that little apostrophe causes so much grief to some people.Recently I've noticed many status updates, comments or tweets where people feel it's their duty to correct the writer because they used the wrong word. How.shallow.can.you.get?! It really shits me. Saying something like "it's 'you're' not 'your'! C'mon people, get it right, it's not rocket science!" is totally ridiculous.
Were not writing a epic novel here. We're expressing our thoughts. I've made this mistake more than once. But frankly, if the reader can't figure out what I was trying to say, or the intention of the word then it probably reflects more on their intelligence than mine. I know I'll often be typing quickly to get my thoughts down and use the wrong one. It happens occasionally. And then there are repeat offenders, these people who probably are not that good at written language but what choices do they have with communicating online? Leaving a voice message? No, they have to write something. They express themselves.
I work and socialise with people who make these mistakes when writing and I would NEVER consider these people less intelligent for making this kind of mistake. Some of these people have so much knowledge on subjects I know nothing about and that truly amazes me. So next time you decide to tell the world that you think people who can't get it write are dumb, think about it, and if you can't figure out which "it's" or "its" they meant then you're the one who may just not be that intelligent... Go tell the world that in your next status update!
5 comments:
I think it's acceptable to correct people when the person making the spelling mistake is hanging shit on the other person or insulting their intelligence.
oh, how many times did you check the spelling in this post? :)
Oh you!
Spell checking is for losers with too much time on their hands...
On a side note, I just found out that Merriam Webster is not really a woman! I always pictured Merriam as an old-school grey haired female teacher type who's claim to fame was writing a dictionary. I feel cheated.
The ad was before its time. It read:
"f u cn rd ths u cn bcm a gd secy."
I used to be very good with my use of the apostrophe but for some reason as I have got older I have lost my confidence to use it correctly.
I did post an item a few months back about an apostrophe in a Medicare advertisement and received so many corrections to my item that I had to crawl back into my cave.
I'll be leaving grammar off my blogging agenda in future.
:-)
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