Why I do it

[Spellmaster]

Let me explain why I post my corrections of grammatical/spelling errors. There are three types of mistake I correct: 1) Americanisms, ie program instead of programme. This is because a nation's language is central to its culture, and in Britain we are seeing our language rapidly being taken over by American English. People moan about losing our identity to Europe without realising that it is already being lost to the USA. I know that language evolves and changes, but wht we are currently witnessing is the wholesale abandonment of our language, which will be a terrible thing for our culture. It's about time some of you stopped slavishly following whatever the Americans do spelling-wise (and that's not anti-American, it's just that we're not American and should stop pretending we are). 2) Mis-placed apostrophes. The apostrophe is a valuable grammatical tool, but nearly every AB user seems to think it denotes a plural. It does NOT. c) Howlers. Someone this week spelt interrogate as interergate. This the type of mistake that can make someone appear illiterate when they are not, and can prove expensive in, say, a letter to a prospective employer. I know for a fact that employers like people who can spell correctly and not make such howlers, so to correct them might seem annoying but could prove to be helpful. Spelling is a bit like driving - no-one likes to be corrected over their mistakes, but better for those mistakes to be corrected than for you to look stupid in someone's eyes later on, when it might matter more. Finally, good spelling and grammar help people to be understood better and to communicate more effectively. What a pity that some of you, supposedly seekers of knowledge, don't seem to realise this.

[arabella]

Firstly.. Melv, a computer program is spelt program in British English as well as American English, as opposed to television programme, so that isnt an Americanism...and Spellmaster, I don't like Americanisms either but throughout history the English language has been adapting and changing. Many different languages from different countries have contributed to it and we can't try and stop it from evolving, the language will continue to change and America is a hugely influential country, it'd surely be odd if our language wasn't affected by it.