I’m a big fan of someecards.com, a Web site with some of the funniest e-cards I’ve ever seen. My friends and my co-workers are big fans. Check it out!
This one is perfect for all of us:
Now, I have a question for you:
Has poor grammar, syntax, spelling or word choice damaged a friendship or relationship of yours?
For me, I wouldn’t say that it outright damaged a relationship, but I do have friends who use “your” and “you’re” interchangeably in emails and it drives me insane. I will go so far to say that I don’t email them as often as I do my friends who write well.
The Grammar Vandal 
I have a professor who used the words “thot” and “prolly” in an email. I lost any respect I ever had for him when I read it.
I’m a regular at a blog whose writer uses “there” when he should use “their”. I’m dying to try to instruct him, but I think I should just let it go.
It drives me nuts, because I have to read and translate simultaneously.
Yes! Poor grammar actually caused me to reverse my first impression of a guy I initially found attractive. I cringed when I got emails from him and I have slowly eliminated most communication with him. He, of course, has no idea that his grammar turned me off so much.
Poor grammar has also destroyed my respect for some of my professors. For example, I have one very unfortunate professor who uses “weather” instead of “whether”, “sight” instead of “cite” or “site”, and “there” instead of “their”. Ugh.
I have vivid memories of my grammar school days when we were taught the difference between they’re, their and there; it’s and its; to, two and too and what contractions mean.
I wonder if it’s being taught at all now.
Poor grammar, sytax and spelling are simply perfect for “lolcats”, but otherwise … well!
From my experience, homophones (e.g. weather – whether, site – sight – cite, etc.) often cause problems.
I have heard that the rate of dyslexics in the Spanish speaking world is far lower, because in Spanish there is a closer and more regular match between pronunciation and spelling.
Is that an excuse?
I still give my best in teaching my students intelligible English, but I am slowly losing faith in the human intelligence as such..
I was taught SO little grammar in school, Anthony, and I graduated high school only six years ago. I randomly remember a few drills that we did in the sixth grade, but my teacher was such a bore that I don’t remember a thing. I do think that the best way to improve your grammar (and your vocabulary) is to READ as much literature as possible, but not everybody reads as much as I did then and do now (I’m quite voracious).
KW, I have done quite a bit of online dating, and if the guy’s emails are full of errors, I won’t respond to him. Hmm…I’m kind of breaking my own rule right now. 😉
Rona and I met through a personal ad, back in those halcyon days before online dating, when you actually had to write a response to the ad. Part of what I said to myself when she responded to my ad was,”Her personality bounces off the page at me.” Part of what she said when she got the card I sent her in reply was, “He’s literate!”
Twenty-two years since our first date, and we’re going strong. A testimony to the romantic appeal of good grammar?