Why do pedants pedant?
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Dicsuss...
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Why do certain people enjoy pointing out the mistakes of others?
For the smug sense of self-satisfaction at telling other people how wrong they are.
Next!
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Irregardless
Stopped reading there.
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So, why do pedants pedant? We don’t really know, but some tangential studies infer it’s to do with a mixture of personality, status-signalling and group identification.
Or maybe I just like words being used correctly.
I'm sick of all this pedantophobia.
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@coderpatsy said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Irregardless
I am sure it is only a matter of time before Oxford caves and adds it as a valid usage.
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I don't enjoy it.
Just like I don't enjoy looking at a tiled wall pattern where one tile is out of place.
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I have a theory.
"jpmc26" posted this comment:
because he was trying to determine if the technology for punching a guy in the nose over the internet existed yet. (Sadly, it does not.)
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There's also the sense of making sure that disinformation isn't being spread around, though that's somewhere between legitimately curating information to make sure that what is known is correct and provide a sense of learning, and being xkcd guy.
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@Arantor said in Why do pedants pedant?:
There's also the sense of making sure that disinformation isn't being spread around, though that's somewhere between legitimately curating information to make sure that what is known is correct and provide a sense of learning, and being xkcd guy.
This is why I do it.
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@coderpatsy said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Irregardless
Stopped reading there.
I suspect that was intentional being, as it was, next to a misuse of "you and I"
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I get paid for it, although it's a balancing act figuring out exactly how much is too much for each group.
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@Weng Outside of here, I generally will correct someone after they've made a mistake a few times, and then let it go if they do it again.
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@RaceProUK said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Why do certain people enjoy pointing out the mistakes of others?
For the smug sense of self-satisfaction at telling other people how wrong they are.
Next!
Yes, the same reason the schaden freudes.
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@Mikael_Svahnberg I like how the top-rated comment on the article is a complaint that the title is using “pedant” as a verb in the title. Perfect.
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@coderpatsy said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Irregardless
Stopped reading there.
Do you think it's for all intensive purposes a mute point?
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@Groaner that troll is as boring as a bowl in a china shop
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Pedants are literally everywhere.
Umm, actually...
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I know for me, it's largely mental. Since I read incessantly, and wish I could focus on something long enough to write something longer than a chapter, gross misuse of the written word actually causes my brain to rebel and start railing against bad spelling, grammar, and the like.
How I haven't injured someone where I work where I have to consistently review my team's (usually mediocre-to-awful) ticket documentation is still a mystery to me.
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@e4tmyl33t there is a study, unfortunately only in swedish, that shows that the presence of errors in a text makes it roughly 10% slower to read. Regardless of whether the reader actually detects the errors or not.
I use this when I supervise master's theses: I get 35 hours to supervise one thesis. Do the students really want to waste 3.5 hours because they can't be bothered to run a proper grammar and spellcheck?
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@Dragoon said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Irregardless
I am sure it is only a matter of time before Oxford caves and adds it as a valid usage.
I could care less.
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@LaoC someone needs to hold the fort down.
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I typically just roll my eyes at mistakes like these. It's not worth the energy to correct them. It's not that I wish they wouldn't do it, it's just I'm not outspoken enough to really make a beef about it, unless it's someone I really know. I might only mention it if I'm actively debating something and the guy pulls the classic and ironic "your an idiot" insult. But then again, it's more my way of saying I'm parting from the discussion and fuck you. And I always love cover letters that have a blatant disregard for grammar and spelling, mainly because that's one thing you write where you really want to be as correct as possible.
It's kinda like being overweight. It can be bad for your health, and it's in their best interest to lose weight, but it's not in my place to just mention it to some random stranger, and if I do, then I'd come across as rude.
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@Mikael_Svahnberg said in Why do pedants pedant?:
I am sure it is only a matter of time before Oxford caves and adds "I could care less" as a valid usage.
And yes, that was intentional—it's actually one of my pet peeves that I always feel like ing about when my wife says it. She's probably picked it up from some Filipino colleague and can't seem to get it out of her system.
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@Mikael_Svahnberg said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Di
csscuss@RaceProUK said in Why do pedants pedant?:
They do it [f]or the smug sense of self-satisfaction at telling other people how wrong they are.
Irregardless@coderpatsy said in Why do pedants pedant?:
I Stopped reading there.
@xaade said in Why do pedants pedant?:
I don't enjoy it
. Just, just like I don't enjoy looking at a tiled wall pattern where one tile is out of place.@El_Heffe said in Why do pedants pedant?:
schaden freudes
Schadenfreude
@dkf said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Mikael_Svahnberg I like how the top-rated comment on the article is a complaint that the title is using “pedant” as a verb in the title. That is [p]erfect.
@Groaner said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Do you think it's for all
intensiveintents and purposes amutemoot point?@Jaloopa said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Groaner, that troll is as boring as a bowl in a china shop.
@Onyx said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Pedants are literally everywhere.
Pedants are
literallyfiguratively/seemingly/apparently/nearly/almost everywhere.@Mikael_Svahnberg said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@e4tmyl33t, there is a study, unfortunately only in
sSwedish, that shows that the presence of errors in a text makes it roughly 10% slower to read. R, regardless of whether the reader actually detects the errors or not.@LaoC said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Dragoon said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Irregardless
I am sure it is only a matter of time before Oxford caves and adds it as a valid usage.
I couldn't care less.
