Pet peeve

Ok, before anything else, I am all for blogging. I understand and fully support the idea that it represents freedom of speech -- that anyone can write about anything under the sun without any inhibitions or fear of being gagged. Yes, I welcome the idea that we can read about other people's opinions and might, in the end, get some useful information.

But what I do find quite abominable is when people can't follow even the most basic rules of grammar when writing on their respective blogs. For someone who makes a living out of writing, I do make a fuss everytime i come across a blog that is written soooo poorly in English that I honestly want to sit down with the author and spend a few hours teaching him how to observe basic grammar rules. It is just plain sacrilege when someone can't differentiate the proper use of "he is - he's" to "his".

Example: "...like his happy to see me after all these years."

If you can't spot the mistake in that sentence fragment, then you certainly don't deserve that degree you earned in college. Seriously.

Another sacrilege is when these so-called writers (read: bloggers) can't even start reconciling their tenses. I remember a friend of mine based in Singapore who brought to her boss' attention a colleague who kept answering the company phone with this greeting: "Good morning. How may i helped you?"

Well, can you blame my friend for telling on her colleague? I sure as hell can't.

And please! Whatever happened to the most fundamental of grammar rules? That a singular subject requires a singular verb. A plural noun requires a plural verb.

Look, I am not trying to sound holier than thou here. I understand that there will be lapses and that nothing and no one is really perfect. But if your blog entry harps on how you want to be a writer, you better be darned sure about your sentences. At the very least, you ought to turn on the spelling and grammar check function in MS Word to be sure. But if you really are a good writer as you think, you will learn to rely on your knowledge of grammar rules and not just the MS word function.

That's all.