Forums Good for Reading, Language and Writing Skills?

[Deleted member 121]

The first forum I ever used was the Official Harry Potter forums, this was back in early - mid 2002 when I was 11 years old. Back then my vocabulary was small and my grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure were horrible. Between people making fun of my misspelling, and after realizing how bad my language and writing skills were, I decided to improve these skills. Over the years of forum usage, my language and writing skills got a lot better and my vocabulary grew much larger.

I think my biggest improvement came when I joined the Zelda Dungeon Community way back around 2005. I had never used a forum with rules such as "posts must be at least X words long" and "no double posting". Those rules gave me even more incentive to write better posts than I had before.

On my GED I scored the highest in the reading and writing subjects, and I truly believe that these successes we're thanks to my several years of forum usage.

 

[basement24]

It's good to hear that some people really do find usage of forums help them out.

I think forums can definitely help, since it can be a daily use / need to write something. Any use of a skill or talent will help build it over time. The only thing that can be counteractive to helping build vocabulary and improve spelling and grammar in a forum is a lack of rules and guidelines.

I've been to a number of forums over the many, many years I've been online and the majority of them have no guidelines for character and word count and / or intelligent content. The whole texting language can really set kids back in terms of use of language. If no one stops them and says "Hey, smarten up" then it will be counteractive to learning. Just as daily use of proper English will help build, daily use of texting language will help destroy. If a child uses "LOLZ i luv teh zelda its gr8!!1!!!111!!!" all the time, then this is the skill set they will build upon.

Thankfully, this forum doesn't reward this kind of texting language, which I greatly appreciate for a number of reasons. It's a bad habbit to practice, it's just plain annoying to read, and it dumbs down a conversation when others are not on the same texting level.

I'm sure most English teachers would generally disapprove of forums as a language building tool but if it gets the job done, like teaching someone to read with comic books, then what harm is it? It just depends on if the person using the forum is willing to expand their knowledge of the language, and doesn't stay in a rut.

 

[ShellShocker]

Forums have really helped me out in my Writing skills.

The first forum I joined was two years back, when I made terribly short posts and didn't care at all about double posting. RuneScape, the only other place were I had communicated with other people with the internet, made me think that all forums were a massive place, making me ask "Hey, where is everyone?" a few minutes after my post. It was actually a quite small forum. I kept getting flamed and annoyed by people telling me I was making pointless points and spamming up the forum, and I was.

Eventually, after joining the next forum, I started to improve on using capital letters and commas. There were a lot of other people who used great spelling and grammar there, and I guess I just learnt off them.

I got better and better slowly as time went on. At a point, my posts had good spelling and grammar, and I had stopped double posting in topics and figured out how small some online communities could be. My posts then were still quite short only have one paragraph. I really only posted in the Forum Games and Off-Topic section.

Soon, the forum moved and I joined there. After a while, I was making quality posts grammar wise. After joining the Role Playing Games many times, I finally started making descriptive, long posts with the characters I made in various "PnPs".

After a while I was actively making great posts around the forums with all the other members and improved my Writing skills greatly since the first forum I joined.

At the start of February, I joined the Zelda Dungeon Forums. I made a few posts when I joined with good spelling + grammar, but they weren't quite long. After being a member for here for a little while, they introduced the reputation system and I started making quality posts and quickly got two reputation bars.

Now, after being a forum user for two years, my Writing and Reading skills have improved a lot. Since the introduction of the reputation system, I always try to make large posts that contribute to the thread, make sense, and have good spelling.

So yes, I think forums can really help someone with their language skills as long as they try and have support. I'm really sure forums have helped me a lot.

 

[Smitie]

My very first forum didn't improve my dutch writing very well. There wasn't a writing guideline like here, so most of the post there are short and unreadable. I left after a while and joined ZD.

I didn't have very good English writing skills, so at first I was a bit scared that all the English speakers here would go nuts. Luckily that didn't happen and I got a lot of advice about what I can and can't say (No direct translations and standard grammar). It really helped and now I can finally 'Think like an English person' when I type something instead of translating Dutch. I like the fact that we have a good set of grammar rules here, because I can't read that weird English 'forum-grammar' that most forums seem to use.

I can also read English a lot better and I really think that my English reading and writing was not as good as it is now if I didn't join ZD. So thanks everybody

 

[Akiranon]

I remember back in 2006, the first time I actively participated in forums, I used spellcheck on every word. Even worse, I did it with Office 2003... Compared to the built-in spellcheck firefox has, Office was awfully slow. Imagine having a conversation with someone that always pauses at every word you say to him. Yeah, not fun.

Through the years I became less and less dependant on spellcheck, and eventually I stopped using it all together. I know when to use a/an, it's/its and your/you're. I even know how to spell definitely correctly, amazing isn't it? Haha, I'm just joking, but I did learn a lot from native English speakers and other people. Oddly enough, it seems I'm better at English than Dutch. Considering Dutch is my native tongue, I should be worried.

