Last night I expressed my frustration at the way some people speak. Tonight I wanted to discuss one of my other pet peeves: the way people write.
Once again, I am an educated person, and I try to write like I am. Blogs, e-mails, letters, papers, etc. should always have excellent grammar and spelling. I even carry this over to text messages, which for all intents are purposes are supposed to be less formal. That being said, I still like to use proper grammar and spelling, just because. The English language is our tool, and like any tool, can perform most effectively when used correctly. Let me go over a few of my spelling/grammar pet peeves that really grind my gears.
There, Their, They're
This is on of the most popular offenders that I see. "There" is a pronoun referring to a place. "Their" is a possessive adjective that reflects ownership by more than one person. "They're" is a contraction of "they are," referring to a quality of more than one person. I can't stand it when people don't get it right! To me, it's pretty simple, but so many people seem to have a problem with this one.
To, Too, Two
This is a common occurrence online and in text messages. "To" is a preposition, "Too" is an adverb, and "Two" is the spelling of a number. I frequently see people leaving off an O when trying to convey "also." I don't know if it's just too difficult with the keys or what, but again I think they are pretty simple.
Your, You're
This is the one that grinds my gears the most! "Your" is a possessive adjective, and "You're" is a contraction of "you are." So often I see "your welcome," or "your so funny," or a phrase similar to that. Come on, people! I think it might frustrate me because "you're" is made from two words, and it just doesn't make sense to use the other phrase. At least in the second case I presented (to, too, two), all three words are spelled so similarly, and it is a simple mistake to make while typing. This one just gets on my nerves the most.
Plural nouns used as singular, and vice versa
One of the first things I learned as a science student was how to write a scientific paper. Proper grammar and spelling were essential to conveying one's point, and care should be taken to do so carefully. "Data" is a plural noun, and therefore the subject/verb agreement must be as such. I have heard so many people say "the data is..." as if "data" were a singular noun. Grrr! As one of my professors used to say, "The data are the data."
The converse of that is a word like "none," which is singular. A common phrase begins "None of us..." and usually ends with the person using a plural verb. A correct phrase would be, "None of us has had lunch yet." These are a little less obvious, so I'm a little more forgiving when I hear people use this one incorrectly. Now, however, everyone who has read this blog should know how to use these words and phrases correctly!
Are there any words or phrases that you see misspelled frequently? What are some errors that frustrate you, either at work or in everyday practice? Do you think that proper spelling and grammar are important even in everyday uses like e-mails, text messages, and social media?
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11 comments:
Your belief that mere exposure to correct usage will immediately cause others to "learn' is informative about how you learn. Many others may not learn as easily. Remember, many writers have formed habits that are not quickly transformed by a mere exposure to what is "correct".
The very intresting paragraph of all words being misspelled, and yet, most people reading it understand it's message shows that we may be prone to be good usage sticklers for nothing.
Of course, scientific papers must always be written with good English. That is the curse of teachers having to read student papers.
Intents and (not are) purposes. Did your computer automatically change that? That's my pet peeve. I work so hard to try to spell correctly and use the proper tense and then my spell check jumps in and changes what I've writen without my consent. I was told that I can turn off the spell check (this is on my phone and ipad), but I'm a terrible speller, so it is the lesser of two evils.
I'm loving all the blogs. I'm overdue with my detailed blogs about my trip to Australia--soon.
If you get a text to speech you problem is solved.
Za
I've learned to accept that all of these words mean exactly the same thing to a number of people. However, I've been reading a lot of resumes lately trying to fill a billing position and I do not tolerate any errors on a resume. My manager thinks I am being too unrealistic when I send back a resume with errors circled. But I feel that your resume should reflect the very best you can do, and if you do not care about errors when representing yourself why would I expect you to to care when representing me. I toss back 65% of the resumes we receive.
Lighten up! If these minor flaws "grind your gears" you will not have any gears by your 30s. I find spelling or grammatical errors in practically every blog post I read even my own and yours (as pointed out by Kathy above).
Whoops! I hadn't noticed that misspelling. I usually read my blog posts out loud to check for errors, but somehow I missed that one.
Don't worry, I don't stress or get really angry about spelling and grammar errors. Mostly I just roll my eyes and correct the issue, or at least say how I would correct it if someone else made the error. I'll still have plenty of gears to grind.
The notion that "none" is always singular is a complete 20th century myth, usually deriving from the etymological fallacy that "none" is a contraction of "not one". Please consult any reputable dictionary or usage guide, and you'll quickly learn that "none" can be either singular or plural depending on context, and has been used as such for over a THOUSAND years, dating to Anglo-Saxon English. The plural context of "none" is, and has been, the more common use for centuries longer than this country has existed.
If you are going to post comments on my blog, at least sign your name to them, please.
Now that I have looked into it, the anonymous comment-writer is correct. I was always taught that "none" is singular, but it appears that the context of the sentence is what determines whether "none" takes a singular or plural verb. I will keep that in mind from now on.
I would still appreciate it if people who commented would identify themselves instead of leaving anonymous comments, especially those of you who are negatively critiquing me.
Uncle John, you are right, you can't take this too much to heart or you would be crying most of the day.
But, I also agree with Gretch, in a time when we get hundreds of applications for positions I can't throw back the grammatically incorrect ones fast enough. I never send out anything important (like a cover letter and resume) without my best proof-readers looking at it. Unfortunately, my best, most fool-proof, proof reader is no longer here, but she gave me many sisters to fall back on.
In my vast academic experience, science professors are by far the best writers. Education professors are shamefully, the worst.
Sean,
I think that the anonymous poster is "MY" Uncle Marty, who is Kathy, Gretchen, Erika, and Adrian's dad. He sometimes puts a "za" at the end, and always posts anonymously. He has posted on your blogs before, which leads me to believe it's him this time as well.
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