A conversation erupted on Facebook a few weeks ago about the importance of proper grammar and spelling. Opinions were all over the place. Some people were rigid for proper grammar and precise spelling. Others believed that, so long as the reader understood what you meant, anything goes.
I was busy at the time and unable to participate, though I
have thoughts. (Surprise, surprise.) Here you go.
Regarding grammar, the entire field has become a refuge for
pedants who would use strict interpretations as a crutch and demand everyone
else do so. That’s bullshit.
I recently read Bill Bryson’s delightful history of the
English language, The Mother Tongue; now I periodically dip into its
companion Made in America, which shows how the language changed on this
side of the sheugh. There are large chunks of “proper” grammar that come from a
book by an English minister who appointed himself the Royal High Arbiter of
English Grammar and pretty much decided what grammar should be. There were no
definitive guides at the time – which makes sense, as there was no universally
agree-on grammar either – people adopted his “rules” wholesale and we’re still
hamstrung by them.
The purpose of grammar and punctuation is to make the
writing clear to the reader, not to follow arbitrary rules. Placing the rules
ahead of the purpose often serves to obfuscate the meaning, and that is
something up with which I shall not put. (Thank you, Winston Churchill.) Last
year I read Basil H. Liddell-Hart’s renowned history of the Second World War.
It has a wealth of information, but the precise English public school grammar
makes some sentences almost impossible to navigate; I sometimes forgot how a sentence
began by the time it completed its Byzantine meandering to the end. You must
give the reader a fighting chance to discern your meaning (Thank you Strunk
& White), but grammar should always be the servant, not the master.
Spelling is different. Bad spelling forces the reader to divine
the meaning of each cluster of letters. This not only slows things down, it
violates Strunk and White’s “fighting chance” rule. Even the excuse, “This is
how it should be spelled” is faulty, as readers from different parts of
the country may perceive even a purely phonetic spelling differently.
Few people hand write things for others to read anymore.
Keyboards and voice recognition reign. This means spell check is almost always
available. If you can’t take the time to send your message through at least a rudimentary
spell check, why would I think you spent any more time than that thinking about
it, so why should I read it? (very brief social media and text responses are
obviously not included, though you should still show some consideration for the
poor bugger on the receiving end.)
Here’s the thing with grammar, spelling, and life in
general: be sensitive of the intended audience. If you want them to read what
you sent, make it easy for them. Think how you’d feel if someone forced you to
trudge through turgid grammar and misspelled words in hope of figuring what
they want to tell you and use your judgment accordingly.
