If you are a native English speaker, I'm talking to you.
Almost every day I see multiple grammar rules violated, in addition to some pretty atrocious spelling. I hear a lot of excuses. "But I'm on Facebook, it's casual, it's not important!" "It's just not fair that I'm getting penalized on my spelling and grammar on a paper that's not for English class!" "I'm texting!"
There are some errors that are attributed to typos and many rules that are violated, mainly via texting, as a result of character restraints. Which is cool. Via text or casual writing, I'm less concerned about the placement of commas and apostrophes, and more about general grammar and spelling. For people who mess up due to those reasons, this post is NOT about you.
To the rest of you: what the hell?! You're a native speaker. You have grown up, spoken, read, and been formally educated in English semantics since birth. How do you still not know the difference between YOUR and YOU'RE?
"Okay," you say, "I know the difference between those two words! But they sound the same and people get my meaning when they read it! It's not a big deal!"
WRONG!
If you know the difference and you're only missing one letter to change the word's meaning, why don't you just add the extra letter?
in the example of casual texting or internet usage (which means ignoring apostrophes):
"your dumb!" INCORRECT.
"youre dumb!" CORRECT.
"ur dumb!" CORRECT.
"its better then staying home all day." INCORRECT.
"its better than staying home all day." CORRECT.
"there not coming." INCORRECT.
"theyre not coming." CORRECT.
"when did you loose your keys?" INCORRECT.
"when did you lose your keys?" CORRECT.
"there are many paper's over there." INCORRECT.
"there are many papers over there." CORRECT.
"he play's the piano." INCORRECT.
"he plays the piano." CORRECT.
For further reference, check the Oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling
I've compiled a collection of infractions of the English language I find on Facebook here: www.erredenglish.tumblr.com
While I've been yammering about simply remembering BASIC English grammar and spelling on the web, most importantly, I urge you all to remember them while writing papers. For any class, for any business, for any occasion that is not related to your friends and personal notes, YOU NEED TO USE PROPER GRAMMAR, SPELLING, AND PUNCTUATION.
Why, you ask? Because to literate people, poor application of those elements of English in your writing DETRACTS from your central message. No matter how good your ideas are, or how much research you did, if you continually force your reader to reread your sentences because you spelt a word incorrectly (that halted the tempo in the reader's head or that looked like another word with a different meaning) or had convoluted grammar and syntax, the reader will soon lose interest in your big ideas. I personally stop reading, or caring, about the contents of paper when I have to shuffle through the pages trying to dig out a clear sentence, and by that time I'm too angry to care about understanding your content.
If I was your teacher: I'D FAIL YOU.
