The Internet: Window to Awful Grammar

How many of you have gone onto Youtube, watched a video and found yourself reading the comments attached to that video long after what you were watching is over? It happens to me all the time, and every time, I get a throbbing headache (figuratively, of course). I think the most irritating thing about grammar failure is the misuse of your and you're. This happens all the time on the Internet. It has gotten to the point to where I will post a status update of FB reminding all who see my page that your is possessive, and you're is a contraction for you are. Now don't get me wrong, using "u" to represent "you," and "2" to represent anything but the number is highly aggravating, but I let it slide because it is kind of cute (yeah right).

After reading this week's lesson, I feel like I've been refreshed on my comma usage. I have a tendency to write like William Shatner spoke on Start Trek. Commas, put, everywhere. Commas are used to represent detail (appositive), join two independent clauses, and link two dependent clauses with a conjunction. Thank you, commas. You have made making lists easy to read, but also wrecked many papers I have written.

Next time you're on Youtube, go read the comments. These people get into the worst arguments (some, no doubt, have led to fist-fights). Anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, profanity, and other arguments run rampant through cyber-space with blatant disregard for basic rules of grammar and spelling.

Come on people. If you're going to tell someone how much they suck, at least have the common decency to put commas where they need to go, eliminate run-ons and sentence fragments, and be able to use the correct form or your (or you're). You would still be the same socially offensive, pretentious person, but at least you would seem educated.