Money-Grubbing Grammarians: Leave Bloggers and Thinkers Alone

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Submitted by Radreview on April 16, 2006 - 3:47pm.

An open letter for all those self-righteous English teachers poking fun and otherwise making derogatory statements about the mixed-quality posts they will be reading along the way:

I can take any of YOUR best work -- your term papers, your research treatment, your dissertation, your thesis -- and take a red pen to it, rip it to shreds and make you feel like a village idiot.

But I don't, and won't. As a professional writer and editor since 1973, I can tell you that the spirit of this site and of blogging in general is not how well a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph is constructed, or how well the words are spelled, it is the sharing of ideas of the mind and heart that is critical here. If spelling and "correct" things impress you, then take your polite attitudes elsewhere and leave the rest of us to think, share -- and blog.

It is this precise attitude that is wrecking public schools -- passing tests instead of learning curriculum, spelling correctly instead of writing anything meaningful, behaving well in a classroom full of kids your age instead of learning from peers of all ages (the long-gone but much-appreciated one-room schoolhouse).

Farewell to learning. Hello regimentation.

Go, leave us. Take your pretentions with you.

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I Love You

#55851 On April 16, 2006 4:20pm ms zola said,
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Radreview! I have enjoyed many a post with poor grammer and bad spelling....including my own.....well said!

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I'm one who prefers

#55853 On April 16, 2006 4:55pm Tottie said,
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to read quality writing with good/corrct spelling and grammar. I do sometimes cringe with a piece that apart from the spelling and grammar would make a very good read. I do read nearly all of course, but some are too much for me. I appreciate that we can all share our views, but I'd love to see better spelling.

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I made spelling mistakes a LOT

#55856 On April 16, 2006 5:01pm bugsey said,
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Where is the teacher? ALL I have is Professor Bob.. sighs

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Why must it be "Miss Groby" or "Gonzo"?

#55857 On April 16, 2006 5:02pm o ceallaigh said,
o ceallaigh's picture

I find arguments that "take sides" on the grammar issue annoying.

In order to say something, you need to have the tools to say it.

In order for the tools to say more than noise, you need to have something to say.

The writer needs grammar and content. Not just one. Not just the other.

As you surely know - and I found your paean to Hunter S. Thompson enlightening on several levels - English is an ambiguous language. It's not always easy to say what you mean. There is Humpty Dumpty, to whom a word means exactly what he says it means, and there's the mess at the base of the wall who can't tell you what he means 'cause he doesn't know himself. There are enough people ready to misinterpret what you just said as it is, without contributing to the strife and chaos by misrepresenting yourself,

Of course, to champion the cause of the grammatically careless blogger is to advance the cause, indispensability, and income potential of the editor, whose task it becomes to take all the Humpty Dumptys and transform their utterances into something a few steps removed from anarchy, from babel. See Thompson, above. See also the likes of Karl Marx. Seems there's always a self-styled elite ready to take advantage of a situation ... True freedom comes from mastery of all the elements.

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Money-Grubbing Grammarians?

#55869 On April 16, 2006 5:58pm gom jabbar said,
gom jabbar's picture

First of all, o ceallaigh, that was a wonderful eloquent reply. I wanted to hug you when I read it.

Secondly, I found the title of this post somewhat interesting, Radreview. Grammarians, be they teachers or editors, do not make that much money. I won't go into specific figures here, but if you were indeed an editor yourself as I am, you are probably well aware of this.

That being said, I'll get to my point. I'm going to go with Tottie and O Ceallaigh on this one. Blogging is a form of publishing and a form of communication. Without at least some grasp of grammar, there will be no sharing of ideas because the communication will not be effective. Nobody here is so uptight that we ride the backs of those who may have some typos in their posts. Nobody's perfect, and I've used the edit feature more than once myself. I don't think we have any snobs here if that's the implication.

--------------------------------

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. - Edgar Allan Poe

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Finery, Sumebody That Unnerstands My Pilates!

#55863 On April 16, 2006 5:32pm A_Nominus_Bob said,

I been prayin and prayin for this day to come to the bloggerpartin place and my prayin's been ansewer'd. I M agreein with watt Mister O'Ceallaigh bout the importance of pauperly wordin your writin acuze well, he's alwayz saying sumethin intellengent-soundin and I M trying to amulate him and othurs that write propur like he doez BUT, I M agreeing with Mister Radreview acuz, well he pretty much layed my writin capabilities out ther in the limelights and he kina scares me when he gets upset and goes to ranting and carrin on bout politicin and religinous stuff, so I M playin it safe and jumpin in both there station-wagons. Adios Bob

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What's Pilates?

#55864 On April 16, 2006 5:37pm bugsey said,
bugsey's picture

I do exercises too IF you means Dat ! LOL ! Happy Easter prufesur!

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P-L-I-G-H-T-S...I ment Plights; Man, I gotta...

#55866 On April 16, 2006 5:46pm A_Nominus_Bob said,

start engagin that Spell Chucker!....I'm glad I didn't have no place to insert the fraze "Fairwell to learnin. Hello regimuntatshun.That cud hav reely confuzed sume folks for shure!

Adios Bob

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okie gotcha PLIGHTS.. LOL :)

#55867 On April 16, 2006 5:48pm bugsey said,
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i was thinking of pilates, they say that is good exercise to keep de figure and the circulation goin !

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Ride both if you can, Bob ...

#55872 On April 16, 2006 6:06pm o ceallaigh said,
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... but for God's sake don't double-buckle yourself in. That could get, um, messy.

:)

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Me and Kizzy tried that dubble buckle'n

#55876 On April 16, 2006 6:16pm A_Nominus_Bob said,

Man that waz a scene....fire department had to get called out to the trailer park...Kizzy waz all embarassed bout her brazeer slidin under the front seat ov the pickem-up truck; jawz of the life waz involved, Kizzy lost sume of her dignaty and I lost a purty good sized chuck of my pubic patch. So yea- "been ther and done that!

Adios Bob

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Wow, these comments are so validating, please visit

#55879 On April 16, 2006 7:05pm Thorniest Rose said,
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Wow, these comments are so validating, please see my post on Writingup.com (the Opinion, Ideas blog listed below) and note the rude and offensive comments our friend here posted, then I saw this posting on his blog and responded, etc.
I mean, we can exchange ideas, opinions, etc., without insulting and abusing each other...and here's to good communications skills.

This is the belligenert, bombastic blog!

Opinions, Ideas, I got a ton of 'em
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