Obsessed with Grammar

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I'm really obessed with grammer and writing. Because I'm a novelist. Since you can tell that I like writing a lot and getting to the vet. stat as I have. It great to be a writer. I love it.

Good grammar makes me happy. Bad grammar makes me go into "BARRACUDA ANGRY! BARRACUDA SMASH!" mode. I need not remind you of this. I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with it, especially since I also 5[?34|< 1337.

It irritates me so much when I see incorrect written grammar. When people use apostrophes in the wrong places, it really irritates me. When they might write 'book's' instead of 'books'. It's quite surprising how many people in my form at school do this, and it's a grammar school too
I don't know why it annoys me. And also the 'their, there, they are' mistakes also annoy me. I also capitalise letters in the right places wherever possible. It just isn't right otherwise.
Spoken incorrect grammar doesn't bother me as much. The people around me that I see every day, speak properly, maybe with the occasional 'ain't' but I won't berate them for it.

But I am terrible with commas. I put commas everywhere because I think that if my writing is separated, then it makes more sense. Bad habit.

Clara, you have reminded me of probably my strongest pet hate - incorrect apostrophe usage. It drives me INSANE when letters come home from schools (my siblings and I currently attend three between us) and ... GRRR! THEY ALL SHOULD EITHER HIRE PROOF-READERS, OR FIRE ANY EXISTING ONES! And should replace them with proof-readers who can spell, phrase things properly, and Punctuate - PARTICULARLY use apostrophes correctly. I mean, for goodness' sake, if the teachers can't do it properly then how can we expect them to teach us the relevant grammatical rules properly? (And yes, the letters do come from English teachers. Not necessarily specialist English teachers, but there is no excuse.)

I check my own writing and speech, but I try to ignore the errors other people make.
I want my writing to be articulate and proper so I mercilessly scrutinize my own words, still, I make mistakes. If I can understand a person in spite of their mistakes I won't bother to correct them, so as not to annoy them.

Ironically, this thread contains numerous errors.

Sentence fragments? Marginally acceptable. In casual speech of course.

I hate people who misspell, mispronounce, make grammar mistakes etc. I find it so easy to make it right, that I simply can't tolerate slobby people uninterested in using a correct language and grammar.

I always carry a permanent marker to correct the apostrophe errors on advertising posters on the train. I go into a berserker rage when I see inappropriate apostrophes on professional signs and businesses: "You paid hundreds of dollars for a sign and YOU DIDN'T EVEN PROOFREAD IT!"

There is a local tattoo and piercing shop which advertises, in foot-high letters on the front, "TATTOO'S." It makes me crazy.

Sometimes bad grammar, punctuation, etc. bother me, but I usually just think it's hilarious, especially when it alters the meaning of what is said. I love it when people misuse quotation marks on signs in stores. "Fresh" apples. Hehehehe. I think lots of people must think that quotation marks denote emphasis, rather than sarcasm. I also love engrish.com. You should check it out, if you haven't already.

Has anyone read the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves?" It is a great example of the importance of proper punctuation.

From the book:

Pandas: eats shoots and leaves. << eats shoots and leaves from plants.

vs

Pandas: eats, shoots and leaves. << eats, shoots someone, then leaves.

I also dislike people misspelling Latin terms, or when they completely mangle non-English words. It's the Internet age, why can't people plug their word into dictionary.com? Seeing "etc" spelt as "ect" annoys me, or "per se" being spelt as "per say" or worse, "perse".

The WORST one for me is "voila" being spelt as "vollah!" or "wallah". Wallah?! If you're not sure of the spelling of a word, DON'T USE IT.

I think the main problem is that the education system isn't as vigorous as teaching grammar and spelling as in the past. I've noticed that the misuse of apostrophes has risen over the years, to the point where I can guarantee that I will see at least one apostrophe misuse on a public sign a day.

"Wallah" is Arabic and means "hello" or "howdy" or something like that i think.

I'm rather obsessed with grammar too. My family members know to come to me if they need something proofread; I'll do it just because I can't stand boneheaded errors. Just today I was at a thrift store, and a shelf of appliances had a sign that said "Items sold as is". I pointed out to my mother that it should read "Items sold as are". Or for that matter, "Items sold as they are".

Part of the reason one of my dreamjobs would be proofreading.

Well, i guess im also "obsessed" with grammar and spelling.

Clara and Musical_Lottie: Why don't we be the Three Musketeers of Correct Apostrophe Use???

Really, I cringe when I see a sign by the side of the road that says: "Kitty's 4 Sale"

I also get very irritated when reading a publication and detect a typo. I can only think of the number of people it took to write, re-write, EDIT, SPELLCHECK, and EDIT SOME MORE, only to let it slip by!! !!

I'm not too fussy about sentence structure, but I am a fanatic about spelling, contractions and proper usage of the apostrophe.

"Your not going to belief this! Me and Momo are going out tonight! And, for all intensive purposes, its gonna be fo sho!"

Bad grammar roils my mind! Until recently, ebonics and very hickish southern accents were so confusing to me that they sounded like white noise. For a time, I feared that poorly written prose would damage my own writing style, so I avoided books written in anything other than the writing style exhibited in Mary Shelley's Frankestein, at all cost! That meant no self-help books, of course.
My good ability at writing English prose and fiction, something at which Asperger's sufferers supposedly have great difficulty, has been one of the things that invokes my concern about whether I, in fact, do not have Asperger's but instead have, at the very least, a really shy personality, or, at the very most, bipolar disorder or Schizoid personality disorder.