Grammatically Uncool

I have never been cool in the traditional sense. (Cool in the traditional sense?) I'm not hip. I'm not stylish. I'm a nerd and a bookworm. Square by nature as opposed to by choice. I resist change and frequently border on being a bit of a Luddite. I am proud of the fact that I know what a demonstrative pronoun is. I use snazzy words that tend to make the people around me wonder, and, due to the classical nature of aspects of my education, I am a firm believer in the rules of grammar and spelling. I must admit, however, that--as a fan of the creatively and effectively used sentence fragment--I am not saying that all rules should be obeyed all of the time.

Maybe the best way to say it is that I am a grammar snob and hypocrite. The rules exist for a reason and should be obeyed. Unless they are being broken in a way of which I approve.

The specific victim of this diatribe is urban slang in the form of deliberate misspelling, and my current (least) favorite example is "teh." To me it just looks as if the user can't spell "the," one of the most basic and popular words in the English language. If something is "teh suck," then it is terribly unpleasant. Teh suck. Say it out loud. It sounds like some sort of anatomical noise.

I feel the same way about the truncated language of text messaging. I am all in favor of acronyms and abbreviations, but "how ru" and "cu l8r" are not sentences. It doesn't even qualify as garbled. It's just nonsense.

Sure, go ahead and argue that the point of language is communication, and as long as the person to whom you are speaking understands what you are saying, who cares?

There is a big difference between simply getting a job done and doing a job well.