Proud_Poppa_of_2
Member
My favorite IAP post appeared on the boards yesterday when Robert Johnson, Rojo22, said,
“I dialed in for the trivia channel and got an English class.â€
It has not been lost on the IAP membership that we have spent much energy discussing grammar, spelling, word usage, and style, with proponents trumpeting various rules and authorities in support of their respective positions. What seems to have been lost on the participants to the unending debate, however, is recognition that the style guides and grammar texts were not written with an interactive medium like the IAP forums in mind. Hence, these authorities are of limited, might we say, authority.
Rules guiding the use of language and orthography evolve over time and are specific to a medium, although rules may overlap between media. As participants in this interactive medium, we establish our own rules. The genesis of our rules was, perhaps, the same set of rules governing the media in force at the time, but our rules clearly have evolved as they have their differences and are more suitable to this medium. For instance, we permit certain acronyms (i.e., ROTFLMAO, SWMBO) that are impermissible in newspaper articles and letters to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. We use emoticons to help convey the intent behind our printed words. We insert graphics to give our words color and added meaning.
At the end of the day, communication is about the sharing of facts, instructions, emotions, opinions and ideas among and between ourselves so that the giver and the receiver have the same understanding of the information shared. Rules help us achieve that end, but a violation of the rules does not necessarily mean that end was not achieved. We have communicated successfully if giver and receiver are on the same page, regardless whether we have followed all of the rules.
Participants in these forums lack the assistance of professional editors and proofreaders, so we expect a greater error rate. The charitable among us accept it. The honest among us admit their contributions. Unless these errors cause us to misunderstand one another, and the goal of our subsequent identification of these errors and discussion thereof is to assist the communication process and achieve better understanding, then the exercise is moot.
E.E. Cummings is known for the creative license he employed with the orthography in his poetry. It was meaningful to him and to his devotees. His poetry was, after all, his and he was free to express himself in the manner he saw fit. Within the limits of acceptable use established by the IAP, we have the same freedom to use our words, punctuation, style, and grammar as we see fit. Hence, it is not “error†if we say it the way we mean to say it although the way we say it transgresses some authority’s rule.
I came here to learn about pen turning and to make some friends. I’ve done both and I have had no difficulty understanding the folks who have contributed of themselves through the written word. When Hank Lee starts writing in Kanji, I’ll have something to say, but until then, I appreciate the sharing, I appreciate the people who do the sharing, and I hope the next time Robert Johnson tunes into the trivia channel, he won’t find an English class.
“I dialed in for the trivia channel and got an English class.â€
It has not been lost on the IAP membership that we have spent much energy discussing grammar, spelling, word usage, and style, with proponents trumpeting various rules and authorities in support of their respective positions. What seems to have been lost on the participants to the unending debate, however, is recognition that the style guides and grammar texts were not written with an interactive medium like the IAP forums in mind. Hence, these authorities are of limited, might we say, authority.
Rules guiding the use of language and orthography evolve over time and are specific to a medium, although rules may overlap between media. As participants in this interactive medium, we establish our own rules. The genesis of our rules was, perhaps, the same set of rules governing the media in force at the time, but our rules clearly have evolved as they have their differences and are more suitable to this medium. For instance, we permit certain acronyms (i.e., ROTFLMAO, SWMBO) that are impermissible in newspaper articles and letters to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. We use emoticons to help convey the intent behind our printed words. We insert graphics to give our words color and added meaning.
At the end of the day, communication is about the sharing of facts, instructions, emotions, opinions and ideas among and between ourselves so that the giver and the receiver have the same understanding of the information shared. Rules help us achieve that end, but a violation of the rules does not necessarily mean that end was not achieved. We have communicated successfully if giver and receiver are on the same page, regardless whether we have followed all of the rules.
Participants in these forums lack the assistance of professional editors and proofreaders, so we expect a greater error rate. The charitable among us accept it. The honest among us admit their contributions. Unless these errors cause us to misunderstand one another, and the goal of our subsequent identification of these errors and discussion thereof is to assist the communication process and achieve better understanding, then the exercise is moot.
E.E. Cummings is known for the creative license he employed with the orthography in his poetry. It was meaningful to him and to his devotees. His poetry was, after all, his and he was free to express himself in the manner he saw fit. Within the limits of acceptable use established by the IAP, we have the same freedom to use our words, punctuation, style, and grammar as we see fit. Hence, it is not “error†if we say it the way we mean to say it although the way we say it transgresses some authority’s rule.
I came here to learn about pen turning and to make some friends. I’ve done both and I have had no difficulty understanding the folks who have contributed of themselves through the written word. When Hank Lee starts writing in Kanji, I’ll have something to say, but until then, I appreciate the sharing, I appreciate the people who do the sharing, and I hope the next time Robert Johnson tunes into the trivia channel, he won’t find an English class.
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