"If you cannot write well, you cannot think well. And if you cannot think well, someone else will do your thinking for you." George Orwell


I'm curious to hear what people have to say... does a person's writing/typing ability reflect their intelligence? By this I don't mean typing speed, or the subject of their writing, or even creativity... I'm talking about proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, word use, and syntax. Does it affect your opinion of them?

No reason for you not to use proper grammar, punctuation, and so on. We all make mistakes though but those are expected.

Yes and no. Some mistakes are excusable seeing as not everyone speaks the same languages. Then you have the ones due to pure idiocy, and you can usually tell between the two.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

I think a person's vocabulary (and use thereof) can be quite a good reflection of their intelligence, but it's certainly not the only way in which their intelligence should or could be measured.

Intelligence can potentially be divided into many areas, for example, musical intelligence etc. Some streams of psychology have come up with a list of many different 'aspects' of intelligence.

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Originally posted by Enigmatik Does it affect your opinion of them?

On an international forum with people from non-English speaking backgrounds, varying education quality and the fact it's a completely casual conversation environment means that I'm not expecting very much. Frankly, its not really that much of an issue unless you're going to be doing it just to annoy or try to be cool, the role of teaching English to people that don't give a damn in the first place on the internet, is beneath me. You don't pay me enough to care

Business should be formal though, especially in terms of presenting your resume to prospective employers, most are highly critical of it there because if there is a consistent amount of errors, typos and grammar then they'll probably be pulling them up later on the same lack of care in their job. It depends on the position though, some just aren't allowed any errors at all, others will have very little bearing on how well they preform.

no thanks, i am happy with out misepelling.

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On OOKA-OOKA ME NACHOS ME PRESS KEYS ON COMPUTER GOOD

miisissipi

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Maynard James Keenan:
Like hearing my grandmother, talk to her dog that way -- "Ooo
-- puppy!" and I said I'd never do that, ever! And now I have two
dogs and I talk like an imbecile! I wander around, "Ooo! You want
food!" I've turned into a f*cking moron.

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Originally posted by Lilith On an international forum with people from non-English speaking backgrounds, varying education quality and the fact it's a completely casual conversation environment means that I'm not expecting very much. Frankly, its not really that much of an issue unless you're going to be doing it just to annoy or try to be cool, the role of teaching English to people that don't give a damn in the first place on the internet, is beneath me. You don't pay me enough to care Business should be formal though, especially in terms of presenting your resume to prospective employers, most are highly critical of it there because if there is a consistent amount of errors, typos and grammar then they'll probably be pulling them up later on the same lack of care in their job. It depends on the position though, some just aren't allowed any errors at all, others will have very little bearing on how well they preform.

I understand, and agree with most of what you said. But see I don't think the fact that English being some people's second language is an excuse for their mediocre spelling. English is my fourth language and I've only been learning it for 5 years, but I still spell properly.

Also, what I'm takling about are the people who don't bother to correct glaring, obvious spelling errors ("then/than" "thier," "your" instead of "you're", etc). Or whose grammar/syntax is so tangled you can't understand what they're saying. (I've seen several of these)

It just seems to me that spelling correctly and constructing clear, readable, understandable sentences should be a basic skill.

Ya, I'm in the same boat as E! I've been speaking English for 4 years and I still take the time to spell properly and correct my mistakes. I'm not perfect in English at all but I find it sad when I can use English better than people who have been speaking it their whole life. I'm still learning.

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Originally posted by Frenchie Ya, I'm in the same boat as E! I've been speaking English for 4 years and I still take the time to spell properly and correct my mistakes. I'm not perfect in English at all but I find it sad when I can use English better than people who have been speaking it their whole life. I'm still learning.

+1

Good grammar/spelling is sexy.

I am far more willing to read someone's post who uses correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling, to the best of their abilities. Because let's face it, it's a lot easier to type correctly, and also to read people's speech.
A lot of the time I believe typing style DOES reflect a person's intelligence...It doesn't necessarily make them stupid, but it does reflect on their respect for the language. I'm a geek for that sort of stuff, so I tend to think less of people who don't bother to use it properly.

People who've had a good education in a second language do tend to have very good written skills as they've learned to be meticulous with the composition because they're aware that they would have been under critical supervision. For things like their sentence structure though you'll notice that sometimes on a casual basis they'll fall back into a mix of ethnic and english languages as its just how their wired to think and write as they would say it.
It's not because they're stupid, they're simply thinking as they would normally in a manner which is different to the english sentence structure, so I do disagree on Orwell in that regard.

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Originally posted by Lilith People who've had a good education in a second language do tend to have very good written skills as they've learned to be meticulous with the composition because they're aware that they would have been under critical supervision. For things like their sentence structure though you'll notice that sometimes on a casual basis they'll fall back into a mix of ethnic and english languages as its just how their wired to think and write as they would say it. It's not because they're stupid, they're simply thinking as they would normally in a manner which is different to the english sentence structure, so I do disagree on Orwell in that regard.

i disagree, or maybe i am out of the norm. specially with "lingo" and internet tying, my spelling has not been as good as it was before. i am defently a horrible speller. but i was the spelling b champion from 3rd to 6th grade

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On OOKA-OOKA ME NACHOS ME PRESS KEYS ON COMPUTER GOOD