STOP: Grammar Time

Me don’t thinks people knows how to yous that grammar thing no more.  And they don’t care none neither.

 Think the above sentences are funny?  They’re not funny to me.  They’re real.  Every day my inboxes are flooded with emails from well-meaning individuals who have no idea how to effectively communicate in writing.  What’s even scarier?  They don’t care.  Scarier still?  When I hunt them down to have the conversation in person because I don’t understand their email I sometimes still can’t understand the message they’re trying to communicate.

I’ve been noticing this trend over the past couple of years so it seems it’s not specific to one particular geographic location, workplace, or any other factor I can really put my finger on.  I’ve discussed it with some grammar-minded friends and every time we talk about it we wind up scratching our heads.  Why is this happening?

 Occasionally when I’ve gone off on tangents about this people have asked why I think grammar and spelling are so important.  People have openly told me that it’s not important to them.  And I’ve actually been told “there’s not time to worry about grammar, Stevie”.  Well this is just preposterous.  Here are some of the reasons I think grammar is important:

1. Using proper grammar and spelling allows the recipient of a message to quickly comprehend what’s being said.  There’s no going back and trying to figure out what the message is supposed to mean.  That’s a waste of time.
2. Using proper grammar and spelling establishes that the communicator does, in fact, know what he or she is talking about.  Here’s what I mean: if you received a message telling you that Jupiter was no longer considered a planet and the message was full of spelling and grammatical errors, would you be inclined to believe it was true?  If you received the same message but in perfect English (or whatever language you prefer) with no errors, would that message sound more credible?  Of course it would.
3. Written communication from an individual is his or her brand.  When something is put into writing or even spoken, it becomes a reflection of you.  I, for one, want my personal “brand” to be as strong and reputable as possible.   

So what gives?  Why the disintegration of good communication?  I have a few theories.

At first I thought maybe it was a generational thing.  Being on the cusp of Gen X and Gen Y (the Millennials) I have a lot of insight into both.  The Millennials are very different in communication style.  They grew up in an age of social networking, so the MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, texting and IM styles are engrained in their communication.  People don’t write the same way in those venues as they do in more formal communications.  But who says that’s “OK”? 

So maybe it’s about education.  Have the school systems gotten that bad?  It seems to me that the level of grammar we see today would NOT have been acceptable in even sixth grade 15 years ago.  Maybe we should pay our educators more…. That’s a whole different can of worms. 

Is it the employers we should blame?  How can we promote people who do not have a solid grasp of basic language?  “Because they can effectively get the job done without being effective communicators, Stevie.”  That’s just scary. 

I am FAR from perfect with regard to grammar and spelling.  But I think it is really important to at least TRY.  I want my communication to be a positive reflection of who I am.  Am I alone?  Does anyone else care?  Am I blowing it out of proportion?  Am I crazy?  Or is it a problem beyond hope?