Eeyore
Regular Member
imported post
The first rule of public speaking: start with a joke.
A guy’s sitting in a bar. A panda bear walks in, sits down at the bar, and orders a burger. After finishing his meal, the panda stands up, pulls out a pistol, fires it into the air, and walks out the door, all without saying a word.
“What the &#*@ was that?” the guys asks the bartender.
The barkeep just shrugged, “He’s a panda bear. He eats, shoots, and leaves.” :lol:
The point of this joke is that a minor change in spelling, punctuation, or word usagecan fundamentally change the meaning of a sentence. (For those of you who didn’t get it, it’s “eats, shoots, and leaves” vs. “eats shoots and leaves” in this case.)
I bring this up because I’ve read many threads where people have posted their letters, faxes, or e-mails to government officials, restaurant managers, etc. Often, they are riddled with misspellings and/or punctuation errors. And too often, they’re posted hereafter the message has already been sent.
Anti-2A types already believe all gun owners are ignorant hillbillies. Don’t play into their stereotypes by writing like one. We all take pride in our attention to detail when it comes to firearms. We should be just as unimpeachable in our written correspondence. It hurts your cause and distracts from your message if your writing is not impeccable. (“This guy’s an idiot—he can’t even spell! Why should I listen to him?”)
Please note: I’m not claiming to be perfect, and I’m not trying to appoint myself as GrammarCzar for the board. I’m saying we should all work together to present the best impression--both in person and in correspondence. I think it’s safe to say that everyone on this board wants put their best foot forward, and most are willing to help you[/i] put your[/i] best foot forward. We generally want the same thing, after all.
Composing your message in Word or some other word processor before pasting it into e-mail will catch a lot of typos and misspellings, but spell-checkers aren’t perfect. Aside from random typos and misspellings, the big offenders seem to be
Whether people post their message on this forum before or after they send it, the criticism is almost always constructive. If you’re going to take the time to send correspondence, use all the resources available to you and take the time to post it on the forum for some review before[/b] you send it. We'll all be glad you did.
The first rule of public speaking: start with a joke.
A guy’s sitting in a bar. A panda bear walks in, sits down at the bar, and orders a burger. After finishing his meal, the panda stands up, pulls out a pistol, fires it into the air, and walks out the door, all without saying a word.
“What the &#*@ was that?” the guys asks the bartender.
The barkeep just shrugged, “He’s a panda bear. He eats, shoots, and leaves.” :lol:
The point of this joke is that a minor change in spelling, punctuation, or word usagecan fundamentally change the meaning of a sentence. (For those of you who didn’t get it, it’s “eats, shoots, and leaves” vs. “eats shoots and leaves” in this case.)
I bring this up because I’ve read many threads where people have posted their letters, faxes, or e-mails to government officials, restaurant managers, etc. Often, they are riddled with misspellings and/or punctuation errors. And too often, they’re posted hereafter the message has already been sent.
Anti-2A types already believe all gun owners are ignorant hillbillies. Don’t play into their stereotypes by writing like one. We all take pride in our attention to detail when it comes to firearms. We should be just as unimpeachable in our written correspondence. It hurts your cause and distracts from your message if your writing is not impeccable. (“This guy’s an idiot—he can’t even spell! Why should I listen to him?”)
Please note: I’m not claiming to be perfect, and I’m not trying to appoint myself as GrammarCzar for the board. I’m saying we should all work together to present the best impression--both in person and in correspondence. I think it’s safe to say that everyone on this board wants put their best foot forward, and most are willing to help you[/i] put your[/i] best foot forward. We generally want the same thing, after all.
Composing your message in Word or some other word processor before pasting it into e-mail will catch a lot of typos and misspellings, but spell-checkers aren’t perfect. Aside from random typos and misspellings, the big offenders seem to be
- there/their/they’re
- its/it’s, and other incorrect apostrophes (e.g. “many American’s think”)
- misplaced or excessive commas
- other assorted grammatical errors (adjectives vs. adverbs, etc.)
Whether people post their message on this forum before or after they send it, the criticism is almost always constructive. If you’re going to take the time to send correspondence, use all the resources available to you and take the time to post it on the forum for some review before[/b] you send it. We'll all be glad you did.