If there is one failing that 99% of all blog writers have it is that we make mistakes when it comes to things like sentence structure, grammar and spelling. Some are more professional that others when it comes to this kind of thing but you can be assured that we all aren’t English teachers or professors. We make mistakes.
I know myself that my writing style may not be … well … to be kind .. it can suck. I also know that I tend to write from more of a stream of thought rather than from notes or bullet points that are then stitched together with all the proper grammatical verbiage. I also know that my desktop dictionary has become one of my most used applications. It never fails that for the first few minutes after hitting the old publish button I am finding errors – whether they be structure, spelling or grammar – so I am constantly refreshing the post in question with the corrections.
For some though it seems that unless a post is perfect in all senses – perfect spelling – perfect grammar – sentence structure that would make and Oxford professor proud – then that post has no value and the person writing it is an idiot. Within my circle of friends my spelling habits are well known and something I get ribbed about. More than once Dawn; one of the administrators of the WinExtra Community Forums has read a post and given me a slap in IRC to fix it and she isn’t alone in these not so gently reminders. The difference is that it is done with humor and friendship.
I usually just laugh it off most of the time when someone seeks to belittle the content of a post because of the way it was written. Sometimes though the pomposity and self-righteousness of commenters who think that just because they don’t like the way something is written it gives them the right to be insulting and demeaning. I am more than willing to defend and even change my opinion about something that I have written but when the only rebuttal made is to denigrate the style I can get really pissy.
Such is the case with the post I wrote for Mashable yesterday called Is Freemium Really the Way To Go?. While the majority of the comments around the post were really very good and on the point one commenter; Christopher G, decided that nothing in the post was worth commenting on but instead decided that he needed to express his expert opinion on the style:
Points of the post aside, this, kiddies, should be bookmarked, read, studied, and preserved, if for no other reason than it stands as one of the most hideous abuses of English currently on the web (at least in the attempted guise of an ‘article’).
It was maybe the most maddening bit of writing I’ve read in awhile, and it took me a minute to figure out why I was getting so angry reading it. Now I know.
Would it be possible for the author to consider not attempting to conjoin every single thought to every preceding thought? A sample of the opening words of the article’s sentences:
“At some point”
“The problem is”
“So the question remains”
“The other solution”
“This is fine but”
“Another problem is”
“So the question remains”
“Plus”
“Not to mention”
“This is definitely”
“One such”
“Another such”
“While the”
etc.Conjunctionitis? [Editor note – previous word doesn’t exist] It’s like listening to someone who speaks for minutes at a time without taking a breath. You know what I mean. Murder.
**Also**, **not to mention** this showpony [Editor note – previous word doesn’t exist] sentence of the freakshow [Editor note – previous word doesn’t] :“As utopian as these very smart people like to make out that such a model is there are equally as smart people who warn that this is a dangerous road to travel down and one that could come back to bite you on the ass.”
Indeed.
Now the moniker of “Guest Writer” makes sense… a mashable [Editor note – improper capitalization of a known brand name] ‘author protection program’?
The end result?
Well … as far as I am concerned people who feel the need to belittle others in such an exuberant fashion only prove themselves to be more of an idiot than the people they are poking fun at.
In other words Christopher – Kiss My Ass!
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