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In a social or informal context, most could not care less about linguistic correctness. On the other hand, in a professional context, presentation is highly rel

In a social or informal context, most could not care less about linguistic correctness. On the other hand, in a professional context, presentation is highly relevant. The specific details of sentence structure are not important, the point is that it generally indicates a persons attention to detail and ability to communicate effectively.

jdale27 11y ago
the point is that it generally indicates a persons attention to detail That should be "a person's attention to detail". Sorry, I could not resist... ;) Sincerely, your local introverted grammar Nazi
plainOldText 11y ago
Someone who communicates effectively is definitely paying attention to sentence structure. One's writing can be regarded as a manifestation of one's model of the world. Writing riddled with grammatical errors, incorrect sentence structures and incomplete punctuation indicate an overly simplistic model. A more detailed model yields more predictive power, at the expense of extra brain cycles. If one cannot differentiate between "your" and "you're" I'm pretty sure that person is running a slower "CPU".
gracenotes 11y ago
One of the most important things in "professional" writing, which includes technical writing, is clarity. Sticking to a style in that context is important because you shouldn't draw attention away from what you're saying to how you're saying it. The same thing is true of code style, where I think style guides really do improve productivity in codebases touched by multiple people. As you mention, you could also see specific usage patterns as shows of "professionalism" (again in quotes... it's a word that I think should be used carefully re systemic biases). But it's perhaps a little reductionist to view informal contexts as not-caring-about-correctness at one end and professional contexts as caring, because there are many aspects of communication in both that are "incorrect" for different reasons. Usage patterns in work environments are not strictly more correct, then. As the article proposes, being bothered by ungrammatical language is more often just an issue of sensitivity to stimuli. At least in conversations, those of us with the good sense to be descriptivists can hopefully tell when additional clarity would be helpful and when it's just putting other people down to try to look smart.
deleted 11y ago
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jdale27 11y ago

the point is that it generally indicates a persons attention to detail That should be "a person's attention to detail". Sorry, I could not resist... ;) Sincerely, your local introverted grammar Nazi

plainOldText 11y ago

Someone who communicates effectively is definitely paying attention to sentence structure. One's writing can be regarded as a manifestation of one's model of the world. Writing riddled with grammatical errors, incorrect sentence structures and incomplete punctuation indicate an overly simplistic model. A more detailed model yields more predictive power, at the expense of extra brain cycles. If one cannot differentiate between "your" and "you're" I'm pretty sure that person is running a slower "CPU".

gracenotes 11y ago

One of the most important things in "professional" writing, which includes technical writing, is clarity. Sticking to a style in that context is important because you shouldn't draw attention away from what you're saying to how you're saying it. The same thing is true of code style, where I think style guides really do improve productivity in codebases touched by multiple people. As you mention, you could also see specific usage patterns as shows of "professionalism" (again in quotes... it's a word that I think should be used carefully re systemic biases). But it's perhaps a little reductionist to view informal contexts as not-caring-about-correctness at one end and professional contexts as caring, because there are many aspects of communication in both that are "incorrect" for different reasons. Usage patterns in work environments are not strictly more correct, then. As the article proposes, being bothered by ungrammatical language is more often just an issue of sensitivity to stimuli. At least in conversations, those of us with the good sense to be descriptivists can hopefully tell when additional clarity would be helpful and when it's just putting other people down to try to look smart.

deleted 11y ago

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