Grammer Burnout

[WolfmanHarris]

So this is not work related burnout, but it is something that I'm sure if affecting many of us and is starting to way heavily on me...

absolutely awful spelling and grammer on the forums. I don't mean simple mistakes, like the ones that I'm sure are scattered through my post now, but flat out barely legible posts.

It seems that efforts to address this in the read me fall on deaf ears as the attention to detail necessary to read such an important post, is going to be lacking in someone unable to spend the time on basic punctuation and capitalization. Efforts by individual members fall on deaf ears or face backlash.

I will be blunt, if I have to decipher your posts due to poor grammer, spelling and sentence structure, I assume you are an idiot and will filter your contributions through that assumption. Regardless of how you perform on the street or in a clinical setting, in my mind you could not possibly be a competent professional. That being said, I can only ignore so much; I'm sure I am not alone.

My proposed solution, insane as it may be, is this: new threads that do not show the most basic attention to proper English should receive a PM warning them to edit it or have it removed from Admin. I know this may sound harsh, but I believe it may be the only reasonable alternative to these individuals being tackled by other members.

Perhaps I'm mad, but a "great" man once said, in a movie I only kinda remember but think is well known:

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Regards,

- Matt

P.S. Perhaps this should have been under Funny Stuff? I'm nearing shift change and I'm no longer sure how much of this post was meant ironically.

[akflightmedic]

So this is not work related burnout, but it is something that I'm sure if affecting many of us and is starting to way heavily on me...

absolutely awful spelling and grammer on the forums. I don't mean simple mistakes, like the ones that I'm sure are scattered through my post now, but flat out barely legible posts.

It seems that efforts to address this in the read me fall on deaf ears as the attention to detail necessary to read such an important post, is going to be lacking in someone unable to spend the time on basic punctuation and capitalization. Efforts by individual members fall on deaf ears or face backlash.

I will be blunt, if I have to decipher your posts due to poor grammer, spelling and sentence structure, I assume you are an idiot and will filter your contributions through that assumption. Regardless of how you perform on the street or in a clinical setting, in my mind you could not possibly be a competent professional. That being said, I can only ignore so much; I'm sure I am not alone.

My proposed solution, insane as it may be, is this: new threads that do not show the most basic attention to proper English should receive a PM warning them to edit it or have it removed from Admin. I know this may sound harsh, but I believe it may be the only reasonable alternative to these individuals being tackled by other members.

Perhaps I'm mad, but a "great" man once said, in a movie I only kinda remember but think is well known:

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Regards,

- Matt

P.S. Perhaps this should have been under Funny Stuff? I'm nearing shift change and I'm no longer sure how much of this post was meant ironically.

Well said and I agree with you 100% in regards to the reaction I have when I read such drivel. I hate text talk and I struggle with this daily in my interactions with my younger family members. It takes no significant amount of time to write out exactly what needs to be said in an intelligent manner as opposed to cutesy short cuts. Geez, there used to be days when we hand wrote everything and now typing it takes too long?

Anyways, great post and your ideas will be taken into consideration.

[stcommodore]

How about a grammer and spell checker.

[SA_Medic]

I am one of the guilty parties with regards to spelling, grammar and sentence structure. What I would like to state though, is that this site has become more and more international. Not everyone in the freaking world speaks "American English" in fact, not everyone speaks English in their daily lives. Looking at my daily work live as an example, if I spoke 20 words English in a day, it's lots. Sadly, there's more than one English "dialect" in this world. How you, as a professional, feel you are qualified to judge someone an idiot based on their English proficiency and therefore judge them on a professional basis even though you personally do not know them is beyond even my "idiotic" grasp.

As for AK's msg on the new shorthand, agreed 100% with you dude. It seriously gets my back up, I do not have the time or energy to even try and decipher what the person is trying to say.

For interest sake, if you use Firefox as a browser. It has a built in spell check facility.

Edited November 2, 2009 by SA_Medic

[Arctickat]

I have to disagree doc...to an extent.

I'm with you all the way when it comes to those who speak the English language as their native tongue, but, for those who are trying to communicate with their counterparts and don't have the English skills we were raised with, I have to cut them some slack. Over the years I've chatted with many who have a poorly constructed post only because they are not all that familiar with the language written in these forums because these are not just American forums, but world wide. Isn't that the whole purpose of websites like this? To be able to simplify communication with our counterparts across the globe? To dismiss these people out of hand as being idiots is nearsighted at best.

Just last summer I gave a tour of my EMS service to a medic from Hungary who didn't speak a word of English, but when the translator with us was unable to interpret the phrase "subarachnoid Hemorrhage" the medic knew exactly what I meant. From that point on I continued to use as much Latin as I could so I wouldn't have to dumb it down into words our interpreter could translate.

Yet another context to consider is those who have a different regional dialect or regional spelling differences than some others. For example, Those from the U.S.A. put "ize" at the ends of words such as victimize or realize. Those in the British commonwealth use 'ise" as in realise and victimise. I've even had people call me an idiot for that very reason because in their arrogance they assume that everyone should communicate just like them.

Edit: Nice post SA-Medic, guess I'm a slower typer than you.

Edited November 2, 2009 by Arctickat

[mrsbull]

How about a grammer and spell checker.

Are you kidding? IF someone is in the EMS field or someone has ANY college (yes ems is a college REQUIRED field) You should be able to spell. I understand SOME misspellings because I cant spell sphygonomometer I use the term BP cuff. Simple, if you cant spell a word (the red underneath the word means its spelled wrong) pick another damn word.

Doc said:

I will be blunt, if I have to decipher your posts due to poor grammar, spelling and sentence structure, I assume you are an idiot and will filter your contributions through that assumption. Regardless of how you perform on the street or in a clinical setting, in my mind you could not possibly be a competent professional. That being said, I can only ignore so much; I'm sure I am not alone.

I agree 100%.

Edited to add: Yes the language barrier is a valid point however I look at the location when reading a post I am having a hard time reading. This helps me understand why I am not able to read said post as well as I would like.

Edited November 2, 2009 by mrsbull

[paramedicmike]

How about a grammer and spell checker.

Sorry. I can't let this continue without pointing this out.

It's grammar.

-be safe

Edited November 2, 2009 by paramedicmike

[FireMedic65]

y wuld u need 2 use spellckr? nun of us typ bad!

[SA_Medic]

So let me get this straight. Me being Afrikaans, or the next person being Hindi, Russian whatever that has difficulty in using grammar properly makes me unprofessional and an idiot?

I personally take offence to the stance and claims in the above posts. No-one has the right to judge me or anyone else for that matter on their professionalism based on the mistakes they make here. If anyone wants to be so near sighted and childish as to base their professional opinion of someone else's professionalism on spelling and grammar, shame on you. I still fail to see how someone not being able to spell a word or use the correct grammar (which still remains to explain which spelling or grammar is being referred to, US, UK, Aus, SA English??) has anything to do whatsoever with the persons ability to do what he or she has been trained to do, alleviate pain and suffering.

[tskstorm]

There is a difference between typing anonymously on a forum, and typing something to be published.

If SoMeOnE ChOoSeS To TyPe LiKe DiS, DaTs DeR pRoBlEm.

If some1 chooses 2 type like this who cares.

You can think they're an idiot for their spelling and grammar, and they may look at your response, and your typing as pompous.

I don't think this should be such an issue, and if it is enough to be enforced on the board, it should be enforced in the chat room, private messages, and status updates as well.