Day 15 of Thirty Days of Gratitude: A Blessing and a Curse

Today, as I head into my last day of in-the-office work with students for the semester, I am grateful that I learned proper grammar.

Maybe my favorite button, ever.

Bad grammar, punctuation errors, and the failure to proofread carefully drive me insane, which is unfortunate, because I teach writing and, often (way too often), I have to deal with all of these things.  

Knowing and caring about good grammar and punctuation is both a blessing and a curse.

On the one hand, I appreciate that I know proper grammar.  I like that I proofread everything carefully. I like that I can teach this skill to my children and my students.

On the other hand,* it is a curse sometimes.  I correct people's grammar when I watch TV.  I have corrected assignments or notes from my kids' school that have grammar or punctuation errors.  I have corrected signs at a resort we were staying at (much to Dear Husband's embarrassment) when there was an incorrect apostrophe used.  Those kinds of errors drive me nuts.

It frustrates me that the kids who are now my students didn't learn proper grammar.  Apparently - according to them - they weren't taught grammar because it wasn't tested on the standardized tests they had to take.  As one friend/former English teacher told me, it was assumed that the students would pick up grammar from reading.  In other words, learning by osmosis.

Learning by osmosis usually doesn't work (as anyone who had Mr. Wheat at White Station High School can attest).

I once had two students (in the same class) who thought "its'" was a word.  No, really.  Its'.  People, its' is not a word.  You can have "its" which means "belonging to it," or you can have "it's" which is a contraction of "it is."  Nothing else.  And I'm shocked by how many people over the age of 7 mess up "it's" and "its."

OK, this is not going to end in a rant.  I'm just going to leave it as: I'm thankful for proper grammar and my ability to recognize and use it.  

(I sincerely hope I had no grammar or punctuation errors in this blog post!)

Do you have a grammar or punctuation pet peeve?  Tell us about it.  I bet you are not alone.

Thanks for stopping by!

*Another one of my pet peeves is when someone says, "on the other hand," without first stating what happened "on the one hand."  I probably need grammar therapy or something.