life and puppies

Is it just me I?* I’m not sure how all of you are going to respond to this, but I have to ask. It really bugs me when people have blogs that are filled with poor grammar, typos, and even formatting problems. Does it bug you? I know I should lighten up about this because, hey, there’s a ton of good content on the interwebs and I should be thankful for it, and let it go when the writer seems to think that comma placement is just an aesthetic choice. But, see, I can’t. It bugs me in my soul. Of arguable more importance, it has an adverse practical effect on me. You see, I can’t follow the directions on “how to sew whatever” when I can’t understand what the hell the writer is saying. It’s the whole “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” thing. And this isn’t just confined to sewing blogs. In fact, it’s coming dangerously close to epidemic territory.

I hope I don’t sound like a complete jerkstore, but I really feel like if you’re going to write something – anything – you should be required to have a basic command of grammatical rules. Reading crappy blogs that promise to give me good advice (as – ahem – opposed to easily understood but boring blogs sans any advice) is usually disappointing. I know I make a zillion mistakes a day and I’m not proud of them, but I just think if some of these almost-helpful bloggers just spent a wee bit more time proofing their writing, the world would be a better place. Or, if you almost-helpful bloggers don’t want to do that, maybe you should just put everything in pictures. They’re worth a ton of words. Even well-written words.

*I guess I have my own rules for what I consider offensive writing. No, I don’t mean Bret Easton Ellis or the Bronte sisters. That’s a topic for another day. I mean offensive writing as in ignoring the rules. “It’s me!” doesn’t bug me. Writing “I wish there were less cats in the house” should result in at least a fine and maybe even a day or two in the Clink. And there really should be fewer cats in the house. The thing is, I try not to like the rules just for the rules’ sake. I like the rules because they let me understand the author’s intent. The less/fewer rule doesn’t really fit into this paradigm of mine, but some things are just sacred for their own sake, no?