So Why Does Grammar, or Lack of It Bother You

I have a math mind so I am well aware grammar does not equal intelligence. When it really sets me off is when someone is using poor grammar or spelling while talking down to others. Especially if someone is criticizing someone else's "grammer". I mean come on, if you can't spell it you have no reason to point out someone's lack of it.

Okay also if it is just sooooo out of control.

The inability to utilize proper grammar can be linked to any or all of those reasons.

For the most part, one can usually tell when an otherwise educated person is simply being lazy or impatient. My pet peeve is improper usages.

Here are some fun comics on the topic. I love sharing them with friends who make these common mistakes. http://theoatmeal.com/tag/grammar

I'm an English professor, so it may bother me more than others. For me, it shows a disrespect for language in general. It shows a lack of care (i.e. "I don't need to communicate properly or respectfully").

Sometimes it can imply poor education, no attention to detail--or fast, furious typing!
As an English Lit minor and a 20+ year marketing/advertising professional...proofreading is in my blood. It's just part of who I am now.
There is a huge difference between an occasional misspelled word and a 12 inch paragraph that flits from O. thought to another, shows poor grammatical skill, lacks any & all punctuation, and reminds me of a William Faulkner story!

All of the above. But sometimes what bothers me most is that the writer has an attitude and then is almost unintelligible and defensive. You don't need to be perfect (who is?). You don't need to have English as your first language. But if you want to be understood, you should at least try.

I had a teacher for Upward Bound who would get on your case if you didn't communicate clearly. She said ebonics was for the lunch room, not the board room and she expected every single one of us - black,white, purple, green - to communicate in an intelligent and professional manner. I imagine that any student who has her today is getting lectured on chat speak.

So, yes, this is a really informal forum. That's fine, I don't expect Shakespeare (or want Shakespeare), but if people want to be taken seriously they should read what they write, especially if they are passionate about what they are writing.

I am an English professor and readers can make all three of the assumptions about poor grammar that you you mention. All three of these reasons are very common.

Honestly I only notice that someone on an internet board has poor grammar when they are arguing very strongly about something like politics. In those situations when someone is "yelling" about how the other side is dumb and wrong, the typos really damage the credibility of the writer.

When people are discussing personal experiences, I do not notice the errors much at all. (And believe me I spend hours of my work life focused on grammar issues with my students.)

Poor grammar bothers me because it is a glaring reminder that there is a lot of ignorance out there. I myself make mistakes when I post answers here or write on my blog (at least my blog has spellcheck), but I do usually take the time to re-read and edit what I've written before posting, out of courtesy for those who might take the time to read what I've written.

One very real problem with poor grammar on this site is that some posts are incredibly difficult to wade through due to lack of punctuation, misspellings or unclear use of repeated pronouns. If I'm putting something out there and asking for feedback, I should respect my reader enough to take a moment and make my question or idea easier to understand. I'm a strong believer in the paragraph. :) As a reader, our eyes need a break, a place to rest between sentences, and when the post is a run-on sentence, I feel a bit overwhelmed. If the poster cannot sort out their own thoughts, how am I supposed to know what they are really needing? If one wants the attention of others to help them solve their problems (not mine!), do not make it difficult to understand the problem or situation. Clarity is important.

I think there will be people who aren't well-educated who will do their best in composing a post and who will be thoughtful about it. There will be those people that simply don't care *what* others have to wade through because their post is really for *them* and all about them (impatience). Then there are those that simply don't care because they haven't been taught that the ability to write and express one's thoughts and ideas well is of value and is indeed an attribute. (Indifference). There is no single, universal answer to the question.

I think it just LAZINESS.

It just makes US as in UNITED STATES look bad.

I find people that English is their SECOND LANGUAGE speak better than "Americans."

Makes me sad that our launguage is butchered by texting, Twitter and Facebook. NOBODY is THAT busy that they can't write out THANKS. Thanx is just plain stupid.

Okay, that was my rant for the day...

It's frustrating because it's extremely difficult to read. This is a message board and as such writing is our only form of communication. That means you need to make some effort to be understood. If you really are uneducated, fine. If English isn't your first language, great. But I know many people online who have English as their 2nd and even 3rd language and they use better grammar and punctuation than many (supposed) native English speakers on this site.

[Please note I have infinite patience for those who are not native English speakers and have trouble with English... they're exempt from my ire on this subject as are people with learning disabilities related to reading, receptive language, and expressive language.]

The indifference and disregard are disrespectful. We're all on media that enable us to write legibly. We even have tools to help us with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Use Firefox, for crying out loud. It has a built in "English teacher" to highlight spelling mistakes. For people using iTech, I know those have software to help too. Autocorrect is a helpful tool. Use it.

I grew up with an English teacher who was also a secretarial teacher for a mom. I have no excuse. I make typos and little brain farts but I make my best effort not to, and that includes refraining from using obscene amounts of abbreviations out of courtesy for the posters who aren't fluent in English abbreviations and/or are new to posting in online communities and don't know the jargon.

What worse to me than grammar mistakes and misspellings is posts loaded with text speak.

I'm not saying a post has to be grammatically perfect. Not at all. Just please recognize that your audience isn't 2nd graders.

I wouldn't say it bothers me, but I do notice it. Now, I am not perfect by any means. In fact, I often times find little typos or misused words in my posts because I am typing too fast and get ahead of myself. I usually make sure to proofread my posts, but sometimes a little something will slip thorough.

What I can't stand is when people do not use paragraphs. That is far more annoying than using a word wrong. Paragraphs are your friends people!!

I don't mind poor grammar if it implies poor education. Its for the other reasons you mentioned (impatience and indifference) that it bothers me.

