...and no, it's not this thread itself, but Posting advice: "I can't do this, ...I don't understand you"over in the General Nursing Forum. Yes, I know it was highlighted in the allnurses.com newsletter, but I mention it here as well as it is worth the read, especially since this particular board on allnurses.com is the first contact many users have with a professional message board site.

Long story short: while most posters on this site make occasional typos, grammar errors, use occasional slang and smilies, and are otherwise only self-edited, one should always strive to make one's posts readable by the message board at large. Even making the attempt to use paragraphs, punctuation, and simple grammar such as subject-verb agreement goes a long way. If a poster cannot or chooses not to, that poster ends up looking ignorant, stupid, unprofessional, or some mixture of the three, which generally does not end well for the poster. This goes doubly so for OPs whose initial posts are incomprehensible and who then wonder why no one helps them or addresses their issue. Write/type well, and you will be well thought of. Write poorly and, well, you get the idea.

Some people wonder why they get hints at appearing professional on a board for professionals. Your post is a good reminder.

wat r u tlking bout.

ThIs not ez 2 read?

I agree though. Make it easy to read and provide structure and it will be answered that much faster.

I generally don't bother reading posts if it appears the OP made little attempt at readability.

I skip any post without appropriate capital letters, punctuation, mostly correct spelling and logical paragraphs.

I generally don't bother reading posts if it appears the OP made little attempt at readability.

Neither do I - one can hope that reminders like this will help others think about how they write, though, so we see less of that kind of post.

I don't think it really matters how the post is written as long as you can understand what the OP is trying to say.

I don't think it really matters how the post is written as long as you can understand what the OP is trying to say.

Fair enough - hence my comment that even an attempt at trying to be understandable goes a long way. However, I refuse to try to porifice one-and-a-half screen lengths of text with scanty punctuation (except for ellipses, probably overused/misused), no capitalization, and no paragraph breaks. While I could possibly figure out what those kind of posts said if I really tried, I'm not going to take the effort to understand what the post author didn't expend effort to help me understand.

dis an dat u no no no know no is dat dar o no no dis is dat i meeen will insure I don't read the post either.

How can someone pass something as difficult as nursing school and be completely unable to formulate a coherent sentence and paragraph? Doesn't nursing school require a couple of college level writing classes? And don't you have to write papers in the program? How does one make it to graduation without these skills? I'm not trying to be judgmental, I'm genuinely curious.

How can someone pass something as difficult as nursing school and be completely unable to formulate a coherent sentence and paragraph? Doesn't nursing school require a couple of college level writing classes? And don't you have to write papers in the program? How does one make it to graduation without these skills? I'm not trying to be judgmental, I'm genuinely curious.

It's the informal setting of the internet that is to blame, I think. I would imagine-or perhaps, hope-that nearly all on here do know proper grammar and writing form, but the internet does bring out the laziness in people.

I'll admit, when I am on other sites, I do not always use capitalization. I know how a grammatically correct sentence should look, but I just don't capitalize like I should unless they're proper nouns that more then a few people might not know about.

That aside, this a forum about a highly professional field. It would seem rather pertinent to act and type in a professional manner on here.

This is a great thread!!! Thank you for starting it. This very topic is addressed in the Terms of Service of this site in the following excerpt.

Please do not type entirely in capitals as considered shouting on the internet! Desiring to maintain professionalism, text speak (also known as chatspeak, txtspk, texting language or txt talk) is discouraged. Along with using proper English spelling and punctuation, this shows respect for the owner, other bulletin board members & guests and makes it easier to read your important thoughts.

One thing that we as staff ask is that if you come across a member whose grammar and spelling is not as professional as you think it should be, please do not point it out to them on the public board. It is better to click the report button at the bottom of each post and let staff address it.

Thanks again for the thread.