Let me say this once and loudly: Most prospective employers, particularly of professional or service-oriented businesses, will not take you seriously if you cannot write a respectful, grammatically correct cover letter and resume.
Or at least that's what I used to think.
When I was young, my dad would hand me a copy of the local newspaper over breakfast. "Find the grammatical error in this story and the buried lead in the other one," he'd challenge.
If I asked a question at the dinner table using incorrect grammar, my mother would pretend she couldn't hear me. The answer would be given when the question was phrased correctly. (Or, if using the passive tense if one of your pet peeves: Mother would give me the answer when I phrased the question correctly.)
I correct my children's grammar all the time. I will repeat what they just said — only with correct grammar — until they repeat back to me correctly.
"Mommy, I gotted a new tooth!"
"Wow! You got a new tooth?"
"Yeah, I gotted a new tooth!"
"You got a new tooth?"
"Yeah, I got a new tooth."
"Good job! And good grammar!"
Does it make me a good mom? No. In fact, it frequently embarrasses the heck out of the older ones when I do it in public or in front of their friends.
But it did cause one of my upper-level management professors at UVA to ask to keep copies of my papers on file. He wanted them to show other students what a proper paper looks and reads like.
The following article in the WSJ really got me to thinking about two things:
- How texting, emailing, Facebook and Twitter have (inadvertently?) allowed us to disregard proper grammar. In the case of Twitter, we are actively encouraged to shortcut by limiting our tweets to 140 characters. Why waste valuable characters spelling out "you're" when you can say "your" or better yet "ur"?
- How many of us — adults included — just flat out don't know what's right anymore. Was it that we never learned it correctly in the first place? Or have we forgotten?
At RescueTime, for example, grammar rules have never come up. At the Seattle-based maker of personal-productivity software, most employees are in their 30s. Sincerity and clarity expressed in "140 characters and sound bytes" are seen as hallmarks of good communication—not "the king's grammar," says Jason Grimes, 38, vice president of product marketing. "Those who can be sincere, and still text and Twitter and communicate on Facebook—those are the ones who are going to succeed."
Who ever said that sincerity and correct grammar were mutually exclusive? And who said that "sincerity" is more important than what's right? I can be sincerely wrong, but that doesn't make me any less wrong.
Keep in mind that I'm also just finishing up Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which shows what happens to a society when "sincerity" and "feelings" are deemed more important than truth and rationality.
And if you use "ur" 50 times a day when texting or tweeting, is there any way you're going to consistently remember to use "your" or "you're" correctly when it counts?
When did following proper grammatical and spelling rules become "the king's grammar" and not simply what's grammatically correct? When did proper grammar become something to deride, not something to appreciate?
Finally, if I were speaking to Mr. Grimes of Rescuetime, I would ask him what he meant by "the king's grammar" anyway. Did he mean to say "the King's English"? The King's English is a very common phrase, used to describe English well-spoken. I've never heard anyone use the phrase "the king's grammar." But someone who doesn't care about grammar probably doesn't know the difference. Or care.
Finish Well.
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