Sunday, January 23, 2011

Pleading Guilty to Grammarcide

Oh heavens. I operate a website with information for my students' parents. I enjoy it, and it thoroughly demonstrates my innate nerdiness. Anyhoo, I update it every Sunday morning and send parents a reminder email that it has been updated.

Now, I realize that since I teach grammar, people probably pay more attention to things I type than other people (as in, non-grammar teachers). Because of this, I attempt to pay super close attention to my grammar in communications with parents and other people who know or care.

This morning, as I sent out the "Website Updated" email, there was [gasp] a typo! I wrote, "There is a lot of new, important notices on the website." UGH! It causes me intense physical pain just to see it written again!

In my defense, I originally typed, "There is a lot of new, important information on the website." I tend to overuse the word "information" when I communicate with parents, so I thought I'd be cool and change it to "notices." (Yes, I am acutely aware of the fact that using the word "notices" does not, in fact, make me cool. Stay with me, people.)

Well, I didn't realize that I had MASS EMAILED A TYPO to all of my students' parents. [Insert another gasp here.] It really bothered me! So of course, I sent out another email:

"Yes, there is a typo in my last email. I'm usually so careful!" Then I go on to tell everyone what I intended to say at first, and I admit to forgetting to change the verb agreement. I close with, "Whoops - I know I teach your children grammar - please forgive!"

I'm not sure which is worse: committing the grammarcide in the first place, or sending an email to point it out and apologize in a rather pitiful way.

[Sigh] I guess I can't win 'em all...

Comma Queen

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