Forum English Vs Review English Options

[RLM]

I am fairly certain that those who post on the forum also post to the campground review pages.

I was just reading some campground reviews and noticed a difference in writing techniques. Most forum posts appear to be well written, grammatically correct, easily understood, and convey information quite effectively. But many campground reviews are not even close to what I read here on the forum. When one reads the review comments they sound choppy and abbreviated. It's like the writer thinks that there isn't enough space to make a complete sentence in the review so they throw out any noun/verb combinations. The lack of web space cannot be true, because I have also read some very nicely written reviews that comply with basic English 101 techniques.

Assuming that an individual makes posts in both places, it's like a Jekyll and Hyde situation. Why does a person communicate well on the forum and then use grammar and sentence structure that would be graded an F by any self-respecting 5th grade English teacher?

I'm not an English teacher nor am not trying to offend anyone or change the 'system.' I am most likely an offender myself. It was just an observation and I was wondering why the difference.

[jamarynn1]

I just try to be "short and sweet" in my reviews. I think saying "No pool" instead of "although I would have loved to have a pool in which to swim, there didn't seem to be one on the grounds so I had to take a point off" gets the idea across. I hate to wade through a review that waxes eloquent and in great detail how much they liked the dog park or how they would have rather stayed in a Walmart parking lot.

My reviews usually say things like: "No pool or playground. Personnel friendly and attentive to problems. Bathrooms and showers clean. Long and wide gravel pull-throughs with concrete patios. Good access and interior roads. Low water pressure. Wi-fi strong, good selection of cable channels. Laundry room clean but expensive ($2.25). No campfires allowed. Nice 1/4 mile trail down to the lake. Mostly seasonals, but all sites well-maintained. Near to highway, so noisy. Trains blowing horns but only during the day. We would stay here again."

If my lack of literary skills and/or verbs offends thee, so be it.

[Texasrvers]

I just try to be "short and sweet" in my reviews. I think saying "No pool" instead of "although I would have loved to have a pool in which to swim, there didn't seem to be one on the grounds so I had to take a point off" gets the idea across. I hate to wade through a review that waxes eloquent and in great detail how much they liked the dog park or how they would have rather stayed in a Walmart parking lot.

My reviews usually say things like: "No pool or playground. Personnel friendly and attentive to problems. Bathrooms and showers clean. Long and wide gravel pull-throughs with concrete patios. Good access and interior roads. Low water pressure. Wi-fi strong, good selection of cable channels. Laundry room clean but expensive ($2.25). No campfires allowed. Nice 1/4 mile trail down to the lake. Mostly seasonals, but all sites well-maintained. Near to highway, so noisy. Trains blowing horns but only during the day. We would stay here again."

If my lack of literary skills and/or verbs offends thee, so be it.

First, in the two threads listed by HappiestCamper, there really was only one poster who wrote in very bad English, and at the time we strongly suspected this person was doing this on purpose. Not only was her English very bad, but also the information she posted was not correct either. It seemed like the more people commented on her bad posts the worse they got.


Now, jamarynn1: I do not want to offend you. Your review is very understandable and the content is excellent (I wish they were all this good), but it is not written in complete sentences. You don’t have to “wax eloquent and in great detail” (we don’t want that either), but if you do not write complete sentences the admins who check reviews will probably have to take time to correct them. Using your example, this is probably what an admin would do: "There was no pool or playground. Personnel were friendly and attentive to problems. Bathrooms and showers were clean. There were long and wide gravel pull-throughs with concrete patios. There were good access and interior roads. Water pressure was low. Wi-fi was strong, and there was a good selection of cable channels. Laundry room was clean but expensive ($2.25). No campfires were allowed. There is a nice 1/4 mile trail down to the lake. There were mostly seasonals, but all sites were well-maintained. The location was near to the highway, so it was noisy. Trains blow horns but only during the day. We would stay here again."

I do not get the idea that you lack literary skills; I bet you can write complete sentences any time you want to. When you don't, you are just trying to save time and be “short and sweet”, but we prefer reviews be submitted and posted in standardized English. It just makes it easier for everyone to read and understand, and it takes less time to get reviews on line.