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Ask HN: Is it immoral not to correct someone else's grammar on social media?
People use grammar to judge your education and intelligence all the time.
That's why they don't want you correcting other people's grammar online — it threatens a signal they rely on.
But online writing should be judged by content, not grammar.
And so it would seem that failing to correct someone else's grammar online is not just unhelpful — it is immoral.
- ycombinatrix 1y agoUsing incorrect grammar makes me look like a fool. Being corrected helps me look less like a fool in the future.
- pavel_lishin 1y agoActually, the word you're looking for is "unethical", not "immoral".
- atmosx 1y ago...and there you have it.
- uberman 1y agoYou just said online writing should not be judged on grammar. Why then would it follow that there exists some moral imperative to correct it? For what it is worth, I used to feel the urge to correct but as I have grown wiser in my years I now see many people smarter than me use grammar in ways i do not. Now i see people who correct others grammar and spelling as pedantic jerks.
- amichail 1y agoBecause most people judge you based on grammar anyway.
- cestith 1y agoPerhaps we take a lesson from sources like The One Minute Manager (https://isbn.nu/9780007107926 https://isbn.nu/9780007107926) which is also echoed many other places. Praise in public, and correct in private. Almost every social media system has some way to contact someone without shaming them in the public thread.
- incomingpain 1y agoThere is no authority over the english language. Your set of grammar rules are certainly different from virtually everyone else. >People use grammar to judge your education and intelligence all the time. You really shouldnt judge others; like ever. >And so it would seem that failing to correct someone else's grammar online is not just unhelpful — it is immoral. So you're saying correcting someone's grammar is helpful and moral? Nobody is stopping you from doing this of course. If you believe it is moral to do, then do it.
- firefax 1y ago>There is no authority over the english language. Thanks for this. I often see folks like OP very condescendingly tell people they're not writing "correctly", while forgetting that English is a constantly evolving language -- at a certain point if a "mistake" becomes mainstream, it becomes an acceptable one. (I'm struggling for more complex examples, but think of how people will say, declare "that's not a word"... well, usage of "not a word"s is how they end up going into the dictionary...)
- amichail 1y agoActually, we do now have a few tech authorities of the English language.
- quickthrowman 1y ago> That's why they don't want you correcting other people's grammar online — it threatens a signal they rely on. Who is “they”?
- firefax 1y agoI judge people based on whether they get their point across -- you don't know the age or national origin of the person posting, for all I know I'm speaking to someone much younger than I who speaks more languages than I do. I do judge spelling errors harshly, since most modern OSes will give a nasty red squiggle. Anyways "immoral" is such a strong phrasing. Killing someone is immoral. Letting someone argue their point badly is... well, I was raised Catholic so lets use that lens: Catholicism would refer to it as a "venial sin" -- you won't be going to hell for not correcting someone's grammar on the internet.
- gaws 1y ago> ... they get their point across -- you don't know ... >... a "venial sin" -- you won't be going to hell ... It hurts to read people use em dashes to break up the flow mid sentence. You're better off using a semicolon. > I do judge spelling errors harshly, since most modern OSes will give a nasty red squiggle Delete the comma to fix the comma splice and use because instead of since because you're not talking about a difference in time.
- firefax 1y agoSounds like you understood the post. Do you have any comments on the substance of the post, or are you here to nitpick?
- al_borland 1y agoI don’t know that I agree with the premise. It’s not that people don’t want you correcting grammar because it removes a signal. I think it is more about people who use grammar as a means to attack and discredit a person, rather than the ideas presented. It can be used as an ad-hominem attack. I think the other part of it, which is not trivial, is the rise of phones. People are typing on little keyboard and auto-correct can have a heavy hand. People don’t want to be judged for auto-correct getting one word wrong, invalidating a legitimate argument, so they look past potential auto-correct mistakes from others. The Internet has become much more tolerant of misspelling and mistakes, for better or worse. If it’s a clear knowledge gap, then think a correction is helpful and warranted. For example someone saying “mute point” or “per say”. By all means, let them know. Ironically, auto-correct fixed both of those and I had to go out of my way to mess them up again.
- bobcorponoi 1y agoI think the issue with correcting grammar online is that it diverts the conversation from the topic of the post. Of course this depends on the context but they might be excited about what they're posting about and seeing replies about their bad grammar or other off-topic things can take away from that. If you can offer genuine advice privately, then you can but otherwise if you feel it might come off as rude or pedantic, then I would shy away from it.
- amichail 1y agoIf only we had a tech solution to this problem...
- bobcorponoi 1y agoWhat's the tech solution? I don't want to assume.
- amichail 1y agoModern AI of course.
- bobcorponoi 1y agoBut that doesn't reflect the same intent that the author had. Whether their grammar is good or bad, at least it's their writing. They expressed themselves in the way they wanted to. I'm sure my grammar is not great either but I'm happy I wrote it myself.
- amichail 1y agoWhat makes you think they won't make sure the AI's text reflects what they want to say?
- mikewarot 1y agoGrammar is ever changing and the formal rules are quite arbitrary anyway. Not everyone uses the same grammar worldwide. I err towards caution and wouldn't dare presume I'm qualified to correct others. The same is true with Maths.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- JustExAWS 1y agoThere is only one thing I correct because 99% of people get it wrong - “jive” instead of “jibe”. “Jive” is a term Black folks used in the 70s. Before the pearl clutching starts - I am Black. On the other hand, as someone who has an A1-A2 fluency in Spanish and torture the language like you wouldn’t believe, I appreciate the grace I get from non English speakers when I try to communicate with them.