Does Grammar Really Matter Anymore?

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Mirra of IL 2:52AM August 16, 2009

If I were arguing for careful usage but had just written "There is people" and called myself a "writer in Kansas," as above, or some of the several glaring errors by “Southwestern Kansas,” above, I would post anonymously, too.

I have noted the grating split infinitive, such as "to not go," in the New York Times, and even the Wall Street Journal, etc., many times lately—enough, indeed, to make me wonder where this error originates. Incredible errors get past fact and grammar checkers in textbooks. The front pages of the local newspapers out here obviously were never run through an electronic spell check, and grammar, syntax, and usage, much less punctuation, are downright haphazard, with the result that they are largely unintelligible and undecipherable. I have read several articles in print about, and announcements of, scheduled events that omitted so much basic “who, what, when, where, and why” information that you can’t attend.

Many Web comment forms, including this one, do not provide for spelling checks, so, having been born with uncorrectable vision problems that make proofreading impossible, though, fortunately, I can read rapidly if the type is big enough, I compose practically all of my posts in Word. I have turned off parts of Word’s grammar checker because it keeps suggesting grossly bad grammar and usage.

Students in college, much less high school, are no longer required to read many of the classic works, or good contemporary writings, in their entirety. I think this is one of the fundamental causes of this decline. The quantity of reading required is also way down from my college days, and they read only small extracts from many books. I did more formal writing in sixth grade than many of these students do in

their entire academic careers.

A retired lawyer, I have seen too many contracts, laws, and court opinions where a misplaced comma or grammatical error, not to mention pure carelessness in both thought and drafting, compounded by a computer, and never reviewed, created expensive havoc, but must admit that I read the language of one multi-million dollar contract in a recent case on appeal without spotting the million-dollar ambiguity, resolved against the draftsman, the first time through, though it was obvious once you spotted it or it was called to your attention. Those documents are supposed to have been written by one lawyer from the top of his class with a $185,000 starting salary and reviewed by others more experienced and better paid.

The schools have sent me many senior trainees who obviously have never been taught how to alphabetize, much less to analyze and diagram a sentence, something I still use whey trying to decipher often-obtuse legal writing, write a simple business letter, much less an essay or research paper, nor to balance a checkbook—and those were some of the better ones who I actually hired and who turned out well. Until recently, a quarter of the students at the second-tier state university here, many of whom are training to become teachers, could not pass the required Junior Level Essay exam. Too many teachers’ writing, and spoken language, is appalling. A lot of lawyers avoid writing, and are no good at it.

It is amazing what reading some of your own, or others', language over after a good night's sleep can do for the quality of your writing.

Peter S. Chamberlain of TX 3:02AM August 15, 2008

I become asthonished when I realize there is people that believe grammar does not matter anymore. without doubt this people lack more than a basic education, and good education, since really good education is what is lacking to many poped-culture people manipulated for the media. Because of that, a few now reach hills in the education ladder. I have heard people that although they were born here and got some basic education, they cannot themselves express clear verbally. What a sad educational landscape in this beautiful land of opportunities.

A writer living in Southwest Kansas.

Pablo Candia of KS 3:58PM August 14, 2008

Those that argue that blogs that desire to last, and offer great ideas worthy of consideration for more than ten minutes, must get every detail right (no typos) don't understand online media. Online today means social--back and forth. The blog writers with the strongest voices and the best ideas are writing for an audience that wants conversation and interaction with the author about her ideas.

But when grammarians insist that typos indicate the author hasn't spent enough time working on their content, they reveal how they don't understand that writers largely can't edit for such things themselves, even with all the time in the world. (I should know; I'm Penelope's editor.) It's a huge blind spot for any writer.

So as an editor, I fix the typos (and anything else that's in the way of an author delivering their idea clearly) because the idea is good and because it's worthy of discussion. And also because I've already helped her to cut the ideas that don't work because they're not interesting enough to spark conversation.

Jay Wigley, Brazen Careerist.com of TN 7:06AM August 14, 2008