Grammaticality and Proofreading

Question

I had a question about the grammaticality of a specific two-word phrase. The information here explicitly instructs me to use the tag grammaticality for such questions. But the question was closed because "proofreading questions are off-topic." Five different people appear to have voted to close it so I assume it really is off-topic somehow, which is fine, but I'm at a loss to understand why.

The message does stipulate "unless a specific source of concern in the text is clearly identified," which would give me the impression that it's intended to prevent requests for general proofreading except for the fact that my question involved only two words, the minimum necessary to have a grammatical relationship at all, and that's as specific as one can be. Unless I've misunderstood what's meant by "a specific source of concern?" Perhaps it means that I didn't specifically identify which grammar rules I'm concerned about? But if this is the case it would seem a needlessly burdensome requirement. It would discourage lay people like myself from engaging with the site, which would serve to increase the technicality of the questions but not really their quality. Questions don't have to be esoteric to be high quality. A policy like this would eliminate the possibility of questions from people who don't know what they don't know. E.g., in my case, the most I can say about the phrase is that it's prepositional. I rely on instinct and experience to write and have long since forgotten most of the actual rules. I thought my usage was correct but I wasn't certain and I wanted to know if there was something I didn't know (it turned out there was). If I had to specify which rules I was concerned about and why I was concerned about them I wouldn't be able to ask at all. And if I was able then I probably wouldn't need to. However, this seems unlikely to be the case unless this Exchange is intended only for English professionals.

I read around a bit before posting and gathered that confusion surrounding this closure reason is not uncommon. I have the idea that some mods may be rather indiscriminate in their usage of the "proofreading" tag so perhaps the issue is something else entirely? If this is the case I have to wonder about the wisdom of such a confusing practice. It's led me on a wild goose chase. But even if I disregard the stated reason I still can't come up with a reason why the question would be off-topic. What could be more germane to a forum about English language usage than a question about the proper use of the English language?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject. Hopefully they're helpful. Ultimately, my question elicited exactly the information I wanted. All the respondents understood me perfectly and I got the answer quickly. Personally, I can't imagine a better result or more appropriate use.

Edit: Reading around some more, I've begun to think that this Exchange may in fact be intended for professionals and esoteric questions are preferred. If this is the case then perhaps my question is off-topic because it's too basic? Some of what I've read suggests "is this usage correct" questions are not wanted. If this is so, while it leaves me wondering what a question about grammaticality could be apart from correct usage, I'm happy to put any questions in the appropriate place. It seems there's some disagreement about what kinds of questions are appropriate and where. The "Learners" Exchange doesn't seem like a fit for me as I'm as mastered a layman as you're likely to find but, being a layman, I may not fit here either. My goal is to learn something about English though so perhaps ELL makes sense? I guess it really doesn't matter so long as I know which one to go to though.

Answer 1

The "proofreading" close reason is supposed to apply to questions that seek either confirmation of the grammatical legitimacy of a specific piece of writing or help in correcting or improving its language. So if your question had been something like this:

I have written this sentence: "John was inculcated with certain ideas." But it sounds a little odd to me. Is it okay as written? If not, how can I improve it?

the "proofreading" close reason would have been entirely on point. The reason that English Language & Usage doesn't permit questions of this type is that they effectively turn the site into an editing/proofreading service, responding to questions that are unlikely to be of any interest to anyone other than the question's poster (because only the poster cares about the particular sentence "John was inculcated with certain ideas").

But your question, it seems to me, is about whether the verb-preposition combination "inculcated with" is standard or approved or normal sounding or widely used in English. On the one hand, close voters at this site might reasonably take the view that some strands of that question call for "opinion-based" answers—another standard close reason on this site. But on the other hand, whether "inculcated with" commonly appears in published English writing and whether it has appeared in published English writing for many years are objectively answerable in the historical record, and therefore do not ask for opinion-based answers.

It also seems to me that you may not be the only site visitor who wonders whether "inculcated with" is well established in current English and, if so, what its pedigree is. For that reason, I think your question passes the crucial test of breadth of interest: a question that multiple people may have is not "too localized" (a close reason that this site used to make available as a prefab close option and whose loss I mourn).

The objective validity of a canned close option in a particular case depends entirely on the care with which close voters select it. The point of having prewritten close reasons is to make it easier for close voters to identify a serious problem in a question that justifies their voting to close it. But to the extent that the official reason given for closing a question is supposed to guide the question's poster's efforts to improve or correct it, selecting a close reason that is ill matched to the actual weakness (if any) of the question is extremely unhelpful.