"I judge you when you use poor grammar"

There is a Facebook group called "I judge you when you use poor grammar." It irks me. Although it is supposed to be a joke, I know the people who are in the group actually do judge people for grammar. One can improve their grammar and writing, and I work with my students all the time to help them with this. I also get corrected by colleagues; I love them, but it makes me very frustrated. I do believe that all people make grammatical errors, and to judge, or comment on, a person for their grammatical mistakes is ridiculous. In teaching, I see there are many, many reasons someone might make grammatical errors (learning disabilities, types of intelligences, ESL, certain academic strengths, weak elementary school focus on grammar, speed, colloquialisms, basic human error), and none of them worry me. We are all works in progress. To me, it is the content of what someone is saying, not the comma or spelling. So, really, I want to make a Facebook group that says "I don't judge your grammar; I judge idiocy."

Well, this rambling is to apologize for my grammatical errors, and there are many. Blogger does not have a good spell check, and I have a propensity for flipping then/than, except/accept, effect/affect. I re-read each entry twice, and try to read it again after publishing. But, as you can see, that does not guarantee perfection. I wanted this blog to be about a love for healthy food, and not repeating the hours of meticulous academic writing which I must complete for my PhD program. I wanted this to be fun, and not for me to be afraid of the grammar fascists. I wanted to share with the friends and family who often ask for recipes. Luckily, I married one of those meticulous grammar people, and he will now run a quick eye over the entries to appease those of you who are writing structuralists. Us idea people? We will go cook a good meal, while you grammar judges focus on the minutia.