rants_proper

Grammer - Whom Need's It?

Communication is what separates us from the animals. It is also what holds our society together. Unfortunately, over the past few years I have seen a remarkable decline in the communication skills of the general public. "Who needs grammar?", you'll hear people say. We do. Grammar allows us to more clearly communicate our true intentions. Details are conveyed more clearly. Ambiguity is decreased. Life is better. But if we allow this trend to continue, we'll all soon be grunting to each other to signal "hungry", "happy", "danger", etc. Just like the animals.

Keep in mind that I'm not perfect. But here are some of the most common mistakes I see:

Speling. Come on, people, spell-checking is included in just about every application used to type anything. And for the love of God, if you're going to put up a sign or publish something, make sure it's spelled right!
Apostrophe's in the wrong places. That's just sheer idiocy. No excuse. Plurals do not need apostrophes. Just put the "s" on the end!
I hate when people add lots of exclamation points to every sentence!!!!! That is not necessary!!!!! Stop it!!!!
Myself gets annoyed when I hear "myself" misused. You'll usually hear this when unintelligent people are trying to make themselves sound educated. Myself is a reflexive pronoun. Do not use it as a subjective or objective pronoun. "I shot myself" is fine. "Give it to John or myself" is not fine. When I am the subject of the sentence and also the recipient of the action, I should use "myself". Keep that in mind.
Redundant redundancy. You'll hear this all over the place. ATM Machine. Best value for the money. Equally as important.
Mispronounced words like Expresso. What is so hard about saying "es SPRES so"? It's spelled that way for God's sake!
"Overused" quotation marks. So so common, I just want to cry. Quotation marks are supposed to be used for quotations or to set apart words or phrases which are being used atypically. But lately, people just want to stick quotes around everything. "No" smoking in restaurant. Grrrrr.
Commas in the wrong, places. OK, here's a rule of thumb: If you would pause at some point in your sentence while reading it aloud, put a comma there. If not, don't. Moron.
That's all I can think of right now, but stay tuned...