On Friday, Alicia wrote:
 
>...  FOLKS you HAVE to take a stand-- ...
>
>PROTEST ferrets ranked as exotics!!  EVERYWHERE- for petes sake they
>arrived her with early american settlers- were domesticated then -
>working agriculktural animals--
>
>WRITE to Audubon & SIerra Club--
>If you do not make a fuss ( A POLITE, ORGANIZED FUSS) you may not be
>allowed to have ferrets 10 yearsfrom now... I have been warning our
>time faces ne chalklenges-- pick up your pencils and write-- if there
>is exotic legislation in your area attend adn fight for the rights of
>your ferrets.
 
But when you do pick up those pencils and write, please, please, take a
moment to PROOFREAD what you've written!  A letter riddled with typos
demonstrates disrespect for your reader, who is then less likely to take
you seriously.
 
When I start out reading a post like the one above, the message almost
immediately gets lost in the typos and grammatical errors.  It's
distracting, annoying and confusing.  I'm not singling out Alicia, and
I think she is trying to make a very good point.  And I'm certainly not
criticizing our members from other countries who make a valiant effort to
communicate in a language that is not their own.  I'm talking to those
people who are perfectly capable of communicating effectively in English
but just don't bother.  There are some fml members whose posts I
automatically skip because it just isn't worth the effort spent trying
to figure out what they are trying to say!
 
Come on, folks, if something is worth saying, isn't it also worth taking
a moment to make sure your message is getting across?  Most email
programs have spell checkers, and the basic grammar and punctuation
that you learned in school are not that hard!
 
Thank you,
Nancy
[Posted in FML issue 4248]