The state of literacy in America today

So, allow me if you will, the opportunity to step up onto my soap box once again. This time, it's over one of my biggest pet peeves: grammar and spelling. Now, I'm not saying everything I write is perfect. I'm human to a large extent. However, these errors are generally attributed to pressing the wrong key than not knowing the correct way. And I was by no means the scholarly type in school. Far from it, actually. (note the horrific fragmentation of that sentence!) I'm still not really sure how I ever passed my English classes.

One of the worst (yet most frequently occurring) infractions on decent language stems from that fun little symbol we like to call the apostrophe. Used correctly, it can take two words, and combine them into one, compact, time-saving unit! Used incorrectly, however, it can send me from zero to annoyed in not much time at all. I'm still not sure how people have such a hard time with these. Granted, there are some cases that are not easily figured out. For the most part, however, it comes down to a few easy to remember rules. Rule one, apostrophes are used to make contractions and indicate possession. Rule 2, apostrophes are generally not used to pluralize. For example, this was taken from a sign in a restaurant. You can get 5 taco's for some amount of coinage. NO. You can get 5 tacos. Or, the outer part of the taco is the taco's shell. Note the difference. When making it plural, just add an 's'. It's as simple as that. When making it possessive, then you add the apostrophe and 's'. This is a general rule of thumb here. Not a difficult concept. Yet, I see so many people struggle with this everyday.

Alright, this has turned more into a lesson than I had originally intended. So I'll shift slightly to another aspect. People have a hard time with using the correct spelling of certain words. Too, your, and their are probably the three biggest offenders. Allow me to switch back into teacher mode again. To - We are going to the park. Too - It is too cold out to go to the park. Two - There two of us were going to the park, but it's too cold out. One down, two to go! (note the double t-words in that one, mee-oww!). Let's move on to the y-words. Your - I like your jacket. You're - I see that you're wearing your jacket. Yours - That car of yours is very nice. Your's - THIS WORD DOES NOT EXIST, STOP USING IT! And finally, we have the other t-word. Their - We are all chillin' on their porch. They're - While on the porch, they're drinking their beer. There - That's the porch we're talking about, right over there.

I'm back out of teacher mode now. I just felt the need to illustrate my point. And who knows, maybe I've helped someone along the way. I now relinquish my soap box. But beware, I'll be back to claim it again another day!