[nonamechicken]

Why though? In India, we somehow have this obsession about English. Some Indians think speaking English make them a better person than a regular Indian. Indian speaking in a western accent is considered by some as superior than an Indian accent one. Indians make fun of each other for their accents, their lack of English knowledge etc. Why it has to be that way? Its just a language, that too a foreign one.

[programmer_dude]

Reluctance in gaining even a basic level of mastery in language skills goes to show you don't respect / value other people's time. You want your readers to put in the extra effort required to make sense out of your half-baked messages.

Asking people to use coherent English on an English language forum is a reasonable expectation. I wasn't making a value judgement on the thread OP. I hope this is clear (this is why reading comprehension is important too).

[nonamechicken]

> Reluctance in gaining even a basic level of mastery in language skills goes to show you don't respect / value other people's time.

I am not sure how using 'comprises' instead of 'is comprised of' can be considered as reluctance in gaining a basic level of English.

> You want your readers to put in the extra effort required to make sense out of your half-baked messages.

How is the message half-baked just because one word in that whole paragraph was wrong?

> Asking people to use coherent English on an English language forum is a reasonable expectation. I wasn't making a value judgement on the thread OP. I hope this is clear (this is why reading comprehension is important too).

I perfectly understood what 'blocked_again' said despite English not being my first language. I am pretty sure normal humans can process these sentences without any problems. Now if we are talking about 'reading comprehension' for machines, it may be a different issue.

I ran your comment in Word's grammar checker. It suggested a couple of changes.

1. Change 'required' to 'needed' in "required to make sense".

Reason: Clarity. A simpler word would be clearer for your reader.

2. Change 'master' to 'proficiency' in "mastery in language skills".

Reason: Inclusiveness. A gender-neutral term here would be more inclusive.

3. Change 'wasn't' to 'was not' in "I wasn't making a".

Reason: Formality. In formal writing, try spelling out the word.

[programmer_dude]

1. Disagree, required and needed are equally clear. 2. Mastery is gender neutral. Perhaps your grammar checker is confusing this with master? 3. Rules of what is and isn't formal have changed. Contractions such as wasn't, isn't are perfectly fine.

These are just nits. Not at the same level as using compromised instead of comprised. Edit: Actually this is a non-issue, I responded to the assertion "...As long as you understand what the person is saying it's good enough...".

Your reading comprehension skills need serious work.

[selimthegrim]

Master(y) in acquisition of skills context is gender neutral. The reason is to avoid master/mistress - slave connotation.

[selimthegrim]

Comprises is actually correct, if you read my edit you would see that I admitted that and learned something in the bargain myself.

[blocked_again]

Obviously I have more than a basic understanding of English. The whole issue with this thread is that I accidentally miswrote a sentence and even after understanding the context someone found it the necessary to point that I made a mistake. The whole point of language is to communicate your ideas. If you understand what I am saying then the point of writing the sentence is accomplished. Instead deciding to focus on the syntax or grammar or whatever is just missing the whole picture.

[nonamechicken]

I also didn't understand how they jumped to 'you lack basic understanding of English' just because you used a word differently. The only possibility I can guess for them picking on you like this is because you tried to question the hateful misinformation being posted here. They couldn't counter you on your actual content, so instead tried to pick on any other fault they could. Or they are trying to discourage people like you from questioning their narrative, and want to make sure that you have a negative experience on way or the other.

[programmer_dude]

This is what the thread OP posted... > India compromises of 28 states.

So compromise is now the same as comprise? I don't think you have a leg to stand on here.

Replying via edit:

>The point is that everyone is capable of figuring out that it's a typo and I actually meant comprises of.

Like I said elsewhere this is not what I objected to. I was responding to the assertion "...As long as you understand what the person is saying it's good enough...".

It is not good enough. The proper thing for you to do here would have been acknowledging your mistake and correcting it instead of promoting mediocrity.

People have the capacity of making heads or tails out of sloppy writing but why should they put in the effort to do so? It is your responsibility to put your thoughts coherently in the first place. This is the least you can do.

[blocked_again]

The point is that everyone is capable of figuring out that it's a typo and I actually meant comprises of. There is almost no one who reads that sentence and is confused what I actually meant. The brain of an average person is perfectly capable of doing that. Focusing on that typo even after totally understanding what I wrote is completely missing the point of language in the first place. Which is to communicate ideas.

[programmer_dude]

>The point is that everyone is capable of figuring out that it's a typo and I actually meant comprises of.

Like I said elsewhere this is not what I objected to. I was responding to the assertion "...As long as you understand what the person is saying it's good enough...".

It is not good enough. The proper thing for you to do here would have been acknowledging your mistake and correcting it instead of promoting mediocrity.

People have the capacity of making heads or tails out of sloppy writing but why should they put in the effort to do so? It is your responsibility to put your thoughts coherently in the first place. This is the least you can do.

[selimthegrim]

I’ve read enough newspaper articles and government press releases from subcontinent that while I believe you, I don’t believe that holds for everyone. I am sure there are people who might go on to confuse the two words.