On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, Anthony DiPierro wrote:
On 10/17/05, Geoff Burling
<llywrch(a)agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
>
[snip]
I wouldn't
say anything about this paragraph, had it not appeared
in the same post, because despite having a college degree in English,
I still manage to misspell words. However, it borders on parody to
find one statement with 3 glaring misspellings follow an incoherent
one. I like to think that the people who post here on a regular
basis are some of the brightest & most articulate (& yours truly)
members of Wikipedia; seeing the above, I have to strongly reconsider
that assumption. Typos & misspellings only undercut the power & logic
of a writer's arguments, which is why I struggle to keep them out
of what I write. (And an old Usenet rule dictates that at least one
of these can be found in my email.)
Take a look at the other writings by this person. I'm not sure what the
problem is, but it might be that they don't speak English as their primary
language.
The point of my email was to focus on the problem, not the person; that
is why I snipped off the identifying details. But since you raised that
issue, I'll say this. I was under the impression that the original poster
(OP) was a native English speaker, based on the idiomatic fluency of his
language. Add to that the fact that the OP often makes a logical &
plausible argument for his opinions, & this blemish of typos & misspellings
is just a shame. If he's not a native speaker of English, he's fooling me
now, & would fool me even better if he did just a little more work.
Had this person been another, run-of-the-mill whiner sending us another
forgettable "I've been banned by a rogue Admin who picks on me because I
violated the 3RR rule, but I won't mention it because that would make me
look like the loon I am" email, I wouldn't bother making the effort; at
most, I'd adjust the settings on my computer & make his email go bye-bye.
I'm trying to offer constructive criticism here. My message was "you
could be a more effective writer if you did these things", not "your lack
of grammar & spelling cancels out anything you might have to say; now
go away." I'm sorry if that was not how it was received.
Geoff