I rattled around a lot in college; unsure of what I really wanted to do. I ultimately settled on a major that made me into a radio/television engineer. I was really at a loss when forced to select a minor until my adviser noticed that I already had enough English credits (I loved English classes) to complete a minor. So, I became the very odd combination of an Engineering major and English minor.
Geeky Engineering majors had a reputation for carrying calculators, wearing pocket protectors and being rather retentive about certain things. English majors had a reputation for wearing tweed jackets with patches on the elbows, having a pipe and being rather carefree and laid back. Everyone was convinced that I was off my rocker trying to merge such divergent interests. They were probably correct.
Let's just say I fit solidly into one camp and really didn't belong in the other. Somehow, though, I had to live in both worlds. The end result proved to be great for my career because I work in a position where I have to understand extremely complex technical processes; yet discuss them in a manner that is understandable by non-Engineers.
Basically, I suppose I am a geek. I'm a geeky engineering type and I'm a geeky engineering type who has an English minor. This comes through clearly in my rather long list of pet peeves.
My rather geeky nature causes me to go bonkers when things are not done properly and in order. One of the worst offenders is people who do not know - or just choose to ignore - the basic rules of grammar.
Like when to use to versus too or two.
How about they're versus their or there?
Or your versus you're?
Or then versus than?
Or when to use me versus I?
Or when to use him/her versus he/she, or who versus whom?
The list goes on forever!
I'm an English Geek. This stuff just grates on me!!!
Come on, people!! You could not have passed third grade English without displaying at least a rudimentary understanding of word usage. It simply isn't that hard to grasp!!
The explosion of instant communication technology has further driven an entire generation to seemingly forget all of the basic rules of sentence structure in the interest of unreadable brevity!
Many schools don't even require students to diagram sentences any more!!! Is it any surprise, then, that people claim to be "good" when they should be "well," or that they don't understand that horizontal is an adjective and horizontally is an adverb and they should be used appropriately?
You would expect professional communicators to be better than society at large, but that's simply not the case, either. Perhaps one of the reasons I despise football is that I can't stand listening to the broadcasters. Football broadcasters constantly speak in the passive voice. How many times have you heard them say, "The (insert your favorite team here) have the ball on the (insert the enemy's team here) 35?" Never!!! They always speak in the passive voice and say, "The (your team) have the ball on the 35 of the (their team)."
Really????
Maybe you've never noticed that before.
You will from now on and it will drive nuts if you have a love for the beauty and structure of the English language !
There is no way a sportscaster could have passed English 101 with that sentence structure; yet it's pervasive in broadcasting.
I know that I drive my family nuts with my grammar rants, but I just can't help myself. We have a beautiful language and it should be spoken correctly. I admit that my overall geekiness is a major factor in my attitudes about the language.
I actually read the entire owner's manual that comes with any product - including a car. I do this because it is important to understand the proper use and function of whatever product the manual covers. Why then should it be any surprise that I also think it is important to understand the proper use and function of our beautiful language?
An English Geek is a dangerous combination.
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