There is one thing I find on the boards that drives me up a wall.  When people use the term “could care less”.  If one “could” care less, there is less one could care.  The term is “couldn’t care less”.  That way there is no less one could care.   That being said, I think there is only one time I have gone into a thread and corrected someone. 

The other egregious grammar errors committed daily annoy me, but generally I just let them go.  I mean, does it really matter if someone uses “your” wrong, or uses  ”loose” instead of “lose”. 

This may make the grammar police mad at me, but I think we spend too much time correcting people’s quirks and less time hearing what they have to say.  I know it drives you crazy to see these mistakes.  But is that the mistake makers fault?  Isn’t it your issue?  Aren’t you allowing yourself to be made crazy?

It reminds me of my husband.  When we make the bed together, my side is neatly done, the corners are square, the pillows are piled neatly, and the bedspread is straight.  On his side, the corners are messy, the blanket is rumpled and the pillows are thrown about.  It drives me crazy! But who am I to correct him. It’s how he likes it.  It’s his side of the bed.  He can do with it what he wishes. 

He has other “quirks” that could drive me crazy if I let them.  Instead I just say, “That’s how he likes to do it”.  It’s the same with people who have bad grammar etiquette, poor spelling, and generally poor English skills.  Think of it as quirks. 

Allow people to make their quirky mistakes, listen to what they have to say, not how they say it.   Sit with that driven crazy feeling until it dissipates.  Comment on the content, not the grammar. 

I know what you’re going to say, “But they need to be taught the right way”.  That’s just not true.  We are all adults on this site.  If we want to learn, we know how to do that.  Force teaching doesn’t work.  The ones that need to be taught the most usually don’t want to be taught at all.  Don’t spend time on a losing battle.

It’s hard not to be driven crazy.  We are higher thinking beings, with higher thinking sensibilities.  It offends those sensibilities to come across lazy grammar.  You just have to remember, you are in charge of you being driven crazy.