Why Does Grammar Matter?

I won't lie: the fact that this is asked makes me clutch my pearls. It's like walking up to a singer and asking "Why does pitch matter?" (Don't do this. This is how you get beaten to death with an instrument.) Grammar is the skeletal structure of a language. Just like removing all the bones in a human makes them a lame pile of goo that doesn't function very well, removing grammar from language gives you Youtube and 9gag commenters.


Grammar Can Go Die, Because I still Don't Care:

You need to.

Would you be reading this if it were written like totes whatever, you. This weirdly what rules for.

No. And writing that made my brain hurt, so I hope I never ever have to do that again.

Grammar and punctuation make you--

--Pause and pick a sentence back up! And be excited about it!

Ask questions?

Trail off....

Insert, a pause, just because, squiggy lines.

Show. Emphasis.


Written communication is everything, and that's why grammar matters. It's a job/college/grad school/med school/scholarship application/grant skill that makes the difference between being at the top of the stack and being shredded. And things like run-on sentences (one next week's rant blog topics) are a huge tip off that you probably don't have the education you need. Grammar makes us clear, concise, and easy to understand. You know those people who are really awful public speakers (the ones like Miss Modifier). The type who breaks off and stutters and has false starts and changes topics all the time? Annoying, yes?

Bad grammar makes for reading experiences like those speakers. And the worst part is that they may have great content to deliver. They may have built a car that goes faster than the speed of light for all you know. But because no one knows what the hell they're trying to say, no one cares. I've had classmates with good essay topics receive failing grades because the professor didn't know what the hell they were trying to say. Because that's the thing that's becoming even more predominant in today's micro-attention world: if you don't get their attention in the beginning, you never will.