There, their, they’re. Why we should stop with the grammar police

I have a confession to make, I used to be a member of the grammar police

I know this will come as a complete surprise to anyone who has read at least one of my posts as they are likely littered with errors. You know what? Who fucking cares about grammar?

I can understand being pedantic when reading educational material or a newspaper, you expect a certain standard from those sort of publications. Blogging, for me at least, should be accessible to all. ANYONE can set up a blog and write about whatever they want. ANYONE can garner followers, influence people, get their point across, they don’t need to be able to spell to do that and nor should they.

I was chatting with my mum over a glass of wine this afternoon and she told me to put these thoughts into a post so, here we are. Bad grammar and wine haze and all.

I confess, I was a bit of a snob about there, their and they’re. It made my teeth itch if someone used your instead of you’re but, you know what is more important? The sentiment. The information and the thoughts behind the bad spelling, grammar and so on.

Education or learning disability does not make your point less valid or important

Look, I went to the local comp. I did OK, I stayed on for A-Levels. I even did A-Level English Literature, I have forgotten most of what I learned (or is it learnt?) from that time apart from how to rack up a pool table with yellow and red balls and that I really shouldn’t drink 8 bottles of K Cider and follow it up with a pitta and chips from the kebab. I digress…

If we only listen to people who can spell, use the correct punctuation (what is a semi colon for anyway? Oh just shut up, I can use Google, thanks.) and grammar we are in danger of only listening to a certain set of people, and that will NOT do.

Do you only want to listen to highly educated people? Really? Think about it… There you go.

If you only listen to the highly educated then you might find yourself only influenced by the elite.

I follow a fabulous person on Twitter (Danny Beard if you must know) who recently used your instead of you’re, when he was pulled up on it he replied “Actually, I’m dyslexic but I think you’re a cunt, is that better?”. That made my day.

I know people who believe that, because they have a university education, they know more. This is bollocks. I know this is bollocks because I didn’t go to university. I am not well read, not because I can’t read but because I am not much of a reader, not of books anyway. It is not what I do to relax. But I am not daft, I am well rounded. I have a plethora of life experience to draw from. I do have to admit that I have imposter syndrome and often don’t think I can compete in a field where a lot of people are more highly educated than me. But you know what? Fuck it.