Page 20 - ELG1709 Agu-Sep Issue 450

FEATURES & COMMENT
Better to educate than to berate: The personality

‘tone matters’ for grammar police of nitpickers

THE TREND for grammar nitpicking is there’s toilet paper on your shoe, wouldn’t THE WAY you react to other people’s
seen everywhere. It is shown in the growing you? You should want someone to tell you grammar and spelling mistakes may reveal
popularity of grammar-focused Facebook when you’re using the wrong form of your/ something about your personality, according
accounts such as The Grammar Police. you’re or to/too/two,’ said Emily Abshire, a to a recent study.
And what else would explain the market frequent user of social media. Researchers asked participants to read
value for software programmes such as Abshire admits that, while it could come email responses to a housemate advert that
Grammarly, which claims to help its current over as condescending and rude, she would either contained no errors or included typos
6.9 million subscribers make ‘clear, mistake- rather people learn from their mistakes than or homophonous grammar errors (to/too/
free and impactful’ messages, documents and keep making the same ones unknowingly. two).
social media posts? Participants then completed a
Rachel Magargle, creator of The Grammar questionnaire about how they perceived the
Police Facebook account, started the page writers of the emails, including questions
in 2010 because of her strong interest in such as ‘Do they seem friendly?’ and ‘Do they
grammar. The account gained massive seem conscientious?’
popularity within its first year. The 83 English native-speaker participants
It currently has roughly 145,000 likes also filled out a questionnaire to assess their
and followers on Facebook and sells its own own personalities.
merchandise. Once known for mocking Authors Julie Boland and Robin Queen,
people who use incorrect grammar, it has from the University of Michigan, found that
since shifted to sharing educational memes, more introverted people tended to think less
jokes and other content about ‘correct’ of their prospective housemate because of
grammar. their typos.
‘Tone matters. It’s possible to correct More extroverted characters didn’t care so
someone gently, to educate them instead of much about the mistakes.
berate them for a mistake,’ says Magargle. ‘If you’re an introvert, you are likely to
‘You need to be careful correcting someone care more about variability and therefore pay
over the internet because the tone in which more attention to mistakes such as spelling
you intended to write and the tone that your “hte” instead of “the”,’ explained McQueen
audience read could be completely different.’ in an interview.
For some social media users, pointing out n See study ‘If you’re house is still available,
misspellings and bad grammar usage is a type send me an email: personality influences
of social responsibility. reactions to written errors in email messages,’
‘You would want someone to tell you Boland and Queen, University of Michigan

editorial@elgazette.com 19

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