To ask for paragraphs?

It doesn’t necessarily stop me from reading the post, but a lack of paragraphs does make it more difficult to follow an argument.

As has been said, however, sometimes people might not do it on purpose, if they don’t understand the rules, or if they are dyslexic.

What does put me off, though is RANDOM capitalised WORDS. It’s like being SHOUTED at, as though I can’t work out what should be STRESSED, and it isn’t accidental, as it’s QUITE AWKWARD to type. I often skip posts like that.

Yers, Trisher it DOES matter if a post is skipped because it is so difficult to read. The poster presumably wanted it to be read, and if it contains a request for help or advice they will miss out on replies.

If they were consulting a counsellor face-to-face, he/she would be sitting one-on-one with their full attention on the client. However, readers of posts on Gransnet have dozens of others to choose from and thirty lines of unparagraphed and unpunctuated words just won't get read. It is just a stream-of-consciousness meander. That is fine if you have chosen to read "Ulysses" while you have a few uninterrrupted hours.

Elegran that's entirely up to you but having some experience of people who find written communication difficult I often find that they have some of the most original ideas.You should never think that because someone can't spell, paragraph or punctuate they are brainless. And stream of consciousness can be fascinating.

Skim-reading is an acquired skill. Most people have to read right through every word that is written, not skim the whole thing first to get the gist of it. Verbal indigestion soon follows if it is not bitten off in mouhfuls.

There, I've run on into a new post again. Still, it is better than one long post!

I never said they are brainless or all those other things! They are just not good at packaging their writing for the reader. Writing and reading are ways of communicating which take two people - a writer and a reader - so unless they get a reader who is very good at their part and can tease out the gems from the matrix, their original ideas will never be understood. You seem good at the "reading for comprehension" part of the deal, but not everyone is.

But if you insist that punctuation, paragraphing and spelling matter all that much Elegranyou are effectively denying a means of communication to a huge section of society. If someone takes the time to post and write I will take time to read it if I think it is interesting. There are some paragraphed, punctuated posts that are just boring.
Around 10% of the population are dyslexic. The average reading age of the UK population is 9. The Sun has a reading age of 8.

Trisher, no-one is demanding perfect, punctuation, just being able to actually read a post, with the intention of responding. Posters who write lengthy screeds, with no punctuation, are certainly not being accused of being brainless

Having worked with dyslexic pupils for most of my career and lived with the anguish and low self esteem, it caused my daughter who is dyslexic, I am well aware how difficult communication is for some posters.

However, the poster has failed in their desire to communicate, if no-one can read their post and some posts are just not "readable"

If you are posting, at least take the time to preview and see how it appears. It takes hardly and time to do this.

I have yet to see any posts on GN which are not readable so that is rather a strange term to use. There are some which are not correctly punctuated, some with a few spelling mistakes and only a few that are paragraphed. None of that matters hugely.
If there are unreadable posts would someone like to post an example please.
Marydoll I probably know as much about dyslexia as you and one important thing I do know is that real dyslexics may look at their writing and know something is wrong but be unable to correct it. I would far rather read a post from someone with difficulties which is badly spelled and punctuated, than have them preview their post, think it isn't good enough, and not bother.
I gather you didn't bother to preview-'and' -any?.

I will be irritated by, but will not comment on spelling or punctuation errors because I do not know the reason for them, but I do despair at long rambling posts with no paragraphs.

The paragraph rule doesn't have to be applied, just a break in the text every few lines helps to make the post more easily read.

Trisher, I tried to read one the other day and it was impossible.

I'm not unsympathetic and certainly not intending to be crtitical nor claiming to be an expert. None of us are, no matter how much experience we have.

Neither did I intend to be judgemental, as your last comment appears to be.
Believe it or not I have difficulties of a dyslexic nature, as educational psychologists would say. I attempt very hard to hide it.

Your final comment was unnecessary. I'm certainly not looking for an argument.
It takes me ages to write posts, as I have to keep checking what I have written.

I did preview, but of course I am not perfect and errors often appear in my posts!
I can quote one from yesterday: acceptor, when it should have been accepter.

I gather you didn't bother to preview-'and' -any?

Was that really necessary trisher? Marydoll has made some good points. Sneering point scoring really isn't attractive.

