The Bloggers With The Most To Say
The Fight To End Grammar Fascism
This thread title is overdramatic but it's an issue that has fascinated me for some time now.
One of the most common gripes in the blogosphere is that poor grammar ruins a reading experience. However, there are a lot of tendencies that self-professed "Grammar Nazis" gloss over.
For instance, did you catch that that ended with a preposition? And did you know I'm not supposed to use the pronoun "that" to reference an ambiguous antecedent? Did you notice that the preceding sentence began with a conjunction?
Maybe you did notice these things, and in that case, kudos to you. I'm just saying that while we have standards of not committing the glaring error of "they're," "their," and "there," maybe we shouldn't hold grammar in such high regard since blogger syntax tends to be stylized. It's affected for effect. ;)
There are grammar incursions bloggers let slide and there are others that are unforgivable, but where is the line between the two?
I am curious about what 20SB thinks.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Summer-Claire. on -
I think people take issue when basic grammar is not adhered to. We all have our styles and accents/dialects which impact upon our grammar, but if you don't understand the basic rules of, for example, homophones, then that really is unacceptable. I teach 7-year-olds who know the difference between there/their/they're, so no-one has an excuse.
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Permalink Reply by Em on
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Being a Journalist/Editor, I can be somewhat of a grammar Nazi. Some things are not so bad, but others I just cannot let go. For instance, using acronyms in almost every sentence and adopting text speak. I.e. "btw, omg, fml, and lol."
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Permalink Reply by sexless.c on -
I agree that the issue is with basic grammar. I don't expect everyone to be a nazi about it. I can even let things like poor comma usage slide. However, spelling and tense are something that I find unforgivable. If the poor grammar causes the blog post to become difficult to read, I lose interest. As a journalist I feel that while grammar is important, so is content. Often if you had a valid enough point tiny grammar mistakes can be glossed over.
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Permalink Reply by Nichole on -
As long as I can tell the blogger has attempted to proofread than I am usually fine with grammatical errors. If they make basic grammar errors sparingly, I'll let those slide too. Those errors might have just been overlooked. It's not like everyone has beta blog post readers to fix everything. It all comes down to readability. If I have to struggle, I'll probably lose interest.
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Permalink Reply by Shelly on -
I think misspellings can be annoying, but if it's a blog I like I can get through it. As long as I understand what the person is trying to get across. I personally find "grammar nazis" just as annoying as poor spelling.
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Permalink Reply by nicopolitan on -
All good points, everyone. :)
I'm wondering, though, if we were to explain what is and isn't acceptable in blogs to someone who doesn't read blogs regularly, would they get it?
An example of this is when we note something we like by simply saying "Love." (just like that, as a complete sentence)
Also, using the word "jelly" for "jealous." I only see this on the internet, I have never heard anyone say it in real life.
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Permalink Reply by Shelly on
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I've never heard "jelly" unless Beyonce is singing about it.
I've heard friends in conversation use internet terms (Reddit comics come to mind) but we all read them, so we get it. I suppose if they didn't get it I would just explain. And vice versa, if they said something I didn't understand I would just ask.
I don't know that there is a cut and dry list of what to say, I'd be curious to see one though.
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Permalink Reply by Angie on -
I don't give an eff about grammar. I do *not* like leetspeak (hai, u, lik, dis, etc.) unless of course it's nothing glaringly annoying (I use "HAI!" often.) I read a blog because I like said blog and the person who is writing said blog. Whether they misspell a word or not.
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Permalink Reply by Dave on -
Occasional grammar mistakes, I can forgive, if there's good material to be read. But when it gets to the point of me not being able to understand what's going on because the spelling/grammar is so terrible, that's where I draw the line.
Not to get all 'grammar Nazi' about things, but when I see bad grammar/spelling on a blog, it seems to denote low intelligence to me. Just saying.
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Permalink Reply by Kelli Hale on -
Well... I write as if I were speaking, which inherently includes bad grammar and slang. I think it makes my blog slightly more personal. If I were blogging in a professional sense I would be more careful about my grammar.
I think it also has a lot to do with the way grammar is taught these days and the age of the blogger. The days of the semi colon, Oxford Comma, and eloquent vocabulary are long gone. People can't use what they haven't been taught, y'know?
OH... the thing that really truly annoys me is when people improperly use the suffix "er". For example: "You have stolen my socks you STEALER." No. Steelers are a football team. THIEVES take things that don't belong to them. That and improper use of apostrophes.
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Permalink Reply by Lorraine on -
I think the line to draw is read-ability. I'm very guilty of peppering my posts with acronyms and chat-speak, but I'd like to think people know I use it for comedic effect. I used to proofread in the a marketing department for an interntional watch company. I followed lots of rules for a very long time. Now, I tend to forget them/block them out/not worry about them too much.
I've had friends find my "blogger language" outside of blogging annoying. My best friend, in fact, would yell at me if I ever wrote "totes" in a text message or email or what not.
At the end of the day, the big question to answer is "is my writing readable?" If whatever you are writing, syntax, diction or grammar wise, is distracting from you content? You have a problem. If I'm stopping mid sentence to say, "well that sounded funny," or "isn't that supposed to be an "it's," then you're losing your readers.
My own personal unforgivable rules? If you aren't capitalizing the beginnings of your sentences? I can't read you. I can't. I'm sorry. If you use "u" instead of you? Sorry. Can't read it.
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