Polite request 're posting style

GabriellaG54 I already carried out the "polite request" because I want my posts to be read. I also use full stops and commas to break up sentences into digestable sections.

Even those with poor English are capable of benefitting from dividing up a post, as it is not always obvious which group of words belongs together and which is a separate thought. That is the job of the writer of a post - to try to make it obvious to everyone just what they mean. If they fail, misunderstanding and confusion follow.

If a post is huge with no paras I start reading it - if it interests me I continue, if not I zone out.

Paragraphs are our friends I agree.

But I wouldn’t like to be prescriptive about it. I too notice grammatical errors, spelling mistakes but would never presume to point them out. We all have different strengths and weaknesses anyway.

I enjoy GN whatever forms it takes!

It's is also short for 'it has', as in, 'It's been raining.'

As I used to tell my (largely) Arabic-speaking students, if it doesn't mean 'it is' or 'it has', it doesn't need an apostrophe.

I do agree about paragraphs. I just don't read long posts with no paragraphs.

Bathsheba The whole word "in" is omitted in that phrase. Not sure if that gets the apostrophe or not. It is a minefield. In actual use, I wouldn't have used any apostrophe at all there, but the argument discussion was a theoretical one.

Ok - to return to the long paragraphs now, there are some posts currently on theforum by one poster which consist solely of large chunks copied and pasted from an article. One of them is 77 lines long and utterly boring, contributing nothing to the subject. I didn't read that either, or any of the other posts. That defeats the poster's purpose in repeating it all..

I use re.
We all know what it means.

Yes. I will try to remember GabriellaG54

The reason Gab54 it has been asked because some people have very poor eyesight and by doing as we have been asked it will help a great deal of people with a disability.

The use of full stops, comas etc will not help anyone, in fact it will put off people with a poor grasp of english and we should be inclusive.

Just think about other people.

It could be said to have been an abbreviation for so long that it has developed a life of its own!

PS - "its" as possession is the exception to my previous post, but "it's" as abbreviation for "it is" does have the ' for the omitted letters. The English language is full of such things!

I agree, sodapop, those to whom this could refer may be completely oblivious to the request as they often seem to be new posters, sometimes in distress, requesting help with relationships.

It could be a release to write down the problems and little thought may be given to punctuation or spacing.

A polite request may miss the target audience.

Some people (eg those who are dyslexic) like lots of 'white' space in posts!

This is so true. Thank you to everyone who understands the reason for the request and is prepared to help and a big thank you to pheonix.

Actually re isn’t short for regarding or reference to. It’s from the Latin “in re” meaning “in the matter of”.

So when you come to think of it, having the apostrophe where it was originally was probably correct, denoting the missing “in” ?

Agree, gonegirl. If some letters of a word are missed out deliberately, the ' is used to mark where they would have been - in this case after the "re" to replace the "ference" (cf don't for do not, wouldn't for would not, e'er for ever and so on)

Not that I am saying that this bit of pedantry Eng. Lang. has anything whatsoever to do with cutting up long posts into manageable chunks, but if the title is going to be criticised, it might as well be done accurately..

'

Having carried through the OP's request in all my posts since reading this thread, I conclude that it will nit work.

One has to have read the initial request and subsequently follow through on all one's comments, which I have.
How many of you will actually accede to the 'polite request?

Yes, of course.
I've never used one so I looked it up:

Re is not an abbreviation for anything. It is an English preposition in use since the 18th Century. It means "in the matter of, with reference to".

Actually I think it's "reference to". Not "regarding".

I agree with the OP. My sight is fine, not as good as it was twenty years ago, but when I face thirty lines of solid text that is not divided up at all, I leave that post and go on to a different one.

It is nothing to do with grammar or perfect English, it is just the sheer bulk of it - like eating a suet pudding continuously in one mouthful, having the next forkful shoved into my mouth before I have swallowed the first. The absence of any full stops or commas has the same effect on the brain, and reading something with neither punctuation or paragraphs leaves me as breathless as if I had run up three flights of stairs without taking breath.

The paragraphs don't even need to be cut up into bits with the meaning separate in each chunk - it could be chopped up randomly. Just go down the finished post before pressing send, and press enter or do a line break after every two or three sentences.

If you don't believe me, open a couple of printed novels in a bookshop and compare long pages with no breaks with ones where there are three, four or five paragraphs to a page. Which would you read on and on, and which would you put down pretty soon and go and make a cuppa? would you rather people read your post or abandoned it or read to the end, understood it and answered? If you find your posts don't get an answer, could this be the reason?

There was me thinking GNHQ make the rules.

I agree Callistemon that the ' is in, fact, superfluous, but if you must use one - re is 'regarding', abbreviated. So.....

Never mind.

lemongrass one friend sends me emails written in large font capitals and I have problems reading because there are no spaces. Another writes in a small font but has many paragraphs and I can manage to read that.

Enlarging the print does not always help with AMD and Fuchs which I have, but I am grateful that the OP has raised this subject yet again.

Like Bradfordlass it is easier to read when well spaced even if the paragraphs are leaping up than half a page 4 all jumbled together. I do not care about grammar and spelling- only spacing. Give a thought to those less fortunate than yourself.

I will hide behind the sofa now!

After a few days Phoenix nobody will remember to space out their posts, why doesn’t the GN member with sight problems enlarge the post?

It's more a case of making the post easier to read Gillybob not a criticism of the author's style. Long blocks of text are difficult to get through, I often have to read through several times to ensure I have the meaning clear.
I understand of course that sometimes people are distressed when they post on here which results in a lengthy post. It doesn't take long though to go back and put spaces in your text.

Surely if you don’t like the style of writing then you just don’t need to bloomin’ well read it.

We are not at school and this is not GCE English is it?

I agree that spelling/grammar mistakes may be due to limited writing skills or to emotion/distress and so should not be criticised but phoenix wasn't doing that.

I sometimes feel I use too many paragraphs and that makes a post look quite long and possibly off-putting so I am actually pleased to read that it's helpful to those with sight problems.

When writing we should maybe think more about timing than grammar. When we stop to take a deep breath or to think about what to say next that would be a good time to start a new para. The grammar critics may then criticise for incorrect use of para's but if it really helps some posters, it may be worth thinking about.

This has made me think about previous posts and replies which I have done.

I now feel I must go back and check them!

?

I agree. It does make a post look more inviting to the eye if the text is not all screwed up together.

It works on this site, but on others, when you click 'send', it ignores the spacing.

From reading lots of different threads/posts since I joined a few months ago, I can pretty much guess those who had a secretarial background/training by the layout of their posts.

Of course, we can all make mistakes with spelling, punctuation and grammar and that’s without factoring predictive text into the equation!

The answer is to always preview before posting so that most errors are eliminated and to be generous regarding the few mishaps that slip under the radar. Let’s be kind Ladies (and Gents)!