I was raised by an English teacher of a mother, and started reading at age 3. Because of those two things, spelling and grammar have always come naturally to me. I never received less than 100 on a spelling test (110 if there was extra credit) or less than an A on an English test or paper. I was the kid who finished my in-class English exercises early and then popped around the classroom helping the other kids who didn't get it as easily.
When I graduated from law school and was clerking for a judge, I was driven insane by the amazingly poor quality of correspondence and documents allowed to leave law offices en route for judges' chambers. At one point, I actually asked my judge if I could take a red pen to everything and send it back. I was only half kidding.
I pride myself on the fact that nothing leaves my office without proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Well, thank god I still have my Elements of Style.
I have been online since 1992, before there was actually an Internet, and there were just geeky teen boys running local discussion forums.
Yeah, I'm that old. And that geeky.
I've been on the Knot for a long time (ignore my join date, it's not accurate), on the Nest, on handmade discussion forums, Irish discussion forums, legal discussion forums, business discussion forums, reefkeeping discussion forums, face painting discussion forums, and discussion forums I simply can't remember anymore.
It's not just the Knot. On every forum, spelling, grammar, and punctuation have gotten sloppy. And on every forum, there are those who simply don't care. In fact, they're adamant, belligerent about not caring. They're so hellbent on not caring that they purposely type in text speak and other slang. They type in all lowercase, all caps, run-on sentences and paragraphs. They use words, tense, and format improperly. It destroys the content and context.
No, this isn't school. It isn't business. You aren't required to type correctly and you won't be fired if you don't. Nothing will show up negatively on your "permanent record." But it wastes the reader's time in deciphering and is rude.
Worse, in my opinion, is that a talent that previously had come naturally to me, the talent for proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, no longer does. It was natural previously because of the books I read. The problem is that now, in addition to the books I do still read, I read a lot online. And constantly seeing your misspellings, improper grammar, and destruction of punctuation actually has diminished my abilities and caused me to second-guess myself. Now when writing a business letter or pleading, I find myself referring to the dictionary or my Elements of Style to find out what's correct, when that's something I just knew before. It pisses me off. It annoys me. It wastes my time and costs my clients money.
And I blame YOU.
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. ~Mae West