My age is showing, or 'No texting, please"

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Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

Please, please, I beg of you, do not flame me! The recent spurt of extremely unprofessional posts is beginning to annoy me.

We ask to be treated like 'professionals', but some of us seem to communicate in a text-messaging style, or simply without regard to our audience. I don't expect perfection, but something better than 2nd grade level would be appreciated.

If you are unsure about spelling, at least be consistent. If you spell 'diarrhea' 3 different ways in one post I will wonder if you are even a health professional.

If you don't know how and when to use an apostrophe, find a basic punctuation guide, or google the info you need. In general, plural words DO NOT have an apostrophe. I never see anyone use an apostrophe with the word dogs, why do I see it with doctor's as in multiple doctors, or other simple words?

I know that sometimes we post after a long shift, or while in an acute emotional state, and certainly we can all understand some errors made in haste, but that is not what I am referring to.

Many of us remember when computers took up entire rooms, and seemed so futuristic; and no one had even heard of cell phones! Only the most elite had pagers years ago - we actually had to page on the overhead P.A. system! And paper charting was the norm!

Please have pity on those of us for whom texting is still a foreign language!

Thank you all for letting me vent about this! Best wishes for everyone during the spring holidays!

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Specializes in Home Care.

LOL after you've been on discusssion boards long enough you'll learn to look past the grammar and spelling errors as well as typos and text talk. Look, I made a typo in my first sentence.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

i've been on the boards a good long time, and the "text message speak" in some of our posts still bothers me. it makes me think the poster doesn't respect us enough to both to spell words out, use punctuation or capitalization and generally present their best effort. or it makes me wonder about how professional they are at work when their posts here are such a disaster. i'm sure i'm about to get flamed . . .

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I'm sorry, but typos and grammar shortcuts will always bother me. I guess I'm just an old fudd too! :)

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I think there's a huge difference between typos and posting in text style. I can live with people's typos, I wish people would make more of an effort to use something close to correct grammar/punctuation/spelling, I skip over posts that look like chat-speak or texting or don't use paragraph breaks.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to do what they can to make it easy for others to read their posts. In face to face communication, we expect people to try to enunciate and pronounce words correctly and to move logically from one thought to the next, so why should we expect less from the written word? To my mind, it makes sense to expect more from a person who is typing out their though because they can review before posting, if they choose, but when you're speaking you don't have the same luxury.

I've been active on various forums for the last 10 years.

edited to add:

My 13 year old daughter feels the same way, so I don't think it's an age thing.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

It bugs me too. I know for a fact that I have made careless errors in my posts, but I do try and keep it correct. I have just always been that way about written communication. Now, to hear me talk, I am about as country as they get (y'all :) ). I am just a writer at heart and want my writing to be perfect, whether in an article I am submitting for publication or a rant on an online message board. It's just me.

I try to forgive others their grammatical misgivings, since we all have different strengths and weaknesses. I have to admit that I too tend to skip over posts with LOL-speak, tons of spelling errors, or ones written like some of my 3rd graders' papers.

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Specializes in LTC, Wound Care.
Please, please, I beg of you, do not flame me! The recent spurt of extremely unprofessional posts is beginning to annoy me.

We ask to be treated like 'professionals', but some of us seem to communicate in a text-messaging style, or simply without regard to our audience. I don't expect perfection, but something better than 2nd grade level would be appreciated.

If you are unsure about spelling, at least be consistent. If you spell 'diarrhea' 3 different ways in one post I will wonder if you are even a health professional.

If you don't know how and when to use an apostrophe, find a basic punctuation guide, or google the info you need. In general, plural words DO NOT have an apostrophe. I never see anyone use an apostrophe with the word dogs, why do I see it with doctor's as in multiple doctors, or other simple words?

I know that sometimes we post after a long shift, or while in an acute emotional state, and certainly we can all understand some errors made in haste, but that is not what I am referring to.

Many of us remember when computers took up entire rooms, and seemed so futuristic; and no one had even heard of cell phones! Only the most elite had pagers years ago - we actually had to page on the overhead P.A. system! And paper charting was the norm!

Please have pity on those of us for whom texting is still a foreign language!

Thank you all for letting me vent about this! Best wishes for everyone during the spring holidays!

Hey, wait a minute! I still have to page on the overhead P.A. system and do paper charting! You have to love working for the government!

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Specializes in Global Health Informatics, MNCH.

I took a class once at Teachers College and the professor would always have this at the end of his emails: "Note: emailing is informal conversation and as such I neither edit nor spell check it." I feel the same way about message boards, they are informal. I also would not assume that everyone using this board speaks English as a first language. As long as the post is understandable the typos and misuse of apostrophes really don't bother me.

On the other hand, text speak can be quite annoying and I have seen some incomprehensible posts on this board. Though it is possible someone is actually posting from their phone and just wants to make a quick point in a heated discussion.

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I agree.

we are so willing to accept the english malfunctions that they have now become the norm. the worst part is go visit human resources and ask to see the applications. They are not even recognizing their errors.:mad::crying2:

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I like to communicate properly but really these boards are informal conversation. (As stated by a previous poster.)

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Specializes in Just school!.

It has nothing to do with age. I think it has everything to do with not wanting to be lazy. I always take the time to make sure my posts are at the very least comprehensible. I think texting has ruined us ;)

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Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

Writing a coherent posting is a sign of the application of a good education. Texting by nature involves taking "shortcuts " to get the message across quickly. It is appropriate in its intended medium. The use of these shortcuts in a method of communication that doesn't require these shortcuts will be interpreted by some as an example of either laziness or poor education. We are supposed to be educated professionals.

I have seen too many nurses notes and other communications using "text speech". Some of which fail in their intended communication as many people don't text. It reflects poorly on their level of professionalism.

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