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As has been mentioned a few times already, proper sentence structure is preferred over using 'eg' and 'ie'. It is better to have a sentence that flows well. If you feel you can't do so (usually because your sentence is starting to become long and messy) then break up the sentence into shorter ones.
Also, people should note that the use of full stops, whilst sometimes correct, is not always correct. It depends where you are or the context of your writing. So, don't apply that rule blindly. In Australian legal writing, for example, full stops are to be used only to denote the end of a sentence. (You can also see there, that avoiding 'eg', breaking the sentence into two sentences, and instead using 'for example' made for an easier read.)
In any event, it's good to clear up a distinction that many people get wrong. I simply prefer not to use 'eg' and 'ie' though, especially in formal or professional writing.
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader.
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On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry.
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On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
As has been mentioned a few times already, proper sentence structure is preferred over using 'eg' and 'ie'. It is better to have a sentence that flows well. If you feel you can't do so (usually because your sentence is starting to become long and messy) then break up the sentence into shorter ones.
Personally, I'm usually only using i.e. and e.g. if I add some more information relevant to the sentence in the brackets (e.g. just like this).
Also 2 (2 more!) very common and very annoying things:
1. Lack of capitalization - a minor issue but an issue still.
2. Lack of punctuation - now this is a HUGE one.
By the way. I hope that TC doesn't mind that I have added this thread into 'Further Reading' section of my blog:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=89687
Tell me if you don't want it to be there and it shall be removed.
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Grammar cops are heroes 
Something that I don't like much is the "there/their"-confusion... :S
Oh and btw:
+ Show Spoiler +
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On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader.
Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable.
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On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable.
Yes. The question is to what extent? Like I mentioned earlier, there are people here who don't use english as their primary language and using a lot of slang/abbreviations or just poor grammar can make posts very hard to read for them.
I know that it's an english forum and everyone here should be able to communicate in this language but we have to keep in mind that the level of profficiency may vary among the netizens and should put at least minimal effort into making posts so they're easier to comprehend. Not just for those less skilled with languages, but also to avoid confusion since even people extremely familiar with english might misunderstand some posts if they're not formatted correctly or lack in grammar to a degree that allows for 2 or more drastically different interpretations of a short sentence.
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I am very aware of the usage of these acronyms, i.e, e.g, etc. ....
On October 19 2009 21:47 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable. Yes. The question is to what extent? Like I mentioned earlier, there are people here who don't use english as their primary language and using a lot of slang/abbreviations or just poor grammar can make posts very hard to read for them. I know that it's an english forum and everyone here should be able to communicate in this language but we have to keep in mind that the level of profficiency may vary among the netizens and should put at least minimal effort into making posts so they're easier to comprehend. Not just for those less skilled with languages, but also to avoid confusion since even people extremely familiar with english might misunderstand some posts if they're not formatted correctly or lack in grammar to a degree that allows for 2 or more drastically different interpretations of a short sentence.
I agree with this post. It's hard for me to read stuff on spanish forums because they literally type what you would say. You see a certain word and it looks incredibly incorrect and it's difficult to translate. You have to take the perspective of a person who doesn't know the language. Go to a spanish forum or a french forum and try to participate in regular discussion when all they use is slang language. I like to use slang English and occasionally I do it here, but I try to steer away from doing things that would make no sense to someone who would otherwise never be able to translate it correctly. That's where you get jokes that are missed... (not saying anything specific about a certain user group :p)
Though I will admit its fun to teach europeans slang-English (aka American!!!!) so it spreads like a disease.
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people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays.
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Wow. I never knew the difference and never took the time to look it up. Thanks!
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On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays.
* Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. *
the worst
Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc.
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On October 19 2009 23:57 Amber[LighT] wrote:I am very aware of the usage of these acronyms, i.e, e.g, etc. .... Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 21:47 Manit0u wrote:On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable. Yes. The question is to what extent? Like I mentioned earlier, there are people here who don't use english as their primary language and using a lot of slang/abbreviations or just poor grammar can make posts very hard to read for them. I know that it's an english forum and everyone here should be able to communicate in this language but we have to keep in mind that the level of profficiency may vary among the netizens and should put at least minimal effort into making posts so they're easier to comprehend. Not just for those less skilled with languages, but also to avoid confusion since even people extremely familiar with english might misunderstand some posts if they're not formatted correctly or lack in grammar to a degree that allows for 2 or more drastically different interpretations of a short sentence. I agree with this post. It's hard for me to read stuff on spanish forums because they literally type what you would say. You see a certain word and it looks incredibly incorrect and it's difficult to translate. You have to take the perspective of a person who doesn't know the language. Go to a spanish forum or a french forum and try to participate in regular discussion when all they use is slang. I like to use English slang and occasionally I do it here, but I try to steer away from doing things that would make no sense to someone who would otherwise never be able to translate it correctly. That's where you get jokes that are missed... (not saying anything specific about a certain user group :p) Though I will admit its fun to teach europeans slang-English (aka American!!!!) so it spreads like a disease.
nooo not another global-cultural soldier
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On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc.
im confused.... ? ;D
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tl;dr
i.e. = in other words
e.g. = for example
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Interesting, I never knew the difference between e.g. and ie.
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On October 20 2009 00:46 Sadist wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc. im confused.... ? ;D
You always put "the" in front of extreme cases. So it's not ugliest picture but the ugliest picture for example.
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Kau
Canada3502 Posts
On October 20 2009 05:24 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 00:46 Sadist wrote:On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc. im confused.... ? ;D You always put "the" in front of extreme cases. So it's not ugliest picture but the ugliest picture for example.
Try your best. Do your worst.
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"Can i make the background music myself, IE guitar?"
he's asking whether he could make the background music by himself, then by saying "IE guitar" he clarifies that he means doing so by playing guitar.. what's wrong with that?
edit: obviously it should have been "IE by playing guitar", but no one is that picky about grammar online anyway.
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On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable.
I think you're missing my point. I was under the impression that this thread was teaching aspects of proper grammar, and not forum grammar. If you're going to teach grammar, you want to be precise about every little point. It's up to the readers what rules they want to apply in what settings, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be taught the rules properly.
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^The post of mine that you responded to:
On October 19 2009 20:23 qrs wrote:
In any case, the example that "pushed you over the edge" is nitpicking at best. "Can I make the background music myself, that is, guitar" makes perfect sense to me--"i.e. guitar" referring to "the background music". (Of course I'm not seeing it in context.) The example in question was from the forum.
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Look up "Grammar Girl" Podcast if you suck at this kind of stuff. Every episode is a different commonly misused English word or punctuation.
I find people who really gripe with users that make a grammar mistake seem to be ignorant of 100s of errors in their own writing. On an internet forum where many of us write English as a second language, all that matters is that you try and your message is clear. Most errors come from people trying to write English phonetically.
What's more irritating to me is when people write redundantly, which usually happens with native speakers trying to sound smart.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/grammar-crisis-room.jpg)
