"Your dumb" You're*

This will be much less of an empirical post and more of a logic-fueled opinion. I believe the logic I've developed is sound--the points are inspired and backed by psychological facts--and the topic is one in which we are all familiar.

Consider the following scenario: Two people voicing their differing opinions on a social media site or some other internet forum that allows back and forth conversation. Their arguments are as follows:

Girl: "Helvetica is the superior font. It's much more formal, yet still accessible than Times New Roman and its bland style."

Dude: "No way times is way better its more widely used then any other font and its classic."

Upon close inspection of each person's opinion, whom are you more inclined to agree with: Girl or Dude? Who sounded more believable and convincing in their argument?

I'm going to go ahead and guess that most of you thought that Girl was more coercive. Why is that?

The short answer: credibility. Many things go into making someone sound persuasive when they argue--attractiveness, confidence in what their saying, how fast they say it--and the effectiveness of these techniques heighten on trivial issues, such as font styles, where people are more likely to take a neutral stance, not vehemently supporting or opposing the issue. Among such factors, credibility stands at the forefront.

The term credibility, admittedly, is a bit all-inclusive. I guess what I mean is that one who has credibility is perceived as both an expert on the topic and trustworthy: a reliable, accurate source of information related to the issue at hand. This seems pretty obvious when you think about it. Whom would you more easily believe concerning an explanation of the Theory of Relativity, a tenured physics professor or an undergrad physics major?

I would take whatever this cat has to say about chemistry with a grain of salt.

Circling back to the above scenario, we perceive Girl as more credible than Dude because she wrote in articulate, properly grammatical sentences whereas Dude rambled on without punctuation and made some errors when typing. Those errors make Dude look like someone who doesn't know what he's talking about; he loses his credibility when he displays his grammatical ineptitude. I mean, the guy can't differentiate between "its" and "it's" so why should we take his endorsement of Times New Roman seriously?

I see stuff like this all the time on Twitter and Reddit. Spelling errors, misuse of words, incorrect apostrophes, complete absence of any and all punctuation and/or sentence structure...I forgive most of it but sometimes the transgressions are enough to make me cringe. I don't have Facebook but if I did, I'm sure I'd see more of the same.

"But, Seth, who cares about all that grammar stuff? If you understand what the Tweet means, the other things don't matter since the point got across to you." True, I (and I'm sure most other people) do understand what people are trying to say in most instances, but as I've alluded to before, one's point becomes stronger and more infallible when one uses proper English. I'm much less likely to side with someone who doesn't seem to understand the differences between "their", "there" and "they're", "your" and "you're", "lie" and "lay", etc. If you want me to buy into what you're saying, you must appear to me as knowledgeable and competent.


Not only do these sorts of syntactical errors make one less believable, they also detract from one's intended effect, whether it be a call for social reform, an attempt at humor, or a compliment to another person. The comment loses its impact if it contains mistakes. If this post were riddled with errors, would you be tuned in to my message or instead distracted by my slip-ups?

Think we've all been there at some point.

As an aside, I highly recommend doing your research before making a point. Misuse of statistics, misinterpretations of situations, incorrectly using terms and other such deficiencies make one sound uneducated. (Although, I am guilty of this sometimes--I jump into arguments armed with nothing but logic and lose...not advisable.)

Such behavior is incredibly easy to fix, too, especially in the days of Google and autocorrect/suggested spelling. Before you hit "Submit" on that email/text/Tweet/comment/what-have-you, take a few seconds to proofread what you have and make sure you don't sound like a bumbling buffoon who couldn't pass a sixth grade English test and maybe double-check to make sure you used the word "accretion" correctly.

Does this mean I condone of others who actively correct people on Twitter and Facebook? Do I praise the "pedants" that riddle the internet, uplifting them as paragons and educators of the digital age? Uh, no. I find such behavior quite annoying and petty. Reluctantly, I admit I used to be that guy; in middle school I had a habit of correcting people's English during conversations, quickly learning that my behavior was not conducive to earning friendships...

Every once in a while, though, I will correct someone on Twitter. In these instances it looks to me like the person who erred doesn't realize what they did, so I endeavor to educate them, filling them in on the correct usage or the obscure grammatical law so they understand what they did wrong and learn from their mistake, hopefully preventing them from looking like an ass in an email to their professor or boss down the road. I am in no way a grammatical expert, but twenty-one years of being mothered by an English teacher has had unintended benefits. And I recognize that we all make mistakes (including myself), but there is a definite difference between "mistake-prone" and "negligent".

So consider this post a friendly word of advice: If you want to make a good impression, be persuasive, sound knowledgeable, or make someone laugh, ensure the statements you are making are both semantically and syntactically accurate in order to maximize your intended effect, that is, proofread your stuff before you submit it so people take you seriously... lol amirite? k cool ttyl! XD

Thanks again for reading...I thoroughly enjoy blogging...