I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar
Thanks to my daughter Rachel who just gave me a copy of I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar by Sharon Eliza Nichols. It’s based on the Facebook group of the same name. The group has just short of 420,000 members, who amuse themselves by posting examples of bad grammar and spelling and feel superior by ranting about them. You can check out the flavour of the group here.
Some of the images are pretty funny:
Other zingers in the book include the nursery selling “Fresh Cut Penis $7.99,” the road sign that reads “Dont’t Drink and Drive,” and some college’s “Homecoming Spirt Week” sign.
On one level, it’s fun to mock bad grammar, spelling and punctuation. It feels good to be part of the elite club that knows better. But the thing is, when you get all snobbish and judgmental it’s pretty much certain you will make your own mistakes, which is exactly what happens to Nichols—she’s gone and misspelled ACKNOWLEGMENTS in her book. And on behalf of all the people she humiliates, her mistake gives me a whole lot of pleasure.
Okay, it’s important to use standard grammar and punctuation. I make a living by teaching people how to do it correctly. I care about grammar and find language endlessly fascinating. I know how poor grammar can erode credibility and inhibit communication. I feel frustrated when I read bad spelling in restaurant menus, on billboards and especially on expensive signage. I always wonder why they didn’t ask someone to proofread before they went to print? Part of my curse is constantly editing the world around me.
But I’ve learned to be tolerant. Sure, if you constantly confuse their/they’re/there or it’s/its I hope someone points it out because people will judge you for being sloppy, lazy and ignorant. But if you mostly get it right and make mistakes once in a while, I’ll assume you were rushed and forgive you. I’ll focus on your overall message, not on the minor mistake.
I’ve also grown more tolerant of mistakes made by writers who speak English as a second language. Consider the courage it would take to speak and write in a foreign language—consider the minefields! If my life circumstances or choices forced me to speak and write in French, Russian or Chinese I know I’d make tons of mistakes. So I feel sad when these signs are mocked—the writers are doing their best and they deserve some credit for that. Still, how hard is it to check a dictionary?
Do you think I’m getting too soft? What’s your stand on poor grammar?
Is it wrong to point out the errors in your blog about erros in writing?
From the second paragraph after the first pics:
“One one level, it’s fun to mock bad grammar, spelling and punctuation. It feels good part of the elite club that knows better.”
I’m assuming you meant – “On one level…” and “It feels good to be a part of…”
Hi Jody,
I agree with pretty well everything you’ve said above.
The one comment above mine is actually what keeps me from discussing this matter on the internet, because ultimately instead of absorbing the points the author has laid out it becomes an opportunity to go over the content with a fine-tooth comb to find a mistake. While I’m guessing the commenter was simply trying to be witty, this is often the result of such discussions – a pissing contest. We end up with a gang of brainiacs in a forum thread trying to out-do each other. I won’t do that here.
What I found most important about your article is the loss of credibility. While I realize that a person’s command of the English (or any other) language does not necessarily reflect their ability to repair my car – or even perform open-heart surgery for that matter – I just have this nagging feeling that this person’s lack of attention, intelligence or pride is going to come back and bite me later on.
My feeling is that there are three categories of people when it comes to language:
1) those who make a real effort to write and speak clearly and who are generally successful at it
2) those who can get ideas across clearly enough but do not place importance on spelling and grammar
3) those who have difficulty maintaining any level of cohesion.
Obviously there are varying degrees to all those categories, and we occasionally come across “tragedies” such as individuals who are great storytellers but can’t spell to save their lives.
I don’t know what it is, but poor language use just BOTHERS me on some level. There’s a certain respect that I (and I’m sure others) hold for someone who can communicate well, and it’s almost as though we are forced to see the rest of the population as idiotic. I don’t think I could even date a woman who spells badly because on some level I’d be looking down my nose at her! Is it elitism at its worst? I don’t think so. Almost anyone could spell significantly better if they chose to apply themselves.
Hi Jeff, thanks for your thoughtful comment. I agree–anyone can learn to write more clearly (glad you chose that word instead of ‘grammatically’ or ‘correctly’)if it’s important enough to them. I have to believe that to do what I do. And yes, there are limits to how successful they will be, and getting better requires patience and persistence.
Like you, poor language affects me on a visceral level. We’re not alone–lots of people get emotional about language. Why? How? It’s that feeling that I find so compelling and that I was trying to explore here. It feels good to be able to spot the problem, but it feels bad to feel superior. And of course, never really superior, because we can never be perfect. As the commenter before you noted, haha.
Jody
We all make mistakes using grammar from time to time.
The comments on Youtube and IMDB are so bad, one has to tell them something. Bad grammar equals low credibility.
I definitely notice bad grammar but I’m generally not irritated unless I think the person is attempting to be elite, especially in the corporate environment.
E.g. “If you have any questions, please send an email to Tim and myself.” or “… Tim and I”.
I am a fan of communicating simply and clearly. If you want to branch out and try something fancy, you’d better get it right. (E.g. using “myriad” and phrases like “carrots and sticks”).
My favorite site on these matters is Paul Brians’ site on Errors in English.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html
As an English teacher in a disadvantaged school, I have had some really difficult classes of very reluctant learners. What frustrates me about poor grammar is that many of these rules cited are *really* easy to learn. Educators put a lot of effort into using every method at our disposal: mnemonics, games, practical scenarios, real-world applications even role-play to highlight how important correct use of the English language is and yet so many young people just don’t care. I’ve been asked: “Why are we doing this?” when teaching a class of senior students how to write resumes. Since I had a good relationship with the student, I was able to respond honestly: “Because it will get you a job, dumbass.” How many other teachers have had to gloss over that? I was lucky the kid was taking the piss – It highlighted to the rest of the work avoiders exactly what he’d noticed.
To me poor grammar and spelling indicates a lack of care about the image we project to others. Hiding it under a veil of avoiding ‘elitism’ is effectively blaming others for your own carelessness. Personally, I believe the only way kind of stupid is when anyone is unwilling to learn more or push themselves.
That said, I’ll always make exceptions for things like typos, or rushed missives, since keyboards (phone keyboards in particular) are not designed for effective communication, but we’re becoming more and more dependent on them.
Poot. I did put in double spaces to indicate new paragraphs, but I forgot to re-add them after copy-and-pasting from Word. I’m so glad I added that last paragraph pre-empting my error and forgiving me for it.
Hi Jessica, thanks for your thoughtful and heartfelt comment. I can imagine how frustrating it must be to teach a group of students who don’t care about language and don’t value the knowledge you want to share with them. In the corporate world I teach in, people with poor grammar skills KNOW it limits them and are hungry for any help I can give them.
I agree that poor grammar can show a lack of care. I think it can show other things as well. It can show laziness or intimacy. It can show lack of knowledge or low literacy. And depending on the situation in which I use bad grammar, I’ll judge and be judged differently. My close friends will ignore my sloppy, hastily written text messages but my clients will not. The ideal place to be, and it’s where you are I are, is knowing the rules of standard English well enough to have the confidence to break them. The most important thing to me is communicating your idea clearly, which you have done even without the missing paragraph break.
Jody
Spelling and Grammatical errors are like boogers hanging from your nose. It is better that someone informs you BEFORE you go out in public. It is still embarrassing but it’s one less characteristic on which you will be critiqued.
Hi Wes–I agree completely. J