Thursday, December 9, 2010

Yet another irritation

Yes, I am nitpicky about such things as proper grammar and spelling.  I had the most awesome yet annoying 8th grade grammar teacher, and now I will be forever nitpicking subject-verb agreement when I should be doing more important things.  For some reason, incorrect spelling and grammar annoy me.  I don't claim to be perfect at it.  I have typos, I occasionally type out the improper there/their/they're.  I give a pass to blogs.  They are more stream of consciousness things, and people tend to write in the moment. I tend to focus on getting *something* out there vs. edit and re-edit as if it's some masterpiece (which I can assure you it's not).  So you will find typos here, and sometimes I'm too lazy to look up a spelling and just do the best I can even though I'm convinced it's not right.

However, I do not give a pass to books.  If it is a published book that you can buy from a bookseller, I expect that it will have perfect spelling and grammar. Or perfect enough that it won't catch my eye.  If you say "there" and you mean "their" in a published book, it will make me cranky...or crankier than usual.  I've read two books with multiple spelling and grammar mistakes in the past year.  I will never forget their titles and authors.  It annoys me THAT much.

So I give a pass to blogs.  I give a pass to personal e-mails.  I also semi give a pass to Facebook.  It's not like you're writing a book on there, but on the other hand you have a limited space to convey things and you can at least be diligent enough to not royally screw up (i.e., more than 2 spelling/grammar mistakes in one sentence).  Today I saw the champion of screwing up a status update with improper word choice.  The person got back from the beech (the tree) instead of the beach (the place with sand).  The tied, not the tide, was apparently high.  And apparently there are peers there instead of piers.   Yes, I know everyone's forte isn't grammar and spelling but jeez. 


Your not-so-friendly grammar and spelling police department who will try to be more forgiving in 2011, but, let's face it, will likely end up not being more forgiving

P.S. While I'm in confession mode on little things that annoy me, those headbands with big ass flowers on them that parents put on their little girls irritate me.  Who really wants a big ass flower on top of their head?  Except Mayim Bialik.  Hopefully she had input into those big ass flowers.

1 comment:

Ann said...

OMG. I thought I was the only one that didn't like those big ass flower head bands! I don't really get the purpose. I mean, babies are cute on their own. And if they aren't, a big flower the size of their head is not going to make them any cuter.