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If the purpose of writing is communication, then as long as the communication is understood as was intended, it was successful.
I don't get into the one-upmanship of some who are obsessed with grammar, who compete and want to be considered "elite". On the other hand, when the sender and receiver both have good command of grammar, a lot of subtlety can be communicated that otherwise couldn't be, and miscommunications don't happen nearly as much. To me, that is its value.
If the purpose of writing is communication, then as long as the communication is understood as was intended, it was successful.
I don't get into the one-upmanship of some who are obsessed with grammar, who compete and want to be considered "elite". On the other hand, when the sender and receiver both have good command of grammar, a lot of subtlety can be communicated that otherwise couldn't be, and miscommunications don't happen nearly as much. To me, that is its value.
That would apply to most message boards, such as this one. Although dreadful spelling and grammar is distracting from what is being communicated, it really doesn't matter except that opinions may be formed, consciously or subconsciously, about the intelligence or character of the lazy writer who doesn't check his or her work before posting.
In more formal writing, then yes, it does matter. If some engineer at work doesn't give a rat's ass if his scope of work isn't well-written because he thinks the technical part is the only thing that matters, then it's sort of a reverse elitism: "My words are just so important that how they are presented simply shouldn't matter." But I am the person releasing that document, it's representative of our company, not just one person, and so I AM going to take the time to spruce up the mess you sent me and you'll have to wait an extra day before it hits the street, thank you.
Topical since the NCAA brackets just came out today: In three Facebook posts, a guy kept talking about wanting our team to be a #1 cede. Cede? Thought everyone who cares about the tournament at all would know that the teams are seeded, not ceded. Maybe he's only heard the term but has never seen it in writing. Still... I don't have the heart to correct him. Since there were three mentions, I don't see it as just some random error but as the way he believes it to be.
Well said, Mightyqueen. I hate having to call you that, but I have no choice. I hope you noticed that I also said something acknowledging the importance of good grammar.
Willful disregard of good grammar can come across as careless and elitist within a formal context. In an informal context such as internet chat, on the other hand, I choose to be less formal. In this thread I am being more formal than usual because of the subject.
After I put up that last post, I thought of another reason for good grammar, with an analogy. What if I were an expert cook and could make food that I loved and that others really appreciated, and then found myself in a community of people who only wanted fast food, and had no appreciation for anything else? Being a good cook wouldn't matter much any more. I could make myself something really good, but I would also lose heart in it.
With written communication it's even more so. Talking only to yourself is worse than cooking only for yourself. Having people around you who are really good at it keeps you interested and it helps keep your own skills honed. It's something shared. Now if only I could be as literate as my father ...
Well said, Mightyqueen. I hate having to call you that, but I have no choice. I hope you noticed that I also said something acknowledging the importance of good grammar.
Willful disregard of good grammar can come across as careless and elitist within a formal context. In an informal context such as internet chat, on the other hand, I choose to be less formal. In this thread I am being more formal than usual because of the subject.
Elitist? Please explain. That statement makes no sense to me. In my experience, the opposite is true.
Elitist? Please explain. That statement makes no sense to me. In my experience, the opposite is true.
I mean in the sense that MightyQueen said, something like "I don't need to bother with good grammar, because I'm more important than you".
That could be a little rebellion, too. I work with some engineers who are purposely informal, I think because they want to concentrate on how to get something done, and don't want to get hung up on "the rules" too much since it can take the focus off of what they want to accomplish. I think it can be either.
Edit: I'd also like to add that, with all the layoffs that have happened in the last 7 years, the engineers who still work where I do tend to be the ones who (in my view) don't follow "the rules" much more than they have to, other than to get the job done.
Last edited by OregonYeti; 03-12-2012 at 06:44 PM..
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