Those that argue for the importance of correct grammar and spelling argue that there are rules for communication that really aren't that hard to follow. They compare them to road rules, I suppose in an attempt to make us visualise the bloody death and carnage that would occur if even a small number of the population ignored those rules.
Oh how bloggers must wade through rivers of blood...
I suppose the analogy would be true if there were no road signs. If everyone were expected to know, and follow, every single rule. Rules that were more complicated and with more exceptions than an inner city parking sign. If some rules changed depending on who you spoke to. If some rules existed but everyone else "commonly" did something completely different.
Let's not introduce to the argument the differing rules of different countries thrown into our faces via the internet.
The analogy gets interesting if you could argue that the first four or so years of school were purely to teach the rules of driving...
I'm beginning to think that any argument that falls back to analogy mustn't be worth discussing. I fall back to analogy all the time.
It's fun.
I remember learning sentence structure rules somewhere around Year 4. I remember being very good at those rules. I couldn't tell you a single one of those rules now but I suspect that they're rules that I just "know" now.
Maybe I follow them now. Maybe I don't.
Any set of rules with a set of inconsistencies will find the power of the consistent rules diminished...
I after E except after C, mostly. Pluralize words ending in O by adding an S, mostly.
It's like saying the speed limit is 50kph, except for no reason at all on the following list of streets throughout Australia. Remember them, the streets aren't sign posted. You will learn via speeding tickets.
See, what did I tell you about analogy? Analogi? Analogimization?
In writing this and proofing it I discovered the following grammar issues in the first draft: "I'm fall back to analogy", "did something complete different".
These are the kind of errors I make all the time.
Do they mean I don't "care about the reader" as most grammar nazis argue? Do they mean I'm lazy? Probably.
I think being upset by them probably misses the point of blogging, and getting upset by them in printed news is forgetting the time scales involved, and their own demand for masses of instant information.
Getting upset in a novel you spent $30 on? A text book you spent $100 on?
You begin to win my agreement.
"Feeding The Future" appears to be a compilation of Australian artists the compiler thought worthy of pushing to whomever the audience of this promotional CD was.
To be honest, I bought it for the sole reason of adding it to my The Sharp website as it contains a The Sharp track.
However the track listing is a bit of a trip down memory lane to 1994.
I listened to the CD yesterday on the way to and from work and it was rubbish. I've vaguely embarrassed that someone thought these were the cream of whatever crop was around at the time. Even The Sharp song in this context sounded terrible.
Also, it appeared to have been deliberately "remastered" to remove any bass from the tracks. I don't believe production methods were so bad only 12 years ago, it must have been the mastering. Besides, I know how The Sharp track was supposed to sound, and it wasn't like that.
But of more interest were the artists. Of 18 tracks I recognised quite a few of them. I also recognised that every single artist I recognised is no longer in the music business, except one, Marcia Hines, judge for Australian Idol.
Most broke up in the 1990s: Chocolate Starfish, Ammonia, The Sharp, Defryme, Dragonfly, Tiddas, Def FX, Kulcha. Most of those artists barely made it to 1996, only a year or so after this compilation of artists.
Tiddas did well, appearing on the Powderfinger's huge album "Internationalist" but faded out not long after that. I remember seeing Def FX support the Smashing Pumpkins in March 1996 but they didn't last long after that.
I think Skunkhour made it to the '00s.
Richard Pleasance is still releasing albums but as more of a hobby than a full time job, which appears to be writing music for TV, including Sea Change.
Of the artists on a compilation entitled "Feeding The Future", only two out of 18 appeared to actually make it there.
That's kinda sad.