Proper grammar and vocabulary usage (and spelling) are a big deal for me. By vocabulary, I don’t mean having a penchant for using big words. More often than not, the user does not know what they really mean but since these make them sound so intelligent, they go ahead and use it. Intentional or not, these ambitious writers do achieve some sort of success in that their reader ends up in awe of the elaborateness of their composition, totally overlooking what the missive truly meant. (Wow! Ang galing niya magsulat! …. er, yeah. Whatever.)
I, on the other hand, who has a fairly good grasp of vocabulary, and more than just a fairly good grasp of grammar ends up dizzied because I could not, for the life of me, understand what the author wanted to convey in the first place.
Why am I bothered with these? Well, see, wrong grammar, for me, takes a bit of the credibility out of the writer when he/she composes grammatically wrong stuff. Wrong grammar tells me the person doesn’t really know what he’s talking about or maybe if he does, he does not possess the right amount of aptitude to convey his thoughts.
I guess it does not matter as much if the composition was written plainly to express oneself as when the opinion is published such that the public is supposed to pay attention to them such as status updates on Facebook and Twitter or a personal blog. Really, badly constructed sentences makes me doubt not only the credibility of the one who made the statement but more so his/her intelligence.
This statement sums it all up:
Learn spelling and grammar because no matter how well you write, if your mechanics are lousy, so is your writing. ~ Nat Segaloff, movie publicist, journalist/critic, TV producer, teacher, and film historian
Oh, and uhm… Yeah, yeah. I’ve been told time and again, and even I will tell you, I’m a grammar nazi.
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