Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Spending most of my life in academia, I found waaaay too many people concerned more about grammar and spelling than about content. To me, that is just wrong on so many levels, and all too often wipes out that spark of desire to 'learn' that brings people to higher education in the first place.
Stitchawl
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I really think this is dangerously backward thinking.
Attention to detail is important. Care in one's work is important. Consideration of others is important. Appreciation of quality is important. Effective and clear communication is important.
And shooting for higher than barely acceptable minimums is important.
That's in all things, not just writing. But so much of what we do, both in academics, when we are supposed to be building foundations, and after, when we are supposed to be building on those foundations, depend on written communication that there there is no better place to both apply, and also demonstrate those things.
And yes, I also agree that's rude to demand your reader do the work of organizing and disambiguating your meaning when you should have done it ahead of time. It speaks volumes to the reader, be the reader a book customer, a judge, a teacher, a potential employer or potential client, or in fact anyone who will have to get to know you primarily through your verbal communications, which, unless you find your self in an Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden type situation, is just about everyone.
Also, while I think it may be noble of you, as a reader, to be willing to make the effort of weeding through bad grammar to get a point and not judge the writer harshly because it, it's not good to suggest to a writer that it's OK to take that approach.
ApK