I'm happy I wasn't into the whole 'leet' thing, though. It would've made my English a lot worse. That, and I would've failed every English exam I've done so far.

 

[knowlee]

Well, I've never had a forum to help me learn good language and writing skills. Although this one may count seeing as I had to force myself to write more in detail as to why I did or did not like/dislike something, etc. The first forum I joined well, let's just say that I would be embarrassed if I were to see my posts from there. :embarrassed: Here at ZD though maybe my first few posts I'd be embarrassed, but the majority of them, I wouldn't be.

I also think that not only can forum help you improve your abilities (provided that it has rules against bad language and such) but a place on the internet like a writing website can help. Believe or not most of my writing skills came from me writing fanfiction.

 

[midnightokami]

Zelda dungeon is the first forum I have joined. I kind of enjoy ZD since you have people to talk to. Sometimes I have a feeling that I still make short annoying posts. But the more you practice writing, the little you will get better! Thinking of which I should make longer interesting posts and improve the post I have made in the past....

 

[PureLocke]

The simple act of constantly writing helps to build ability, plus there are always some members that can write extremely well that others can model themselves after. Though on the flipside there is the elite-speak/13375p34k crowd as well as those that abuse the 6 or so conventions of writing. I suppose as long as people don't copy them forums improve literacy and debate/logic skills.

 

[ケンジ]

ZD is a place to discuss Zelda and to talk about their ideas, opinions and theories. So it being a benefit to one's reading and writing skills is a fact.

Usually in a forum, we post ideas, discuss and talk some things that are somehow related. And in that sense, we read each post and learn other people's ideas. And while reading, you may encounter words that may be unfamiliar to you, so you become curious and interested in it. It adds to your vocabulary and hence you just improved.

When we post our ideas, we tend to contemplate on what are we gonna say, we think, rephrase sentences, edit adverbs, verbs, etc. Once all that is finished, you type it and check if the post makes sense. And it makes you learn to communicate with others, thereby increasing your language skills.

I had a hard time when I joined the forum. I can't post right, said some stupid things on posts. But luckily I did not get a warning, so I tend to re-read my posts. And hey, the things I post helps now are ideas that I have thought thoroughly.

And after a few months, I noticed my English skills got better, and it helped me in my Finals in English. I was thankful at my sudden success in my subject, so I decided to hang around here, for fun and to chat. I also tend to share ideas so I can see more of your thoughts.

Now, here is some advice to some members who are somewhat new and a little bit challenged. Read your post. and ask yourself, Does it make sense? Is it good, Will it get me in trouble? Does it show respect to other readers? Is it too short? Do that, and you'll be just fine. I did well on that kind of basis.

 

[Vanessa28]

When I first had a pc (in 2004, yeah I'm late..I know ) I joined a LOTR Forum with mainly americans so of course they couldn't understand dutch so I had no choice But I gained many friends through the years of online forums and I even talked with some people on the phone! Of course I'm not perfect. I make mistakes inw riting of course but you will learn from them. If you are taking the time to read and listen to the advice people give you then you will see people will also be much more polite towards you when you make a spelling error.

I have spent so much time online and chat with english speaking friends, watch shows or movies without subtitles and it improved my english a LOT. Sometimes I have difficulties to think properly in my OWN language and mix up english and dutch

 

[Zeruda]

Despite all the memes and many incorrect spellings ("cuz" "wut" "rite" etc. etc), a lot can be learned by participating in forums. They helped me to learn English better when it comes to using a wider vocabulary and sentence structuring. A LOT better. It also helps with comprehension. I still struggle with that sometimes and can't tell when somebody is referring to or talking about one thing or another with a certain mindset (if that makes sense), but I used to be a lot worse.

I still trip over my words a lot when I speak or structure a sentence incorrectly, but I'm getting a lot better at it. I have to say I learned more in a year on a forum than I did through many years of school.

 

[ChargewithSword]

Well, I believe it depends entirely on the forum itself. I remember when I was a young lad, starting out. I was on the Nintendo forums once and I didn't learn much there because the forum didn't inspire creativity. As a native speaker of english, I didn't learn much. Then there was the apforums where I learned a little more because I was mocked there for some grammatical mistakes. However it wasn't until I came to ZD that I began to develop my writing skills better. This forum literally provoked the idea of being better with grammar. There was also the mighty 100 character limit (which I abused at first) which helped me write more than I normally would have.

Zelda dungeon is where I also began to develop my writing skills on my latest fan fiction. I think, thanks to the help of members who helped point out my comma mistakes. Thank you everyone.

So I think reading forums really help depending on how up with rules the forums can be. When you get something like 4chan or the old Nintendo Official Forums, good luck learning anything.