bugbears. It's completely wrong. Quotation marks can be used for irony. There's a fair difference between a *free* breakfast and a 'free' breakfast, isn't there?

Italics should be used for emphasis. In the plain text, I use asterisks.
Italics are also used for names of ships, titles of books, and similar. In plain text, no marking is required.
Italics also mark usages of a word as a word, as distinct from the use of that word as its meaning. In plain text, I use solduses (soldi?), but that's just me.

Observe:
Socrates was a Greek philosopher.
/Socrates/ has eight letters.

Of course, ideally, the sentence structure itself should indicate which words are emphasised, and no typographical marking should be necessary. It is nice, though, to have some such device at our disposal for occasional use.

Any typos in this post were inserted by the dna software as I posted it.

TRiG.

Well, I disagree with some of your examples - but agree overall.

The thing is, if I was to grasp everyone's posts thoroughly, first time - and everyone grasped all of mine, I wouldn't feel the need to use these artificial constructs at all, even once in a while or even ever, or ever, even (or even these separated paragraphs).

It would be nice to be able to use rich text here, wouldn't it? In its absence, I fall back on experience - bite sized blocks of text, minor points separated, etc.

So, "free", the solidus (ha) /free/ or any of \free\, /free\, \free/ are all available to in context of (how I see) these postings, which are, after all, conversational rather than 'written' communication.

It seems to me, in your examples, that *free* or "free" implies more of the same as 'free', not a different quality.

Were they *really* typos? 'All' of them?

"It seems to me, in your examples, that *free* or "free" implies more of the same as 'free', not a different quality."

Huh, funny that. It really comes across as different to me. Whereas:

"...the solidus (ha) /free/ or any of \free\, /free\, \free/ are all available to in context of (how I see) these postings..."

What do your back and forward slashes do here? What do they mean?

Interesting that you, too, see differences.

Slashes - they were an **ever-so-gentle** mickey-take aimed at TriG (and me) - or, intended to be.

Given that posting to a thread is partaking in a conversation rather than composing an essay or a letter, I select my own 'conventions' (having regard to what I've seen before). For example, I use >quote< or >>Quote<< as being 'heavier' & more visible than "quote".

Perhaps I'm missing something here - are there such conventions already laid down, or suggested?

I think there are hootoo conventions (the use of the asterisk, really), but I don't know hoe they translate outside of here, to be honest. The other method I've seen on boards is to produce emphasis like _this_, which, whilst I don't like it as much as *this*, doesn't cause as many problems in Rich Text, I think.

Basically, it doesn't matter, so long as your meaning is conveyed. I think the main problem is that the use of 'this' already has a set meaning in written form, so it's natural to presume that that is the meaning that you want. It isn't, of course, but people who are new to your typed speech won't know that.

Points taken, Vip, to heart.

I shall put a brave face on it.

There, I *have* done so, and feel better for it.

Rod

Jhawkesby
c/o Could it Work
The Forum
H2g2
BBCdotCodotUK

Dear Sir or Madam,

Has *any* of that _helped_ at all?

Yours sincerely

RodtheBrit
@PedantsCorner_dot_Disorg_dot_NotAlone

Glad to be of service...

Amusingly, of course, we've gone completely off topic. *grin*

I would vote: Yes! to the original question, of course. It's easier to learn by example.

Thankyou all for your replies and please keep them coming because they are really helpful but I am writing this message because I wasnt sure where else to put it. I wanted to know how do you change the size of the text in guide ml and also is there such a thing as a waving smiley.

I have another question to add as well how do you align text. I would like to align some text to the center but I dont know how to do it.

From here, perhaps the easiest route is click on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/SubEditors-GuideML

There, you'll find info & other links,

RtB