Taeric

As many of you have noticed, there has been a push in recent weeks to improve the level of written English (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.) on this site. I'm sure that many people question why this is important. There are many reasons to expend the time and effort to write well, some of which I’ll highlight below.


I’m going to start off with some popular reasons to not user proper English.

Reasons to Not Use Proper English - The top reasons I can think not to use proper English are as follows:

1. “English is not my first language. I sometimes have trouble with it.”
2. “I’m just a kid and haven’t had a dozen years of English classes yet.”
3. “Too much to write; too little time to do it.” also “I need to submit my post before {enter the name of the poster who always beats you to the punch here} posts first.”
4. “I’m a horrible typist!”
5. “I’m just too darn lazy to bother with it.”

I’ll give my personal opinion on each of those below, but now it’s on to the reasons why you should use proper English in your posts.

The Basics - The first and most basic answer is that it is part of the rules of Overclock.Net. By being here, you have agreed to follow the rules. That doesn't answer the "Why?" for many people, though. This post should give you a little more insight into why this is important to the site and its users. I'm certainly not going to try to put words into admin's mouth, but my read on it is that the use of proper English makes posts easier to reads and generally gives this site a much more professional feel. The better we can make the site as users, the more attractive it will be for potential new members, advertisers, etc.

The “Huh?” Factor – If you want your questions to be answered and your responses to posts to be understood, it’s essential that you communicate your thoughts clearly. I know that omitting a capital letter or punctuation mark here or there won’t make or break a post, but I have read and reread numerous posts over the course of my months on here, scratched my head, reread again, and gave up because I had absolutely no idea what the poster was trying to say. I may or may not have useful information to share with those people, but I never had a chance to find out.

What's in it for me? If the desire to follow the rules and help improve the site aren't compelling enough reasons to use proper English, then perhaps this will help motivate some people to write better. This draws heavily upon my personal experience, and although it may not directly apply to you, the concepts are fairly universal.

It is a near certainty that each and every member of this community will need to write something that will have a significant impact upon their lives one day. This may come in the form of a school paper, correspondence with a lawyer or government official, or even a letter to your grandmother. The most common example is probably a resume and cover letter. I can tell you with absolute certainty that employers will look very poorly upon a resume and/or cover letter that is not written well. I have personally tossed poorly written resumes in the “Reject” pile based solely upon the quality of the writing. That’s not me being a jerk or overly harsh; that’s the reality of things in the business world. A prospective candidate who doesn’t put the time and effort into writing a high quality resume and cover letter comes across as a person who doesn’t pay attention to details, which is a very big turn off to employers. That may be completely untrue, but those people will likely never have a chance to refute that impression in an interview because they never made it past the first cut.

You may be wondering how in the world rejecting resumes remotely relates to posting on a computer enthusiasts’ website. The answer is simple – good writing, like most good habits, becomes easier with practice. Most regular users here have hundreds or even thousands of posts on this site. That is a whole lot of quick and easy practice. If you put the time and effort into writing your posts, when the time comes to write something that can truly affect your life, it will be a breeze.

Good writers are in high demand. Even as a structural engineer (read: stereotypical number cruncher), I spend a quarter or more of my time writing proposals, reports, manuals, letters and e-mails to clients, etc. That’s pretty typical among my peers. Being able to write well has impressed many of my clients, which shows well upon myself and my company. That equates to better raises, job stability, etc. I’m not saying that working a bit harder on the quality of your posts here will yield you a big raise in the future, but every little thing that helps to impress your supervisors is a good thing. Learning to pay attention to the details when they don’t matter as much pays off in a big way when they do.

Conclusion – My responses to the most popular reasons not to use proper English –

1. Do your best. Although I know many non-native English speakers who can put many of us born to the language to shame, I know it can be an uphill battle to master a language. Spend a little bit of extra time and effort on it, and it will not only yield you better results on this site when you need help, but it will also help your English skills.
2. Similar to 1. Do the best that you can, and it will pay off in the long run.
3. Proofreading is the key. Take a few seconds either before or immediately after you post to clear up any typos or other speed-related issues.
4. There are lots of ways to improve typing skills. One of the most effective is to IM in the dark. That forces you to type by feel as you can’t see the keyboard. You can always take a keyboarding class or use one of the keyboarding instructional programs. The guy who runs my office is in his 40s, is one of the owners of a company that invoices $75+ million a year, and he spent a bunch of time last year using one of those programs as he was an atrocious typist. They really do work if you work on them.
5. If helping to make this site a better place isn’t enough for you and helping yourself by improving your writing skills doesn’t motivate you at all, I guess you’re stuck with having admin edit your posts and will receive more than your share of warning for not following the rules of Overclock.Net. Is it really worth it to be that lazy?

For any who made it this far, thanks for bearing with me. My next FAQ should be titled “Why Should I Be Concise When I Post a FAQ on Overclock.Net?

XxXxRobxXxX

Good Faq!! Rep+!

Inspire

Great FAQ! The structure of this FAQ was very well thought out. Good job Taeric!.

radbirts

Good Job, quite a long FAQ on such a simple topic. lol

Taeric

Thanks for the comments, guys. It was a fun one to write, and I hope it made a good point or two. I cleaned up the formatting a bit; hopefully it's a little easier to read now.

Highly-Annoyed

Good FAQ. One easy way to solve the problem though, is simply to write all your posts in MS Word (or your chosen word processor) and run a spellchecker/grammar check on your writing. Then all you have to do is copy it (CTRL+A, CTRL+C) and past it (CTRL+V) into the site, preview and submit. It's so simple. No proof reading required.

Highly-Annoyed

Taeric

Yup, MS Word is a good tool to use, but it might be a bit cumbersome for the average post. I did originally write this FAQ in Word and copy it over. I figured this, of all of my posts, should be clean. :)

jrabb1920

Good FAQ, should be required reading to all who break this rule.

Chim3ra

People will still not adhere to the rules. It's just easier for them to do it their way and not change. Here's to hoping though!

slow'puter

You forgot to mention: It makes you look smarter.