hi. I agree that proofreading should be in the guidelines, but policing this is inpractical. People should just remember that people will ignore them if they are hard to understand.
On 12/18/11, Thomas Ward <thomasward1...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Meka and all, > > Back when we were discussing the proofreading guidelines for the list > we were considering something very basic that most people should be > able to follow without too much explanation. > > For example, let's take punctuation. Now, we know there are some more > advanced punctuation rules such as using colons, semi-colons, and > dashes that may be unfamiliar to some of our list members. We would be > willing to overlook things like that because there are plenty of > people who are sighted that aren't sure where to put a colon or where > a semi-colon should be used instead of a comma. However, everyone > blind or sighted should be able to know where and when to use basic > punctuation rules like periods, questions, and exclamation points. > > We base this on the fact that anyone over 10 years old in the United > States should be able to recognize the difference between a > declarative sentence, exclamatory sentence, or question. In fact, my > son is only seven years old and he can tell you when and where to put > a period or question mark. So its not unreasonable to ask list > members---who are likely older than seven---to complete sentences with > a period or question mark at a bare minimum. > > As far as spelling goes it is usually pretty obvious when someone > doesn't attempt to proofread a message for spelling errors. One or two > can be overlooked but if a message is full of several mistakes its > going to be rather obvious that the person has not made any effort to > proofread the message before sending. Most e-mail clients such as > Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Outlook, etc come with spell > checkers so there really isn't an excuse not to spell check a document > to get a reasonable amount of accuracy on the final draft. > > The same holds true for grammar. Its a given certain words can be very > confusing for a blind user. The English language is full of words that > sound alike but have totally different meanings such as: to, too, two, > there, their, they're, sale, sail, here, hear, stake, steak, where, > and wear.Some spell checkers will catch the grammatical mistake, but > some won't. In a case like that a moderator would overlook the mistake > as long as the message was otherwise pretty free of errors. Trust me > when I say we understand how something like that could be confusing if > a person is using speech instead of braille or visual reinforcement. > > If it is something more obvious like a double negative the moderator > could write the person off list suggesting how to restate the sentence > so it is more grammatically correct. The purpose wouldn't be to put > the person down but merely to instruct them how to improve there > language/communication skills. > > For example, let's assume someone writes, "I didn't find no ammo in > Shades of Doom." Some people might not realize that is a double > negative, is grammatically incorrect, and might just need a reminder > how to restructure that sentence to read, "I didn't find any ammo in > Shades of Doom." > > That doesn't mean we--the moderators---would hound people, but would > merely make recommendations and suggestions that would improve their > communication skills. I for one can't see it as anything other than > being helpful and an improvement for the person. Of course, a lot > depends on if the person wants the help, wants to change, or continue > to compose poorly written messages. In a case like that if a person > continues to write messages that are difficult to read the moderators > would then go to the next step by moderating or banning them from the > list until the quality of their posts improves. However, we wouldn't > take a serious action like banning them without giving them a number > of chances to correct the problems first. > > Cheers! > > On 12/17/11, Meka White, LMP <m...@melodicmassage.com> wrote: >> I would hope that this would be more of a guideline encouraging people to >> proofread their emails rather than a hard and fast rule, because where do >> you draw the line on coming down on someone? One mispelled word? Two? A >> misused comma? >> >> Don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of proofing what you write. >> it's >> a good, courteous habit to start laying down, but do you really want to >> create that much more work for yourselves? >> >> Warmly, >> Meka >> > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
