Why Spelling And Grammar Don’t Matter
Every once and a while I will get an email from someone telling me that I spelled a word incorrectly or that I failed to punctuated a sentence properly. Sometimes my grammar is just way off – I’ll admit it.
Of course, I understand that coming from an educational background, we should do our best to emphasize correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. But the truth is, these things simply don’t matter as much when it comes to social media use.
When you are using Twitter (for example) and you only have 140 characters to spit out a message, you sometimes have to use abbreviations and tricky word cheats in order to get your message across. In the world of social networking, this is perfectly fine! And yet, some people still get caught up on these tiny mistakes.
I’ve found, however, that most young people are hip to that fact that these little “boo-boos” are socially acceptable. The golden rule seems to be, “If I can understand what you are trying to say, then it’s perfectly fine.”
However, the older generation just doesn’t get it! (Or some of them don’t at least.)
The reason I bring this whole thing up, however, is not to say that grammar and spelling mistakes are okay. Instead, the point I want to make is that you shouldn’t be afraid to make these mistakes in your school’s social media use.
Some of the schools I have consulted with will have as many as five people proof-read a single Tweet before they send it out – each one looking for mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling and political correctness. FIVE PEOPLE! And we wonder why our schools are in such trouble right now. This sort of behavior is a huge waste of time, money and resources!
Just type up the message, check it over once, and send it out! If there is a mistake in your message, that’s okay. And if it’s a big mistake, simply go back and correct it. Don’t be afraid to make a few mistakes! Spelling and grammar simply don’t matter as much as they used to.
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One Response to “Why Spelling And Grammar Don’t Matter”
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delainanicole on February 15th, 2010
Ok, I agree that you shouldn’t have 5 people proofing your tweets. But really, spelling and grammar don’t matter? I can’t disagree with you more! Grammar and spelling are part of a school’s credibility. Grammar and punctuation and spelling are PART of the understanding of the tone of the message. I understand using slang, or abbreviations, or an accidental typo. But the burden of communication is on the communicator, and blatantly being lazy is just unacceptable.
By the way, why are you not in the NSPRA ring yet? You’d be very well received if you were.