When it comes to spelling and grammar, I’m a jerk. I’m going to explain why.

Remember that meme about how all the brain needs are the first and last letters of a word to be in the right place? Predictably, it’s wrong in a great number of complex ways. Significantly:

“Regardless of semantic, syntactic, or orthographic predictability, the eye seems to process individual letters … Disruptions in adult readers’ eye movements indicate that the visual system tends to catch the slightest misspelling.”¹

Those disruptions cause slowdowns, which I personally find frustrating. Grammatical mistakes do the same. I like to read ideas, opinions and information, not words.

Earlier today I discovered this link; apparently there’s an almighty (but probably positive) shitstorm brewing in the Vancouver progressive-left community. Ivan Drury’s letter and many of the responses—Messrs Boxall, Ages and Beeching and Mmes Elise and Stephanie—are absolute pleasures to read. They’re insightful and clear, not just conveying ideas but also emotions.

On the other hand, we see flamebait comments from individuals like “Yours Truely.” It’s notable that the most angry comments and those with the least to contribute are also the ones with the poorest spelling, grammar and punctuation. One wonders why spell-checkers don’t exist for the angry.

This pattern is highly pronounced here, but it exists everywhere, and I suspect that it boils down to two fundamental points: passion for your ideas and respect for your audience. Those who believe they have something to say and are adequately cluestruck are more likely to care about communicating clearly, and are also more likely to know how to form sentences as well as understand the impact of bad writing on communication. Those who have respect for their audience are more likely to take the time to make their reading experience pleasant, while those who believe they are coming down from the mountain to share their wisdom with the unwashed peasants are probably not going to read like Zarathustra.

Everyone on the internet has an opinion, and anyone who wants to express theirs should consider that nobody is begging to hear it. Tell it clearly and respectfully, or don’t expect anyone to care.

I also have some thoughts on progressive leftism to bring up (respectfully), but they haven’t congealed into something easily slingable yet.

1) from Adams, M. J. (1990) Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p. 101

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Geekery, General Rambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.