Inspired Writings

Inspired Writings

Monday, October 20, 2008

Forgetting our Proper Grammar (Updated)


Why is it, that so many people have absolutely no idea how to use proper grammar these days?

As I have grown up over the past 18 years of my life I have been corrected for my use of grammar hundreds of times. Learning how to properly use words that have little difference, like further and farther. This difference has been hammered into my head to the point of insanity.

Proper grammar and spelling are important for making sense, to make a distinction between two often very different meanings.

However in society today I notice I can’t turn on the TV without hearing incorrect grammar. From a commercial to a National Geographic documentary, there is incorrect grammar everywhere. In school, on TV, the internet; everywhere we look we see it, a word spelled like another, a comma in the wrong place.

Grammar creates the very foundation of writing; of poetry and stories. We speak, we write; what we hear, and read however is not always what is correct.

The most common example I notice if the words further and farther; being used in the wrong context. Further is used far more often than farther, yet most of the time farther is the word that need to be used.

Throughout my education I’ve seen a neglect of grammar, as though it is not important. Foreign languages are taught as though without knowing them, you would fail at life. I question how we can be so neglectful to our own language and let it fall between the cracks.

Grammar should be more of a focus point of education. Something that is important and taught on a regular basis rather than leniently.

Language and grammar are a foundation of culture, not just something that exists. When most of us think about culture we seldom tend to realize that language is culture. With the way we live our lives being threatened daily, why allow another part of our culture be drowned out of our lives?

It’s senseless to turn the other way, like we have done with so much more.

1 comment:

Aaron Ytterberg said...

you know this is so true. but you have to remember that we aren't just neglecting our own grammar we are completely altering it to modernize it and make it more efficient.this doesn't mean that you're wrong it just means that what your saying won't really change much.