There is a diference between mistakes in spelling, typing, grammar and so on and the kind of post that is being discussed here. Those with experience and lots of practice at reading long rambling narratives without sentences or paragraphs will always do better at it than those who don't have that. I had a friend whose job involved reading a lot of handwritten letters about insurance claims - she could interpret handwriting that looked to me like the track of a drunken spider.

It really isn't just a question of taking time to read all of a post that you think will be interesting - how do you even suspect that it might be interesting if it makes your brain hurt just making out which words belong together and what each group of words means as well as losing your place in a block of text with no landmarks to keep you oriented? There are plenty of posts which are definitely not interesting, whether they have paragraphs or not.

Even a blank line in the middle of a sentence would make a break! We are not asking for literary excellence, just a pause for breath.

Elegran The OP asks for paragraphs.
Marydoll sorry if you regarded my pointing out your error as unacceptable. It just reinforces my point that using preview isn't always helpful.
I have yet to see a post that is completely unreadable. Some are more difficult than others but of a poster has taken the trouble to write expecting a certain standard is restricting

I should have clarified, that previewing gives an overall view of a post and what it looks like. Is it difficult to decipher ? ?
Nothing to do with spelling etc.

I thought I had done really well, having only one error, just getting one letter wrong!

I won't try to change your views, "Trisher*. You believe that as YOU have no problems reading and following long and unshaped posts, everyone else ought to be able to do so too. Well, I can't, and I think my intelligence, education and patience is about the equal of yours. I don't expect anyone to read a post like that from me, so I break mine up into chunks - they don't even necessarily have to be when there is a new thought, just as long as they are often enough for the reader to catch their breath before continuing.

Perhaps in reading lessons, simple things about the structure of the page of text could be pointed out as well as deciphering the text itself. That could make the pupils' writing more comprehensible. After all, writing is a means of communication, and anything that makes others understand it better helps that communication - writing is more than forming the letters.

More shaming of those unfortunate enough not to have had a decent education. Often those from harsh dysfunctional families and now, in their later years, facing harsh criticism from unpleasant sneering snobs.

If you are too superior to read these posts then don’t bother but certainly don’t be so critical and mean spirited.

The critics disgust me!

It's nothing to do with snobbery or superiority.

Some of us find difficulty in deciphering and consequently processing some posts, so we stop reading. That is our prerogative.
It is unfortunate, as I'm sure a number of interesting posts, may not receive a response, because of this.

No- one is being demonized.

You of course have every right to post your opinion, just as others have the right to post theirs, without being accused of being snobs.

You appear to have misunderstood the OP, which only asked posters, instead of posting a very lengthy one, to break up posts, to make them easier to read.

Harsh comment sussexborn and in my opinion, totally missing the point of this thread. Nobody has made any rude remarks about lack of education, snobbery or any of your other wide of the mark points. All some of us are saying is to break up long chunks of text, take a breath writing to allow the readers to do so too.

I prefer to read posts that are paragraphed correctly but I will read them. It’s about content for me and I agree trisher there are a few posters that seem to be distressed when keying them in. What I really dislike though is posters commenting on apostrophies and grammar . We are all grown ups aren’t we? Do we really need to be corrected? It’s bad enough that auto correct does it. The use of capitals to shout is just rude.

Inverted snobbery rubbish, Sussexborn! No-one is condemning anyone for their spelling, grammar, punctuation or anything else that they may have missed because they lack a decent education.

It doesn't actually take advanced or expensive education to look at a long chunk of text that you have just typed in and say to youtrself, "You know what? This is a great slab of words! If I saw this in a book, I wouldn't like to try to read it. I'll chop it up a bit."

Does it take education to see something as someone else would see it? No, it doesn't!

This is a genuine question, because I don’t know that much about it - do some people with dyslexia find it difficult to read long unbroken pieces of print or writing?

I agree with your post, May7 but I have to point out that we only think that capitals are shouty because we have learnt it, by being told that they are whenever we used them.

Hurt pride makes us resent being told that we have spellling or grammar wrong, but no-one seems to mind being reminded about capitals. Is it that we are prepared to learn about something new - the internet - but we think our days of learning spelling and grammar are long past and we are too old to be told?

SueDonim, definitely!

Yes elegran I think you’re right to some degree. I can’t abide being picked up by my grammar I see it as a deflection tactic usually but not always. The shouting capitals came about really I suppose when email etiquette was learnt. To be honest that’s when I stop reading posts because I can sense the anger or frustration behind them. I make a point also of not picking up people on their spelling ?
I agree with op original post though paragraphs make it easier to read.