Grammar...
I know that several of you are far more versed in correct grammar than I am. In fact, I remember getting in arguments with a couple of you about how many commas you need to have in a list and other minutia. I also remember going back and forth with one of my undergrad research advisors on a poster I did. My advisor was Turkish but was far more particular about English grammar than I. I swear he went over it five different times. Later, I had to submit an executive summary of the work I did for that project. I took the text from that poster (since that pretty much summed it up) and copied and pasted it into a document.
Wouldn't you know it, he decided it needed more revisions. Like three more.
My advisor is a dear, sweet person, but some days, he drove me utterly insane.
Sometimes, however, I think I feel his pain. I try to understand that the language one uses may differ depending on the venue. I don't expect a lot when reading blogs and journals. If the grammar is too horrible, I may just not read it because I'm not obligated. I expect more when I'm reading stories, but you can't be too picky. Some of the choices a writer makes may be stylistic so using precise grammar would ruin the effect. (I would like to add that there are a lot of fic writers on the web who seriously need to find a beta or eight.)
I'm noticing lately that I'm getting ready to go insane while reading conference or journal papers. I try overlook the infrequent misspellings or incorrect use of homophones. I'm prone to doing that myself on occasion. (If I wrote like I spoke, there'd be spoonerisms left and right.) This is why I almost always try to have someone else proof my work. Even then, a few slip by.
If the writer's native language is not English, they may have a number of errors. I also try to ignore this situation as I could do no better were I trying to write in another language. Chances are I'd do far worse.
It drives me insane when a native English speaker can't figure out that formal written language is NOT the same as spoken language. I couple of people I know well tend to write this way. What's worse is that they'll take common spoken expressions and misspell them when writing in formal papers. I hate having these people look at my work because they'll want to add some of their odd phrases.
I have yet to figure out a nice way to tell them that 1) they write funny and 2) I don't want them telling me I should be writing funny. (If that doesn't sound like a line out of Fargo, I don't know what does.)
Until I do, I think I'll be on the verge of balding due to frequently pulling my hair out in frustration.
Wouldn't you know it, he decided it needed more revisions. Like three more.
My advisor is a dear, sweet person, but some days, he drove me utterly insane.
Sometimes, however, I think I feel his pain. I try to understand that the language one uses may differ depending on the venue. I don't expect a lot when reading blogs and journals. If the grammar is too horrible, I may just not read it because I'm not obligated. I expect more when I'm reading stories, but you can't be too picky. Some of the choices a writer makes may be stylistic so using precise grammar would ruin the effect. (I would like to add that there are a lot of fic writers on the web who seriously need to find a beta or eight.)
I'm noticing lately that I'm getting ready to go insane while reading conference or journal papers. I try overlook the infrequent misspellings or incorrect use of homophones. I'm prone to doing that myself on occasion. (If I wrote like I spoke, there'd be spoonerisms left and right.) This is why I almost always try to have someone else proof my work. Even then, a few slip by.
If the writer's native language is not English, they may have a number of errors. I also try to ignore this situation as I could do no better were I trying to write in another language. Chances are I'd do far worse.
It drives me insane when a native English speaker can't figure out that formal written language is NOT the same as spoken language. I couple of people I know well tend to write this way. What's worse is that they'll take common spoken expressions and misspell them when writing in formal papers. I hate having these people look at my work because they'll want to add some of their odd phrases.
I have yet to figure out a nice way to tell them that 1) they write funny and 2) I don't want them telling me I should be writing funny. (If that doesn't sound like a line out of Fargo, I don't know what does.)
Until I do, I think I'll be on the verge of balding due to frequently pulling my hair out in frustration.