Respect for the English Language

As I have made more than perfectly clear, I am a writer. Do not confuse writing with something that I do. Acting is something I do, meaning that I enjoy taking part in it from time to time and am relatively good at it. Reading is something I do, and I enjoy it thoroughly. Writing, on the other hand, is something I am. I cannot go for long without doing it. It is the air I breathe and, I believe, my reason for being here. Whenever someone asks me what I'm going to do (which can be an infuriating question--how can one live in the moment but stay prepared for the future simultaneously?), all I answer is that I'm going to write. I do not go into specifics, I merely leave it at that vague statement, because this is something I can say with certainty. I will write until I die. I don't know if I will ever be published or if anyone will ever read my works. I don't know if my writing will ever earn me any income. I don't know what I will write or if I will even stick to the novel format (although I hope I do). I just know that, wherever life takes me, I will be writing.

In addition to being a writer, I am also a spelling/grammar stickler, and I am aware that the two are closely related. However, it is possible to be one and not the other. I know at least one example of each. After plenty instances of correcting people's typos, grammar in their speech (which I am more relaxed about, since speech is often riddled with grammatical errors for the plain reason that there is less time that one can put into something spoken and allows little to no premeditation), and essays gone awry, I started to consider why it was that such errors bothered me so much. At first I figured it was a quirk of mine, a pet peeve, and pet peeves can be pesky, considering I have no idea what the psychology behind them could be, although I have always been interested. Then, upon contemplating it further, I came to a conclusion: it is because I am not only enamored with the English language, but I have the utmost respect for it.

You see, the English language is my dear companion and co-worker. It has been my lovely colleague for as long as I can remember and, without it, I could not practice my craft (unless I spoke some other language, but since I don't, that's irrelevant). This means that the words that make up the English language are my trusty tools. I depend on them to be firm and unflinching when I write them down, never straying from their dictionary-approved spelling unless they have a British counterpart ("color" and "colour" spring to mind). They are handy, often beautiful, and useful in a myriad of ways. There are so many of them that they yield countless different combinations, so that humans can continue to find new things to say and new ways to say them without accidental imitation or plagiarism of a past English speaker. I am forever indebted to the words of the English language for supplying me with an effective way to articulate my thoughts and express my feelings. They are everything from cathartic to practical.

As a result, I balk at phemonena such as chatspeak or the deliberate misspelling of words in an attempt to give off a certain impression or conform to some ridiculous fad. I am not entirely frigid in this regard--I make some allowances, such as technical errors that count as honest mistakes, stamps of individuality, or creative license. Any grammatical/spelling errors used in dialogue for a novel or play are excused since that is meant to capture a realistic tone. However, what I cannot stand is when the English language is disrespected out of pure laziness. The invention of the English language, which is constantly evolving, has been a long, effortful process, and somebody who disregards such hard, sincere work is worthy of condemnation. Anyone who treats the English language like a used dishrag is disrespecting my tools, tools that I am extremely protective of and will jump to the defense of in a heartbeat.

Let me mention a few examples. Say you are a painter. You care for your paintbrushes in the most maternal manner and are all right with others touching them, so long as they treat them the way they deserve to be treated. I wouldn't go so far as to say misspelling a word is like snapping one of these paintbrushes in half--that would indicate malice, and it seems that most spelling/grammatical errors are made not out of blatant disrespect for the language, but out of carelessness. Okay, that works. Say I was careless with your paintbrush and left it out in a sandbox, or perhaps wasn't paying attention as I played with the bristles and then ruined them. You, as the painter, would be more than unhappy. You would feel disrespected, in a way, as the politician can't help but be miffed when his candidate's poster becomes subject to frivolous graffiti. You would feel that your tool had been wronged. It's not even about the cost it would take to replace it. If it were left in the sand, you could simply get it cleaned, but that is not the issue. The issue is that your tool, your method of creation, has been mistreated. If you were a dancer, what if I was not careful and spilled barbecue sauce on your pointe shoes? If you were a filmmaker, what if I was not watching your camera like I said I would, giving anyone the opportunity to steal it? What if you were an actor and I left your script out in the rain, causing the papers to dry all wrinkled and rough?

You may be thinking, Jesus, woman, I make typos all the time, and I don't get so nitpicky about it. Typos are understandable, since we often type quickly and have become far too dependent on Microsoft Word's spellcheck feature (one of my many qualms with today's technology, and I promise, the list is a long one. But that's another rant for another day). With some proofreading, however, they can be fixed. Some of us just cannot grasp the concept of spelling or grammar well, perhaps similar to the way I can't wrap my head around many mathematical procedures. That is perfectly fine. All I am asking is that you be careful. If you notice a mistake, change it. If you're writing out a quick comment, read it over before pressing the "submit" button. As a result, you will come across as a more intelligent, thoughtful human being. Putting thought into your actions is important and can give a lasting impression, even if it is something as seemingly miniscule as this. Also, room for mistakes only goes so far. What I abhor seeing are sentences like this:

"Hay!! gurl, we need 2 go 2 tha mall immeeditly! their having a sale! i will ketch u l8r k?? meet u @ tha fountain."

What the hell is that? If you look at the examples "hay", "gurl", "tha", and "ketch", they make no sense. Chatspeak is meant to provide a quicker, easier way to say things, which unfortunately means abusing words until they are hardly recognizable. But what makes no sense about these is that they require the same amount of effort as their correct counterparts. "Hay" and "hey" each have three letters, as do "tha" and "the", and "gurl" and "girl" each have four letters. There is no reason to spell them incorrectly, at least none that I can understand. Please enlighten me. The 2's can easily become "to". It's one extra key. It's not that difficult. As for the "@"...holding down "2" and "shift" actually seems like more work to me than just spelling out "at".

Don't get me wrong. Everyone has used chatspeak at least once in their lives. I've used it plenty, although recently I have stopped altogether, except maybe for the occasional "brb". Chatspeak is fine by me as long as it is used in moderation and used appropriately. I would prefer to read something that does not include "lol" as every other word (and I use the word "word" loosely here). Again, the English language is a beautiful thing, so please treat it as such. Unless you speak a different language, you cannot hope to go through life without it.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone is a human being and is prone to error. I've made so many mistakes I've lost count, and if you can count the amount of mistake you've made, you are a Google bot that has hacked into my journal and I now ask you to get out. Go find a captcha to attempt to read; you're not wanted here. I'm sure there are even some typos in this very journal entry, and if there are, that would be hilariously ironic and you are welcome to try and find them. All I am saying is, next time you write something, anything, think before you write it down. Respect the language, please.

-Morgan

Categories: advice, literature, self-improvement, writing