January 18, 2014 at 11:34 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Better Writing
January 20, 2014 at 2:52 am
It may not shine through in my hurried forum posts 🙂 but I do actually set a lot of store on this point. Time after time I am asked to write up reports to justify this, that and the other, because I tend to make to the effort to write clearly and unambiguously, with good grammar and without fluff. You might ask, is that good? To be honest I prefer coding - but - I take some quiet satisfaction from having successfully made cases others have failed to win, which has lead to increased opportunity on my part. It may not be the MOST important part of the job but I think poor written communication holds people back perhaps slightly more than they realise. I do genuinely think it has lead to being taken as a serious person in many instances.
January 20, 2014 at 5:26 am
As I work freelance I have a common set of tasks when starting at a new place as it occurs so frequently. (Assuming MS Outlook but I also assume that most equivalent tools have equivalent features) These include setting the default view of my work calendar for anyone to be as read only (if I want something private I will set it as such) and setting the spell checker to run before sending an email. If I am in too much of a rush to go through the spell checking process when sending an email then I can press cancel and send regardless. As this is an active decision, I can make the call. Rarely is the risk of poor perception and mis-communication outweighed by the need to fire off the email 30 seconds earlier. I just wish there was a "Spellcheck on Save" and "Spellcheck on Print" options in wordprocessors.
For posters here there is a button between the "Post Reply" and "Preview" button. It is labeled "Spell Check". I would suggest that we all consider using it. Whilst I am sure that many people will think that my opinions and posts are invalid or a little skewed by my own experiences or perhaps my language a little too "English", do you think anyone thinks other posts are troll-like rants due to spelling mistakes?
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
January 20, 2014 at 6:21 am
call.copse (1/20/2014)
It may not shine through in my hurried forum posts 🙂 but I do actually set a lot of store on this point. Time after time I am asked to write up reports to justify this, that and the other, because I tend to make :-P[extra TO] to the effort to write clearly and unambiguously, with good grammar and without fluff. You might ask, is that good? To be honest I prefer coding - but - I take some quiet satisfaction from having successfully made cases others have failed to win, which has lead :-P[should be LED] to increased opportunity on my part. It may not be the MOST important part of the job but I think poor written communication holds people back perhaps slightly more than they realise. I do genuinely think it has lead :-P[should be LED] to being taken as a serious person in many instances.
Sorry , couldn't resist this! (I agree though!)
January 20, 2014 at 6:46 am
Steve,
I agree with you comlpetely. It can set one apart from the crowd.
I find it ironic that you are writing this as your editorials often have misspellings and grammatical errors. 😛
Tom
January 20, 2014 at 7:06 am
Gary Varga (1/20/2014)
I just wish there was a "Spellcheck on Save" and "Spellcheck on Print" options in wordprocessors.For posters here there is a button between the "Post Reply" and "Preview" button. It is labeled "Spell Check". I would suggest that we all consider using it. Whilst I am sure that many people will think that my opinions and posts are invalid or a little skewed by my own experiences or perhaps my language a little too "English", do you think anyone thinks other posts are troll-like rants due to spelling mistakes?
Creating "spell check on save or print" functionality shouldn't be hard at all. VBA for Applications is pretty simple to use, and if you have ever used VB Script, it is pretty close.
Spell Check on this web page? Wow. I can't tell you how many times I have opened a separate page to Google spelling. It is absolutely amazing how often I (we) miss things on a web page.
Personally I think the fact that there is no standard on where things should be, and the poor quality layouts of so many pages, and of course the gazillions (did I spell that right?) of ads we have crammed through our eyes, maybe causes me (us) to learn to ignore as much as possible on every page we open.
NOTE: I found two or three typos of my own here. Sheesh, how many times have I screwed something up in the past...
Dave
January 20, 2014 at 7:17 am
OCTom (1/20/2014)
Steve,I agree with you comlpetely. It can set one apart from the crowd.
I find it ironic that you are writing this as your editorials often have misspellings and grammatical errors. 😛
Let him without sin.... 😉 :hehe:
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
January 20, 2014 at 7:17 am
Spell Check on this web page? Wow. I can't tell you how many times I have opened a separate page to Google spelling. It is absolutely amazing how often I (we) miss things on a web page.
