Caution – Grammatically Incorrect

Warning: English teachers, hide your red pens!

So, this initial post is a warning for any and all inadvertent, yet no less brutal, attacks on the sanctity of the English language. I realize the care that has gone into the construction of our language – including all grammatical rules and proper sentence structures. I appreciate the devotion of countless people who have dedicated their lives to upholding its honor, and I truly mean no disrespect.

To all the purveyors of proper English, please understand that this is, in no way, an act of blatant defiance toward anyone’s craft. I am fully aware of my ineptitude, with regard to my copyediting skills, and have taken reasonable steps to shield my audience from my lack of grammatical knowledge. Including, but not limited to – incorrect, yet abundant, use of punctuation. In taking full accountability, I dutifully and responsibly uploaded the free version of Grammarly on all of my devices. I’m happy to report that it did catch some of my more egregious errors, but unfortunately not all. At this point, I am no stranger to the cues of my virtual writing assistant, with its frequent underlining and dotted underlining. And have come to trust the suggestions it offers – fixing almost all errors pertaining to its alerts.

But I have something to say…

However, despite it all, I humbly accept myself – including my flaws in this area. And after much internal debate, have chosen to disregard the shoddy mechanical structure of my writing, as a reason to keep my messages hidden from the world. I have come to realize that we all have something, some flaw that we fear the world will discover about us, some particular insecurity that holds the potential to render us powerless- but only if we allow it to scare us into submission or inaction.

Although I fully admit my own weaknesses, I would remiss if I didn’t assign at least partial blame to the commas, oh and hyphens – and those fun little dot, dot, dot thingys. If it were available, I would gladly join a support group for my love of incorrectly appropriated grammar – but for now, my sincerest apologies will need to suffice.

All in all, the conclusion of this post is…a hope that my audience is able to see past any and all grammatical errors. Instead, focusing solely on the content, and intention behind the noticeable outward flaws.

Thank you,

The grammar villian.

Handbook for Writers

Despite not having the time to study it end to end, this is a great book!