Like your older son, after I married into the military, my active duty husband would correct my grammar. However, unlike your son, I would not be offended; quite the contrary. I didn’t realize I was using double negs, improperly placed pronouns,incorrect adverbs and mixing present and past tenses. Fortunately, spelling was NEVER an issue.

This was a clear indicator that I hadn’t made the effort to retain what I learned in my 12th grade English class. I later found out it was because I was ADD. So, whenever my husband corrected me, I made sure to remember to use it correctly. This was 28 years ago. To this day, I still remember those lessons.

I have two kids; both have a college education. I find it interesting that now and then they use incorrect grammar and correct them on it. I get the “Mom, I don’t worry about how I write when I am on Instant Messaging” talk-down. Yes, it’s definitely the texting generation we’re dealing with.

I take immense appreciation and pleasure that I’ve continued to educate myself, despite the lack of a college degree. Everyday for me it’s a learning experience. I make sure to remind my kids that education continues even after college graduation.

What I have trouble with though, are those that try to sell on line and ask people to critique their stores and when you mention their very poor spelling, grammar, writing skills they take great offense and state that it doesn’t matter. As far as they are concerned no one coming to their store will judge them based on how they have written their descriptions of the items they want to sell. I beg to differ with that thought. I think they are just too lazy to try or to get help. Unfortunately you can’t convince them and they go on wondering why no one buys from them. Granted even the biggest on line corporations have mispellings, etc. sneak into their presentations but they know that it is imperative to write well to garner customers. We have a lot of basically illiterate people coming down the pike and those that have a good command of the English language (or whatever their native tongue is) will be miles ahead of the pack when raises and promotions are handed out. I have even seen machine embroidery designs with phrases in them that are up for sale mis-spelled!

The other day I suggested that my one son start an online business of proofreading others websties and blogs as he is such a good speller and very good at catching the mistakes in grammar. Those who care about such things I would think would be happy to pay a free lance editor to help them out.

For this reason (and no other) an impressive vocabulary and grammatical coherence matter. In certain environments one will garner favor by communicating in the classical “correct” and “eloquent” way. In other situations, it can be a net negative.

I would gently correct the older son just so he knows the deal, but his knack for the vernacular might serve him well.

However, being bi- or tri-lingual is also handy. Text talk lets you write more in the same time. And other variants can help tie you to others.

I have recently decided that the correlation is not as high as I had first believed.

What I eventually decided, though, was that if I could be fooled into believing that, so could others.

Therefore, as parents of three, my wife and I have decided that with effective communication skills, our children be perceived to be better thinkers than they are!

My kids are all pretty sharp, and will be fine in the world. However, they’ll be selling themselves in this world just like the rest of us.

Truth be told, I didn’t mind in the least because the ending report was tight, concise, grammatical and so clear that an idiot could understand it. For anyone who’s had to deal with an instruction book that isn’t, the value is self-evident.

One of the handiest little books I ever read, which I’ve subsequently given to a number of subordinates, is Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style”. Nice, humorous refresher course on the stuff that tends to drive us crazy.

Like it or not, we are judged based on how we speak and write. I’ve tossed resumes in the “no” pile because of bad grammar. If you can’t pay attention to spelling and grammar in something as important as a resume (first impression), chances are pretty good you won’t pay attention to the details in your job… and my people had a lot of details in their daily responsibilities.

Extensive vocabularies are nice (and help in the effort to be clear and concise), but grammar is a must.