All three. It makes communication unclear for me. (Example: "Both had a hotdog" means that two shared a hotdog, not that each one had his own hotdog.)

I am more bothered with the impatience and indifference. People don't know what they don't know and can't control what education they received. I don't think that it takes any extra effort to say it right. It annoys me to the point that I would rather not even talk with certain people.

Because it makes the person sound ignorant and uneducated!
A few errors are of course, no big deal, we are only human after all.
But on this site in particular, it's hard not to be offended by a sloppy, error filled, rambling/ranting question. I suggest that we all treat mamapedia as we would a REAL group of people (which, duh, we are!) When asking a question or seeking advice, deal with your anger/frustration BEFORE composing a post. In other words, stop and think before you speak. Typing in anger is like yelling, and no one likes to be yelled at, especially by strangers (though if you do, prepare to be yelled right back at, lol!) If you think about how your words look and sound to someone else it's bound to come across more coherent and less offensive.

.

*g
*it,
*you?

lol sory couldnt resist

Okay, all kidding aside, "creative" grammar usage drives me crazy, and it's because reading it is so much work. The grammatical standards are in place on purpose to make communication easier. I find incorrectly written things to be confusing and distracting. If the reader has to read something out loud or mentally insert commas and periods, then it feels like the writer is more concerned with their own convenience and speed, than with the reader's ability to understand. As someone else has already pointed out, I can make a concession if the writer simply doesn't know the rules. I feel like in the age of texting and e-mail, though, the rules are simply being dropped.

Spoken language is different. There is a certain rythym to hearing someone speak that makes the listener less likely to stumble over the conversation. Sort of the same way you find yourself picking up bits of someone's accent when you've been talking together a while.

For me, it can make the meaning of what they are trying to communicate unclear.

It also makes me worry about the state of our educational system. And it bothers me that more people don't care.

It makes them look bad - and they just don't seem to care. But, in reality, most people I know who use poor grammar don't typically realize they're doing it. They think it's correct.

However, I've learned to avoid correcting someone unless I'm close to them and I think it's making them look bad to others.

It annoys me because I automatically assume that the person is stupid and stupid people annoy me. Mind you, I'm not talking about the occasional typo or grammatical error since we all (me included!) do that - I'm talking about the grossly misspelled or grammatically incorrect statement. Oh, and the ones that everyone and their mothers seem to get wrong - whether vs weather, lose vs loose, etc. I'm an English major though so my reaction may not be your typical one. ;p

Can someone be intelligent and just suck at writing?

It only bothers me when it makes it hard to read or I don't understand because of misspellings and incorrect use of grammar. I was born in a Spanish speaking country and did not move here until I was 9 years old, so I have always tried to be grammatically correct and spell correctly. I think it's funny when my husband asks me how to spell something. I tell him "English is my secondary language and your first and I'm a better speller than you?" I just like to tease him. One of my friends is a horrible speller, when we were in school she always had me look over her homework. I even tried to help her learn to spell better, but didn't quite stick.

Well I'm not sure, but when I say AIN'T it makes my husband cringe!!

Honestly, I don't care. I respond to the posts from my heart and I don't focus on all the correct comma's or spaces etc. If someone sent me a pm telling me that I need to check my grammar etc. I would be irritated. I don't think it implies poor education etc. I generally don't have alot of time to respond so most of my responses are quick and I send them right away. I don't have time to go back and forth and make sure everything is perfect before I send.

Well said, JessicaWessica.

I am not an English major, nor did I have a mother who was, yet repetitive errors and copious text speak drive me up the wall. I have a difficult time typing text speak when I am texting. Not because I don't know what to 'type', but because I can't stand to look at it.

I agree with you (JessicaW) that I find it a little inconsiderate when a person posts a question with more than about 5 abbreviations or "text" versions of words. It is distracting and makes me lose the flow of what they are trying to communicate. Then I start wondering if they are over the age of 23 (just throwing out an age that seems to fit the general maturation point for the majority of people). If a person can take the time to post a question, then they should take the time to write the words out without using texting jargon in every line.

So, to answer your question MartyMOMMA, I think it implies some of all three. I would have to know the person using/not using it a little better to know in what combination the percentages fall. I also think that one way to translate "indifference" is lack of respect.

I think it implies laziness.

I didn't realize you were talking about in our posts, I thought you were talking about the lack of proper grammar of most young people. Here I think it's just that people are in a hurry and don't proof read. It really doesn't bother me because I don't have time to proof read either and the only time it bothers me is when I can't figure out what someone is trying to say.

In my opinion, it is all three of the above listed reasons. If you claim that you lose track of your grammar when you are angry, wouldn't it be a good idea to allow yourself a cooling off period before writing? It would benefit both you and the reader.

When it comes to capitalization and using periods in posts, it bothers me. Not enough to PM someone over though. However, when I was in college 13 years ago, I had to take a grammar class for my major. I thought I was in a class with a bunch of idiots, but I soon realized they were never taught in schools. When I got out of school and dated a 4th grade teacher in Maryland, he said that grammar is not part of the school's curriculum.

Poor grammar could be a typo, it could be a lack of knowledge, or indifference or some combination of the three. It bothers me when I see excessive grammatical errors because for me it is hard to read and depending on the errors it can actually change the meaning or intent of what was written.

or sometimes silliness.....

Would laziness count as indiffence or impatience? I learned to type by chatting and didn't usually bother with symbols or caps unless I really needed them.

I agree with Christine J., I find that speakers of another language are more careful when typing in English and therefore have less mistakes in their writing. Also, when we are criticizing other people.... our imperfections stand out more. I am a decent speller, have great grammar but I am a horrible typist! So I have to check my posting carefully so people can understand me! With grammar and spell check what is our excuse for poor writing?