[sclug] sclug Digest, Vol 72, Issue 5

[Alex Butcher]

On Wed, 23 Sep 2009, Sean Furey wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 07:58:26PM +0100, Keith Edmunds wrote:
>> In a similar vein, TCA chooses to present his arguments on line, but lacks
>> both literacy and the willingness to improve. Odd that someone should
>> choose to communicate via a medium they are remarkably inept at using and
>> seemingly proud of it.
>
> If you're unwilling to enter discussions merely because of errors in
> spelling/grammar[1] that do not significantly interfere with the
> message[2], then you're much more interested in pedantry than
> discussions anyway.

I can't find the paper I remember reading about
(<http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0006899306013862> seems
closest, but is older than I'd expect so probably isn't the one I'm thinking
of), but I seem to recall FMRI scans of the brains of subjects reading
material with mis-spellings glitched whenever a mis-spelling was
encountered, slowing reading and comprehension.  It sounded a bit like a
biological equivalent to a CPU throwing an exception for a misaligned memory
access or similar :-).

Anyone who's seriously interested in communicating their ideas should make
every effort to make them as easily understood as possible.  Not doing so is
arrogant, IMNSHO.  Being put off by said arrogance is different from
pedantry.

> Sean

Best Regards,
Alex