I use Firefox for my browser. It has a spell check system built in the underlines words in red.
It gives me a good idea.
----------------
Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
January 20, 2014 at 7:22 am
Before I comment on the topic, let me explain that I will be doing so "generally", and not "specifically" about anyone here. For every issue we encounter in life, there are usually a bunch of occurrences that should have been handled better, but there are also always reasons why some of the issues couldn't be.
For example, I ran registration for kids for a local sports league - a huge percentage of parents were always late singing up. One individual had complications from her pregnancy, many more were registering 5-year olds and had never heard of our league, and still others moved in after we started. Those are good reasons, the rest, well I used to say that I could excuse a handfull of mistakes, but not 30% every year!
So on topic, it really annoys me how so many people don't take the time to write correctly. Unfortunately that includes teachers! So as bad as it is today, the future is going to be far worse. For every good teacher there seem to be dozens more that absolutely don't care to do it right themselves. I know of people who missed questions on a final because it was numbered wrong! I have seen teacher's comments in newspapers defending their profession, with obvious spelling and grammer errors. We all see people who can't be bothered to turn off caps lock.
This site seems far better than most I come across. I take it that most people here, if not all of them, try to get things right. It doesn't surprise me in the least.
Now back to my original point: Of all the errors made on this forum, most of them had no valid reason behind them. Some of them did, but not all. We can all improve by taking the time to check our work, whether spelling on a forum, or coding in a database.
Dave
January 20, 2014 at 7:23 am
OCTom (1/20/2014)
Steve,I agree with you comlpetely. It can set one apart from the crowd.
I find it ironic that you are writing this as your editorials often have misspellings and grammatical errors. 😛
Tom
I don't know that often is the word I would choose, but I have seen some. I would bet that now that Steve has had this pointed out, we see a marked decrease!
Dave
January 20, 2014 at 7:25 am
Jim P. (1/20/2014)
Spell Check on this web page? Wow. I can't tell you how many times I have opened a separate page to Google spelling. It is absolutely amazing how often I (we) miss things on a web page.
I use Firefox for my browser. It has a spell check system built in the underlines words in red.
It gives me a good idea.
I work for a company that not only supports only IE, but also actively blocks the install of anything else! Yes I could get around it, but I have to support people using IE, and most of our products ONLY work with it.
Dave
January 20, 2014 at 7:52 am
I agree with you premise but wonder sometimes about blogging. I blog, as I have time and something to blog about, but I truly don't think anyone reads my blog. I've got it set up to email me when someone posts a reply to any blog post I make. I cannot remember how many years it's been that someone has replied to anything I wrote. Under those circumstances there's not much incentive to blog more often.
Rod
January 20, 2014 at 7:59 am
peter.midgley (1/20/2014)
call.copse (1/20/2014)
It may not shine through in my hurried forum posts 🙂 but I do actually set a lot of store on this point. Time after time I am asked to write up reports to justify this, that and the other, because I tend to make :-P[extra TO] to the effort to write clearly and unambiguously, with good grammar and without fluff. You might ask, is that good? To be honest I prefer coding - but - I take some quiet satisfaction from having successfully made cases others have failed to win, which has lead :-P[should be LED] to increased opportunity on my part. It may not be the MOST important part of the job but I think poor written communication holds people back perhaps slightly more than they realise. I do genuinely think it has lead :-P[should be LED] to being taken as a serious person in many instances.Sorry , couldn't resist this! (I agree though!)
Well spotted, I had to leave a few deliberate mistakes in there to be picked out. In retrospect I might have re-read that post - though I refer you to my first sentence 😎
January 20, 2014 at 9:08 am
GilaMonster (1/20/2014)
OCTom (1/20/2014)
Steve,I agree with you comlpetely. It can set one apart from the crowd.
I find it ironic that you are writing this as your editorials often have misspellings and grammatical errors. 😛
Let him without sin.... 😉 :hehe:
You caught it! That's why I used the smiley I did.
January 20, 2014 at 9:13 am
Thanks Steve.
I agree with the notion to blog. Besides the improvement in writing skills and the practice at doing it, it has also helped me to become a better technologist. Writing is something that always needs continued improvement and therefore it needs continued practice.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
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SQL RNNR
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