I have thought about just why such things as comma splices committed by writers who expect to be paid for their writing irk me so. It all comes down to their sheer laziness and lack of respect for their readers. They appear to be either too lazy to either use a semi-colon or a conjunction (or, in many cases the better option, a simple period followed by a new sentence), or they are and have been too lazy to learn rather simple standards of orthography. Either way, it shows a lack of respect for any reader with at least a fifth grade reading level. *shrugs* Is it too much to expect someone who wants to be paid for his work to take the trouble to do it right?
And yeh, this holds for the lazy, disrespectful habits of some wannabe writers (and, admittedly, some well-established writers *sigh*) who have never bothered to become literate enough to know they are misusing words/terms, committing asinine grammar errors, irredeemably stupid failures to do their research on facts (or the math on their “research” or whatever), and all sorts of other completely unnecessary stupidities that distract from whatever they are attempting to convey, whether that is a research paper, a “news” story, an opinion piece, or a novel. If they want to be paid for their work, they should actually do the work.
Sterling #gagamaggot example from. . . just now: a writer with a character whose first person narrative presents him as exceptionally literate, former English teacher, Deep Thinker, always spouting “erudite” quotations, etc. CONSTANTLY committing egregious grammar errors, misusing words, and more. Kills suspension of disbelief.
In my opinion, any writer that wants to describe the (yes, I know it’s redundant to say it this way) inner mental state of an “exceptionally literate, . . . Deep Thinker . . .” needs to be one himself, or the world will soon know.
Or at least the part of the world that cares will. The rest will expect the New York Times to list their work as a best seller.
A problem similar to writing literate characters is writing “genius” characters, Perri. Quite often writers who write characters who are presented as exceptionally bright reveal that they are exploring a land they are unfamiliar with, as it were. Heck, if a “brilliant” character is described as doing “brilliant things” ad having “brilliant insights” that eve I ca see are plainly pedestrian, the writer should never have picked up pen (or computer) to write.
By the way, I failed High School English because I was too lazy to do the work. I still struggle with it every day. But I think I might barely be able to pass now.
The only things I found interesting about English classes in HS were writing papers and (freshman year) a review of diagramming sentences. That last was fun for me. *shrugs* Different strokes. My grasp of English is mostly due to conversations with people smarter and more learned than I am, and reading text written by literate writers. Methinks thou hast learned well the lessons taught by others in similar fashion.
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BTW, it was the KJV that taught me that more complete information is conveyed by “thee” and “thou” than by the now much more common “you.”