A Sales Guy blog is 10 months old today. It’s been fun. I enjoy writing and blogging. My favorite parts are the sharing, the comments and the story telling. But, what I didn’t realize about blogging is how much I would learn. Blogging regularly has caused me to be more aware of trends. I find myself evaluating information differently as well as assessing the impact of the trends, ideas, and information coming at me everyday.
One of the things that I’ve come to learn is I suck at grammar. I’ve probably known this for awhile but have just been in denial. Personally, I hate poor grammar. It affects the readers experience. So, it killed me this week to be called out for my grammar by two different people.
I was a terrible student. I didn’t pay much attention in English while in middle school or high school at that matter. I was a very utilitarian student. If I couldn’t find immediate value for me in what was being taught, I paid it no mind. I’m still paying for this part of my personality today. I have to have a vested interest in what I’m learning or it’s a tough road for me.
I have a vested interest in becoming better at grammar now. I want to write a better blog. For this reason, I have asked a friend of mine to help. She has agreed to edit all my posts (after I post them) and point out my grammar errors. I am then going to update the post with her edits. My goal over the next few months is for her to have fewer and fewer edits.
I’m excited. I think this will improve the reading experience on this blog. I’d be curious if you notice. Let me know if you see a difference.
I thought my English teacher would be cringing, but now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure she’s not cringing, she’s saying; “I told you so!”
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What you say? You write good!
The interesting part will be translating “English grammar” to “business grammar” – there are some differences. English grammar can get exceedingly wordy to describe business concepts.
Comment by aaronklein — December 3, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
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Not going to change my writing style or approach. Which I don't think is biz or english, just me. But at least want to make sure I get the grammar correct. A good sentence structure never killed anyone.
Thanks Aaron
Comment by Keenan — December 3, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
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Since you brought it up, your grammar does suck. However, it's an easy thing to change. But, it's going to take work. I too paid little mind to grammar in my youth. That having been said, desire is key. You have to actively try and change your patterns. Sounds like you're taking the first step in having someone catch errors. The next step is seeing them yourself and course correcting while you're writing.
Let me point one out to you. You wrote, in the second paragraph, “It affects the readers experience.”. “Readers” should be possessive (Reader's), not plural.
One thing that I feel strongly about is that SMS, IM, Blogging…etc. are all contributing to the lack of proper grammar usage. Just like spell check has made us forget how to spell, grammar shortcuts are making us forget how to write.
Comment by southwellj — December 6, 2009 @ 10:28 am
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Since you brought it up, your grammar does suck. However, it's an easy thing to change. But, it's going to take work. I too paid little mind to grammar in my youth. That having been said, desire is key. You have to actively try and change your patterns. Sounds like you're taking the first step in having someone catch errors. The next step is seeing them yourself and course correcting while you're writing.
Let me point one out to you. You wrote, in the second paragraph, “It affects the readers experience.”. “Readers” should be possessive (Reader's), not plural.
One thing that I feel strongly about is that SMS, IM, Blogging…etc. are all contributing to the lack of proper grammar usage. Just like spell check has made us forget how to spell, grammar shortcuts are making us forget how to write.
Comment by southwellj — December 6, 2009 @ 5:28 pm