[pet peeve/rant] Grammar, people!!

[barsoomcore]

All I can say is I throw out, unread, ANY resumes or cover letters that come across my desk with a SINGLE grammatical mistake.

If you can't get your LETTERS bug-free, man, I don't want get anywhere NEAR your code.

And I'll just state that nobody ever went wrong making sure their post was built out of correct grammar. Whence comes this need for speed that somehow justifies laziness? Why is it MORE important to get your thoughts out QUICKLY? Surely badly phrased thoughts only SLOW DOWN conversation, no matter how quickly they're posted. Certainly there has been spectacular evidence of that right here on EN World from time to time...

My brain is unshakable in its belief that if people spent more time considering what they were saying, there would be less disagreements and misunderstandings. But my brain gets like that sometimes.

 

[tarchon]

There is no such word as "gots."

I have multiple dice. I have one die. You cannot use "dice" as a singular; it's a plural word.

Oh... I see... so like "He gotce hisself some dice."

 

[Thotas]

I'm joining with Barsoomcore on this one. The conversation vs. writing analogy fails to convince me because this is writing, and there is edit-capability. And now I'm just waiting, because as short as this post is, there is undoubtedly some howler of a grammatical or spelling gaff in it that I'm just not seeing.

 

[Mark]

i wander whose gonna here an obay?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Everyone should of course be aware of this already...

-Hyp.

"Everyone should, of course, be aware of this already..."

Sorry, Hyp. You're not getting me on that one.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Barsoomcore, I agree with you 100%, but that should be either "fewer disagreements and misunderstandings" or "less disagreement and misunderstanding."



(Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. Please don't hit me. )

 

[Abraxas]

All I can say is I throw out, unread, ANY resumes or cover letters that come across my desk with a SINGLE grammatical mistake.

How do you know if there is a mistake if you don't read them?

 

[EricNoah]

Hey, I'm not trying to say what should or shouldn't be, I'm just trying to come up with an explanation. Feel free to be prescriptive; I'm just being descriptive.

My theory is that some people aren't particularly careful with their writing on a message board because it doesn't matter to them. It doesn't pay off. It's all going to come down to what people think is important.

There are different kinds of writing (for different purposes) and on the internet some of them are more ephemeral than others. In a chat room, for example, would you stop and correct everyone who made a typo? Or a grammatical mistake? I hope not -- you would not be aiding the process of communicating, you would be hindering it. There are some people who see a message board as only one miniscule step above a chat room in terms of feeling the need to use "gooder English."

Now, I will add ... if you are an 8th grader at Waunakee Middle School and you hand me a paper that contains chatisms like "u r" (for "you are"), then "u" and I "r" gonna sit down and have a talk about finding the right level of correctness for your school work! Knowing your audience is important, and if (a big if) your goal is to communicate with and impress those who do care about correctness (for example, many fine people at EN World, or a teacher at school, or a potential employer), then it might be worth your while to use more care, learn grammar rules that you frequently have trouble with, and edit your work.

And finally, I don't think a rant where people say, "Come on, do it right!" is going to make anyone go "Gosh, that certainly clarifies their vs. they're vs. there and your vs. you're! Thank goodness I read that rant!" But then I think rants are an ineffective means of communicating anything. You're preaching to the choir while simultaneously attacking those you wish would change and making them defensive. Not effective!

 

[Angcuru]

Grammar, Grammar, Grammar, Grammar,
Grammar, Grammar, Grammar, Grammar,
Grammar, Grammar, Grammar, Grammar,
SYNTAX! SYNTAX!!!
Grammar, Grammar, Grammar, Grammar,
Grammar, Grammar, Grammar, Grammar,
Grammar, Grammar, Grammar, Grammar,
GRAMMAR NAZI!

.....ah, seemed funny at the time. Feel free to ignore!

 

[EricNoah]

I think it would be funnier if I knew what tune I was supposed to be singing it to!

(And, yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. Woo hoo, the freedom!)