Despite the availability of numerous proofreading applications, written grammar is a skill many seem to struggle with. Does it really matter, though?Â
Is grammar a useful skill to have, or is it irrelevant? I can tell you this much: I’ve probably already made multiple grammatical errors in this article. In fact, I made one in the first sentence: ending a sentence with a preposition (like the word “with”) is grammatically incorrect. However, I assume that you all still understood what I meant. There are countless grammatical “rules” that are outdated or even archaic. In some ways, being grammatically correct can actually make phrases harder to understand. For example, traditionally, the word “he” is the preferred gender neutral pronoun, yet its designation as the only masculine pronoun and the increased usage of the word “they” as a gender neutral pronoun can cause confusion: nowadays, most people assume that the word “he” refers to a man or a boy. Despite continued discouragement by teachers, the use of gender neutral “they” is actually quite old–it can even be found in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
Having said this, I don’t mean that grammar is useless. Though the way we use language has changed (and will continue to change) to render certain rules meaningless, there are still certain guidelines that your writing should follow–especially under certain circumstances. Here are just a few situations in which spelling and grammar matter:
Applications/resumés
Any application material, be it for a scholarship or a job, will undergo a screening process. High-profile applications could be judged quite ruthlessly for poor spelling and grammar. In many cases, the general idea of a statement is decipherable regardless of a simple typo (like if I wrote “massage” instead of “message”); however, the message it sends to reviewers is that you didn’t proofread your application. It is important for employers and other authority figures to take you seriously if you want them to accept you, but poor spelling and grammar tells them that you don’t care.
Communicating with language learners
Grammar challenges native speakers of any given language–and even more so, learners. In Spanish, “la papa” (potato), “el papá” (dad), and “el papa” (pope) are classic examples of similar words that have different definitions depending on minor grammatical changes. As a 2nd language learner, I could easily miss context that would indicate the meaning of the word “papá” when the word actually used was “papa”. A misspelling (“bapa”, for instance) might have me wondering what that word means. Though I can’t speak for English learners, I can imagine a similar situation in English with apostrophes; native English speakers know that “theyre” is not a word and that the desired term is “they’re”, but a learner might not know that, especially considering that “its” and “it’s” are both words. Consistency and accuracy help learners grasp meaning and context.
Scientific/medical documents
In medicine, spelling errors could result in serious injury. In 2011, for example, the FDA released a report that confusion between Durasal, a topical wart remover, and Durezol, an eye drop, resulted in at least one serious injury. This kind of mistake is not limited to these drugs, either; there are key differences between chemical compounds ending in -ite and those with the suffix -ate. Though these mix-ups could be attributed to other factors, such as doctors’ handwriting or other misunderstanding, they demonstrate the importance of proofreading and other communication-related specifications.
Grammar is neither absolute nor obsolete–it is not always necessary for effective communication, but it does serve a meaningful linguistic purpose that reciprocates communication patterns. Knowing how and when to use certain spellings and grammatical structures can seriously hurt or help you, so always make sure to proofread when it counts.