Grammar Pet Peeves

Ahmet

Reviving this thread because oh my god verbal hesitations in written communication make me want to murder a child.

Aerek

Even when our written communication is meant to emulate verbal communication, making vocal and non-vocal pauses completely legitimate given the nature of the medium?

Ahmet

Aerek said:

Even when our written communication is meant to emulate verbal communication, making vocal and non-vocal pauses completely legitimate given the nature of the medium?

Nono, says/tells/chans are fine. News and letters aren't.

Krypton

Though frankly, splitting the hesitation into its own tell, and only making your point in a separate tell 20 seconds later, is equally dumb.

Jurixe

Ahmet said:

Aerek said:

Even when our written communication is meant to emulate verbal communication, making vocal and non-vocal pauses completely legitimate given the nature of the medium?

Nono, says/tells/chans are fine. News and letters aren't.

I would disagree with this, personally. I think it's entirely possible to, say, be scribbling furiously for a while...then you get to a point where you're hesitant, and pause to think, and maybe you want the person reading the letter to know that you paused or are hesitant. There's nothing wrong with that to me. I also think that in this case Aerek did mean news and letters, too, but he can correct me if not.

For instance:

I...thought about what you said the other day. If you do not mind...I would very much like to see you again.

It conveys a different kind of tone than:

I thought about what you said the other day. If you do not mind, I would very much like to see you again.

I can agree that it's subtle and isn't entirely needed, but I don't think there is anything inherently unnatural or 'wrong' about it.

But if you didn't mean that, then feel free to enlighten me!

Ahmet

I was moreso referring to vocalized pauses, things like 'ummm' and 'uh...'

Dunno, just annoys the hell out of me.

Jurixe

Ahmet said:

I was moreso referring to vocalized pauses, things like 'ummm' and 'uh...'

Dunno, just annoys the hell out of me.

Ah, then that's slightly different. Overuse of that is annoying, just like they would be in a real life conversation, and they are less necessary to convey tone because they're usually sounds that you make to fill the silence, which in (written) text isn't necessary.