There They’re Their Now

I know, 100%, the difference between these three words, there, their, they’re.  I know how they are to be used.  So, imagine my horror when I found a grievous error whilst rereading an ish of my old Ruthiechan’s Station: e-APA Division fanzine .  The sentence read thus; “They’re music is, really cool.”   . . .     . . .     . . .     *cries* *sniff* Way to go to look like an idiot.  What probably happened was that I didn’t have time to do a proper editing job which was rather common with my e-APA (electronic Amateur Press Association)  contributions.  Another possibility is that sometimes I’ll start saying one thing one way, and then I’ll change the way I’m going to express that one thing but, then forget to rework the grammar or syntax.

I’m pretty anal about this sort of thing, especially when it comes to the internet. What you write, and how you write is ALL that people have to go on.  So, if I am using the improper word then it looks like I’m an ignorant git which can cause people to not take me seriously.  I remember playing Shadowbane nearly five years ago.  I was typing into guild chat saying something like, Your crazy. I then saw my typo and typed into guild chat a correction, *You’re.  The response was an immediate, Oh my god,  someone actually knows the difference! and Thank you for displaying intelligence, and Hey, it’s nice to see a newb who understands these things.  Those responses caused me to be even more careful about my writing, especially since I almost didn’t bother with making the correction. The less careful I am the more stupid mistakes I make (hey, maybe there’s a life lesson in there somewhere).

I remember in an online class I had a while back one of the students always used the word “are” in place of “our”. I politely mentioned it to her in a private email because she did have some interesting things to say but the error was distracting and made her posts harder to read. Her response? She didn’t care because her way was easier and everyone understood what she was saying anyway. Gah! I couldn’t believe it. My response was, Okay, if you want to make yourself look like an idiot go right on ahead. If our roles had been reversed I would have been grateful that someone cared enough to talk to me about it. In fact, I remember confusing the words retribution and restitution. I was grateful when someone pointed it out to me when he heard me use the wrong word in a conversation. It was embarrassing, sure, but I’d rather feel a bit embarrassed for a brief moment than perpetuate an error.

I’m not saying that I have to write absolutely perfectly every time, nor does anyone else. Typos happen, no matter how careful you are. I do know that some people have language disabilities so they mix stuff up a lot or suck at spelling, but disabilities are no excuse to not try. What I am saying is that we need to pay attention to how we are expressing ourselves with the written word. It makes a difference in how we are perceived. Communication in writing is fostered best (and dare I say in speaking as well?) when we take the time to think about what we want to write, how we’re going to write it (which may involve a bit of research), and to reread, read aloud, and revise when necessary what it is we are writing.

Recently:

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• Hazel’s Talk on Jesus always obeying Heavenly Father
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