In the process of creating some marketing collateral, I received the following piece of advice: “Don’t let grammar stand in your way.” I understand the concept — saying what you want is often more important than saying it correctly. But have we, as an industry/culture/populace gotten to the point where we’ve actually forgotten how to communicate? I think we have. And do we look less intelligent when we intentionally (though not ironically) abstain from proper grammar? Definitely.
Now that we’re forced to condense our thoughts into 140-character tweets, and SMS text messages, spelling, phrasing, and punctuation have fallen by the wayside. And ideas, in the process, get short changed. The opportunity for expression is squeezed out of communication, and we end up doing things e-z.
Blogs opened up a tremendous avenue for composed expression, but since no one can write, or worse, take the time to read, we’ve gotten to the point of Tumblr: bigger than a tweet, smaller than a breadbox.
I supervise interns and have been part of hiring teams for a few years now. The ability to communicate is definitely on the decline. I don’t think we need to start diagraming sentences, but we definitely need to at least have the ability to write intelligently. Unlike algebra, it has real world applicability.
As a marketing professional who often uses words to generate revenues, I refuse to “not let grammar stand in my way.” That’s nothing more than an excuse for sinking to the lowest common denominator.
It’s impossible to raise the bar if we’re too content to be sliding under it.
