Read the comments after this article. I question whether the commentor* named “Grammar” is a real poster like me that stumbled across this article? Or is she a cleverly placed mole staged for the purpose of illustrating the author’s point vividly? –** It sort of has the feel of a reality TV scene that is obviously staged, yet so entertaining the viewer doesn’t care….***
I am convinced that there is a large contingency of women who participate in internet dating under the guise of finding a match, but in reality they are truly searching for material that allows them to participate in a colossal pity party of online daters. It is almost as if they yearn for the attention and sympathy a victim would find in a support group.**** Yet the only violation they have experienced is having to (gasp!) read imperfect grammar.
If you have ever read physician’s notes in a patient file, or emails from engineers, or a bulletin from a self-made business man, you would realize that the world is full of intelligent people who do not use perfect grammar. If you are a perfectionist and admire grammatically correct writing skills, good for you.***** But there are many times when you should focus on WHAT the writer is trying to say and not the style in which he or she presents it.
I have tried to read Grammar Girl material to improve my writing skills. My foundation is so poor I can’t even understand her writing tips. For example, I honestly don’t know what a dangling participle or is******. However, just because my educational foundation for writing is terrible (thank you public education*******), doesn’t mean the reader shouldn’t grant me the courtesy of listening to the ideas I am trying to convey irregardless******* of grammar.
Bottom Line: If one’s criteria for judging people’s worth, and their own self-worth, is too heavily weighted towards grammar, what does that say about their character? One thing is for certain. If we all proofed our writing to satisfy the grammar nazis, the amount of content posted would shrink dramatically. Think of all the worthwhile posts that would be lost….
* Should this be commentor, commenter, commentator, or other?
** I like to randomly use hashmarks (dashes?). I’m sure this is grammatically incorrect and don’t give a fuck.
***I literally read a post where the woman bemoaned receiving a message from an online dater where he used three periods at the end of a sentence (“…”) instead of the correct four (“….”). [Oh the horror! I also am not sure when to use brackets, parenthesis and italics for smartass comments sprinkled in to posts such as the one you are reading right now. ]
****Should this be one sentence or two? I don’t remember what constitutes a run on sentence.
*****If you are skilled in writing, I consider it a favor for you to give me a head’s up to correct any glaring errors in any of my posts. If the comments are constructive as opposed to destructive I will be forever grateful.
******I dare you to call me out on ending that sentence with “is”. Yes, this contradicts my previous statement.
*******I promise that most readers would be horrified at the writing skills of the teachers who taught me English. Not joking. Giving teachers like mine tenure is such a fucking joke.
********Language evolves. “Irregardless” isn’t a word, right?— Wrong bitches! Look that shit up on Websters.
Its my first time writing a profile, but I guess I’ll give it a shot…
Your gonna laugh when I tell you this, but my favorite thing to do on Friday night’s is play Scrabble!
Their is this amazing pizza place down the street, they’re sauce is the best, and the couple who runs it: there my favorites! I go there alot!
Sure, you could put any one of these sentences in your dating profile, or you could just write “I hate puppies.” Or “The Beatles were fucking hacks.” Or “My biggest problem with George Bush was that he could only serve two terms.” If there is one thing internet daters hate, it’s a typo. In profiles, emails, texts–heck, even if you just use bad grammar in your imagination, it’ll drive someone insane. And if your error happens to involve a member of the Its/It’s, Your/You’re, or There/Their/They’re Holy Trinity…
View original post 759 more words
Smooth ReEntry 
Pingback: Ouch! A $6,000,000 Typo. | Smooth ReEntry
Since we are having an interesting conversation over at my place, i’d thought I’d look around yours a bit. This post made me laugh and I thought you might like a recent post I did. Blatant self-promotion here? No. Just hope to make you laugh. The comments on the post are great too.
Awesome! Post your links anytime.
And do you know what the three dots are called? “…”
Elipses. Don’t know why . . .
I confess to being a bit of a grammar nazi but not anal about it. Typos are fine but I’m afraid that if somebody has put zero effort into a message then it will reflect on them. I am highly educated and am looking for similarly educated women because an intellectual match is more important to me than anything; I’m far more likely to be attracted to somebody after a decent conversation with them. If somebody’s English is not even passable, I’m not going to see an intellectual match at all. Let me reproduce a message I got from a woman at the end of last year (paraphrased, not what she actually said):
Presentation counts for a lot and communication is a more important form of presentation than a lot of people give credit for. I can barely decipher “ur” message then it is a safe bet that we are going to struggle on conversation.