{"id":323,"date":"2005-02-10T19:15:38","date_gmt":"2005-02-10T17:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.tjerngren.net\/wp\/?p=323"},"modified":"2005-02-10T19:15:38","modified_gmt":"2005-02-10T17:15:38","slug":"carolyn-got-me-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beverlyrevelry.com\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"Carolyn got me started …"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a language snob, and perhaps even a word fetishist. I know (oh, boy, do I know) that not everyone shares my love of grammar and of words, but I find a well-turned phrase a thing of beauty. I can spend countless minutes–hours, days, years, even–mulling over in my mind the various subtleties and nuances that can be contained within just a word or two. And it pains me, truly, to see my beloved English language used and misused so callously by so many.<\/p>\n

My concern, primarily, is the written language. In casual speech my grammar and usage can be as improper as the next person’s, but I do take considerably more care when writing. It’s not a conscious effort, this care-taking; rather I have a sort of internal regulator that prevents me from writing many of the things I wouldn’t think twice about saying to a friend. This age of email and blogs and online chatrooms and bulletin boards has made it painfully evident that the same is not true of everyone.<\/p>\n

I do agree with many who say that a bit of latitude should be granted with regard to these sorts of communication, given that they’re generally not what could be considered “formal” writing, and ordinarily I don’t let myself get all het up over minor grammatical and usage errors. I save my dismay and outrage for those errors that demonstrate that we are becoming a people with a woeful lack of knowledge about our own language.<\/p>\n

Cases in point: <\/p>\n