An article on LifeHack.org today talks about common misspellings and grammatical errors that the spell-check tool will not check. The article encourages us to not count solely on spell-check, but to actually proofread and have others proofread our work. Gasp!

I think the importance of good spelling and grammar is fairly well accepted in scholarly and professional efforts. But I am horrified at the ever more common bad spelling and grammar I come across on the Internet, especially in blogs and forums.

I am fortunate enough to spend most of my online community time with a group that also values spelling and grammar.  The members are willing to forgive the occasional mistype, but frown upon blatant disregard for the basic rules of grammar or accepted spellings of words. Enough so that it is one of only four major rules of the forum.

Unfortunately, not everyone agrees on this point. Rather than acknowledging a simple mistype, many people seem almost offended that the moderators would dare ask them to clean up their spelling. As though bad spelling was somehow a part of their culture, that we moderators are discriminating against. It’s anything but that. In fact, it is really about respect: self-respect and respect for the reader. Here, let my buddy and fellow moderator explain it:

“Call me old-fashioned, but when somebody says “there’s a booger on your face,” I clean it up. Too often here (He means classic-space.com) I’ve seen a response more along the lines of “heh, whatever… I meant to put it there… Fear my booger!” I’ll spell it out for those who may find the analogy too subtle. Sloppy spelling and bad grammar are the communication equivalent of having a booger on your face. It shows disrespect to your readers, which makes it harder to get their respect in turn, and it indicates a lack of attention to detail. Attention to detail is what got the great builders where they are today. It is a skill worth cultivating.” - Ley Ward

At first I thought it was mostly the site’s younger members. But more and more, I am realizing that the internet’s reputation for bad spelling and grammar (as well as specialized jargon and acronyms) is just as much the fault of adults. I’m not bashing internet jargon. I think most subcultures, and even specialized industries develop neologisms to better communicate inside the group. But better communication is the very reason I dislike intentional bad spelling and grammar. It disrupts the flow of information. It alters my perception of the person who typed it. And in the case of some of my international forum acquaintances, it means that they literally do not understand the message at all.

Now that I have joined the ranks of the Blogosphere, I have found many blogs that have this same defiant disregard for acceptable spelling and grammar. And guess what I do with blogs like that. Nothing. Ever again. I don’t comment. I don’t click through, and I don’t go back. It is not worth the effort to make sense of what the person has written, especially when I know that they did not make the effort to be understood.

So, that’s my rant on misspelling and bad grammar. I’m sure you will point out all my mistakes in the comments, won’t you?

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