@Mikael_Svahnberg said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@LaoC someone needs to hold the fort
down.@The_Quiet_One said in Why do pedants pedant?:
And I always love cover letters that have a blatant disregard for grammar and spelling, mainly because that's one thing you write
wherewhich you really want to be as correct as possible.It's kinda like people being overweight. It can be bad for
yourtheir health, and it's in their best interest to lose weight, but it's not in my place to just mention it to some random stranger, and if I do, then I'd'll come across as rude.
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@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@xaade said in Why do pedants pedant?:
I don't enjoy it
. Just, just like I don't enjoy looking at a tiled wall pattern where one tile is out of place.You just changed the intonation and emphasis of perfectly fine post.
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@Gąska which seems perfectly cromulent ry.
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Kept reading it as halfway through this article. This place is getting to me.
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@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Onyx said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Pedants are literally everywhere.
Pedants are literallyfiguratively/seemingly/apparently/nearly/almost everywhere.
Objection! Quote misattribution! I was quoted quoting the article, while ignoring my response to it!
Also,
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@LaoC said in Why do pedants pedant?:
"I could care less"
I could care less, but only with great difficulty!
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I could care less, but it would take more effort than I can bother.
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@Onyx said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Onyx said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Pedants are literally everywhere.
Pedants are literallyfiguratively/seemingly/apparently/nearly/almost everywhere.
Objection! Quote misattribution! I was quoted quoting the article, while ignoring my response to it!
Also,
If you'll notice, it is listed in my post as a quote of a quote, using the
> >
syntax. I make attempts to be reasonably accurate in my ry. In response to your claim that I ignored your response, I will note that you didn't give a correction yourself, so I supplied several options.
Therefore, yourself. ;)
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@Gąska said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@xaade said in Why do pedants pedant?:
I don't enjoy it
. Just, just like I don't enjoy looking at a tiled wall pattern where one tile is out of place.You just changed the intonation and emphasis of
perfectly finea grammatically incorrect post.FTFP
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@djls45 just what was gramatically incorrect about it?
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@royal_poet
Welcome! Your rubber room is down the hall, third door on the right. But at least it has(And I'm not sure if it's better or worse that the Emoji One cookies no longer have a bite taken out of them)
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@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
someone needs to hold down the fort.
I see you didn't watch the video.
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@Gąska said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45, just what was grammatically incorrect about it?
The conjunctive connection between the second sentence and the first sentence should use a comma, especially given how closely related the sentences' contents are.
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@coldandtired said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
someone needs to hold the fort.
I see you didn't watch the video.
And now I have. And now I am .
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@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Gąska said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45, just what was grammatically incorrect about it?
The conjunctive connection between the second sentence and the first sentence should use a comma, especially given how closely related the sentences' contents are.
Source?
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@Onyx said in Why do pedants pedant?:
I was quoted quoting the article, while ignoring my response to it!
Also, the grammar that you used here is likely inconsistent with your intended meaning.
As it is, you indicate that you were ignoring your own response at the same time that you quoted the article.
Fixing the parallelism of the verbs corrects the issue:I was quoted quoting the article, while my response to it was ignored!
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@Gąska said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@Gąska said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45, just what was grammatically incorrect about it?
The conjunctive connection between the second sentence and the first sentence should use a comma, especially given how closely related the sentences' contents are.
Source?
Ok, so it's technically not wrong to start a sentence with a conjunction, in particular when doing so to emphasize a point (so you could be a concerning that); but it's better form to avoid such constructions (which is my ry here).
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Whoa, my one word made you shift from "should use a comma" to "it's better to avoid such construct
ions". Didn't expect that!But what I did expect is that you still haven't cited any source to back your statement. Probably because there is none.
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@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
And I always love cover letters that have a blatant disregard for grammar and spelling, mainly because that's one thing you write
wherewhich you really want to be as correct as possible.@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Ok, so it's technically not wrong to start a sentence with a conjunction, in particular when doing so to emphasize a point (so you could be a concerning that); but it's better form to avoid such constructions (which is my ry here).
It's also not technically wrong to use "which" above but it changes the meaning from a statement about the author to a statement about the product. And if you want to change the meaning that way, you should use "that", at least in American English, but then again you can just omit it completely as it's superfluous in this context.
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@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@coldandtired said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
someone needs to hold the fort.
I see you didn't watch the video.
And now I have. And now I am .
Bless you.
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@Gąska said in Why do pedants pedant?:
Whoa, my one word made you shift from "should use a comma" to "it's better to avoid such construct
ions". Didn't expect that!But what I did expect is that you still haven't cited any source to back your statement. Probably because there is none.
Here is a good source for you. Page 3 describes the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, so I was right in the first place -- the second sentence is grammatically incorrect if not connected to the first one by using a comma. "Like", when used as a conjunction, is subordinating, but only coordinating conjunctions are permissible options for starting sentences.
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@LaoC said in Why do pedants pedant?:
@djls45 said in Why do pedants pedant?:
And I always love cover letters that have a blatant disregard for grammar and spelling, mainly because that's one thing you write
wherewhich you really want to be as correct as possible.It's also not technically wrong to use "which" above but it changes the meaning from a statement about the author to a statement about the product. And if you want to change the meaning that way, you should use "that", at least in American English, but then again you can just omit it completely as it's superfluous in this context.
"Where" is only correct in SQL or when referring to a location, but a location cannot really be "as correct as possible" and this is not a SQL clause. Thus, the only acceptable options would be "which", "that", or nothing (with an implied "that"). The difference between "that" and "which" indicates whether your desire for the thing to be correct is a defining characteristic of "one thing [that] you write" or that desire is only an added detail, respectively. Because correctness is the focus of discussion and not just supplementary information, "that" would probably be the best option to use.
I don't see how it could be a statement about the author. Can you explain that?