Who would you consider being more of an intelligent person?
By razor123
@razor123 (979)
India
April 12, 2009 3:10pm CST
Option A
A person who is good at writing essays, has a good grip on the English language, can go deep into sentence meanings, getting the main idea of a story, finding language features, etc., but isn't that good with spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. or
Option B
A person who is PERFECT at grammar, punctuation, spelling, word definitions, all things words, but isn't too good with writing essays, or any "thinking" tasks, such as explaining the meaning or significance of a short story or poem, etc.
I personally think option B, because it seems there are getting less and less people that can spell and use correct punctuation as the days go on. Just browsing forums, I can see many posters using rubbish-quality statements, capitals, periods and spaces everywhere.
1 person likes this
5 responses
@Jim32097 (16)
• United States
12 Apr 09
I believe grammar, punctuation and spelling are attention to detail issues not necessarily representations of intelligence. Some one who can formulate unique ideas and express them is more intelligent and could spell, use punctuation correctly and use proper grammar but they don't care to. If that person is posting on a forum they may not think it is important to use proper English and they might for their occupation. I have also heard people express that that society is getting smarter but individuals are getting dumber but I think they are just thinking about details less. This is probably not a good overall trend for society.
@vipersdoom (18)
• India
13 Apr 09
Well i think its the person A, because a person is always know about his thoughts and his deep meanings towards anything. Rather then just spelling and punctuations
@mahanjili (105)
• India
13 Apr 09
I think Option A more intelligent. Bcoz the person who can express the subjects clearly must not be below average in grammers, punctuations , spellings etc. The improvement he needs can be compensated by least attentions regarding these. But the other i.e. option B has to research and learn lot, bcoz his grammers are useless unless he can express the things clearly.
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
13 Apr 09
One of the longstanding debates in philosophy and the social sciences is known as the formalist/substantivist debate. The formalist believes that the form of something is the most important thing (judging a book by its cover, for instance), and the substantivist believes that the substance is the important thing (the story, or the facts within the book, for instance).
Your question deals with this dichotomy, and clearly you are a formalist. To a substantivist like me, the spelling is irrelevant if the person says nothing of any depth or meaning. Conversely, bad spelling, although it can certainly be annoying, is also irrelevant if the person "can go deep into sentence meanings, getting the main idea of a story, finding language features, etc."
So obviously I would say option A.
Lash
@mira91 (985)
• Singapore
13 Apr 09
I guess i'll have to go with B...But you have to understand some mylotters aren't good with their english, so i can't really blame them for not being able to live up to our expectations. They'll learn slowly perhaps? With our encouragements and how others type their sentences, they'll see and learn...^_^ So press on people!
