3 ms·

I disagree. Clarity was hurt. This title suggests multiple schools "out", which doesn't make a lot of sense (did the schools band together to out their gay frie

I disagree. Clarity was hurt. This title suggests multiple schools "out", which doesn't make a lot of sense (did the schools band together to out their gay friend? Or a corrupt politician?). Yes, obviously I can figure out what he meant. But there's a jarring half-second of confusion that disrupts my thinking, slows down my reading, and distracts me from what is being communicated. I'm not rabid about grammar - the rules should be a bit malleable, depending on context. But most grammar exists so that we can understand each other. If you have poor grammar, I will have a harder time understanding you and we will have a harder time working together. In fact, I will be less likely to want to talk to you, because I could instead be talking to people with good grammar, and when I talk to them I don't have to pause for those cognitive potholes where I have to puzzle out what they're trying to say.

mmt 17y ago
But there's a jarring half-second of confusion that disrupts my thinking, slows down my reading, and distracts me from what is being communicated. I would suggest that it's your literalism (or, perhaps, if not grammar rabies, then at least excessive focus on it) that's the issue here, not the presence or absence of a punctuation mark in a transliteration of a song lyric. The author may be guilty of not being conservative in what he sends, but your guilt, in not being liberal in what you accept, is, to me, much clearer.