I Judge People With Poor Grammar

Not long ago, I was looking for pages to connect with on Facebook, pages related to my particular interests, namely writing. Much to my surprise, I found one called “I judge you when you use poor grammar.” I thought, “That’s me!” But I didn’t have the audacity to connect with the page. It did, however, get me thinking.

Like many things, language is organic. New words are added to the dictionary, and old words are labeled as archaic and all but formally removed from the language. Some grammatical rules are relaxed, and most people think that the grammar and mechanics they use to communicate through sites such as Facebook and Twitter are acceptable for professional emails.

I have a strict sense of what is correct or not with regard to grammar; in other words, I’m old-school about following technically accurate grammatical rules. What I’ve noticed by teaching traditional students and adult learners is that few people, including me, really know and understand grammar at a deeper level. The question, then, is where to draw the line. How do I, as a writing instructor, determine what an acceptable level of grammatical mistakes in college essays is? What makes certain grammatical errors acceptable while others aren’t? Should this line be drawn in sand or jackhammered into cement?

Most students—especially returning and adult students—aren’t interested in pursuing careers that require the use of perfect grammar. Or even, in fact, the use of a comma to separate two independent clauses that are joined by a conjunction to create a compound sentence. What I’ve realized through teaching is that students don’t necessarily need to or want to learn how to write exceptionally well, using perfect word choice, perfect grammar, and perfect syntax. They need to, although don’t always want to, learn how to write proficiently – well enough so they can communicate clearly in academic essays and professional settings, although the documents may include minor errors that most people would overlook.

That means, for most students, I shouldn’t focus on all the missing commas and common pronoun-antecedent agreements. Instead, I should focus on teaching students writing skills that will carry them through their academic and professional careers. I should teach them about clarity and organization, and, for academic writing, thesis statements. I should teach them about writing for an audience and the difference between spoken and written communication. If students leave a college writing course with these skills, they will likely write well enough to earn the respect of their professors and colleagues.

I recently met with Dr. Robert Jackson, an associate professor of English and Education at The King’s College in New York City. I wanted to get his perspective on approaching a certain type of student in the writing classroom – the type of student who writes like he or she speaks, colloquially, and thereby grammatically incorrectly.

Jackson’s response was a fitting analogy: Written language should use a common currency, one that all readers should be able to understand, regardless of what part of the country, or even world, they come from. Spoken language can use a bartering system that two or more speakers, in a given moment, agree to and participate in. In other words, students should adhere to a common currency, a minimum writing standard that serves a broad audience.

What this analogy really comes down to is this: “We was going to the store” might be acceptable, or at least overlooked, in spoken communication, but when that same person wants to make the statement on paper, he or she must correct the grammar to “We were going to the store.” Regardless of who the student is and why the student is receiving an education, there must be a minimum writing standard that all students are required to meet, and this minimum writing standard is the use of what Jackson refers to as common currency.

Based on Jackson’s analogy and my professional and teaching experiences, I have concluded that perfect grammar isn’t as important as using mostly proper grammar and conveying a message clearly to the audience. As a writing instructor, I need to focus on the bigger picture when teaching students, helping them use the common currency when writing for an audience of more than one.

I may always judge people with poor grammar, including myself, but my changing views of how important “perfect” grammar really is will change how I approach teaching composition, particularly when dealing with an adult learning population that needs to learn to write well enough to communicate clearly in professional settings.