Many people complain, about having to learn grammar and how, it is not important to everyday life.

Reading that sentence was difficult, wasn’t it? That is because there were commas in the wrong places. That is grammar. If a person spoke like that, I would wonder if there was something wrong with him or her.

Maybe it’s because my two majors are languages and I want to be an editor after graduation, but I just have to disagree with the idea that grammar isn’t important.
I edit for a history periodical and my job is to edit the papers that are sent in. Sometimes the papers are not good enough because the writer simply cannot get his or her point across well enough, but other times it’s because the writers do not understand how grammar functions.

Now, while grammar is very important for writing papers, it is also important in everyday life. If a person does not know how to properly form a sentence, he or she simply sounds unintelligent.

I have met people, in here in college who do not know the difference between “their,” “they’re” and “there.” And of course we’ve all seen the horrible “your” versus “you’re” internal debate that many people face.

Those words, while they sound similar, all have completely different meanings.

If a person says, “I’ll see you their,” I get confused. I think that he or she did not finish his or her sentence properly, and I’m wondering “their what?” Because “their” is a possessive,  like “your.”

Not knowing how certain words work simply confuses those who do.

There are also people out there who say “I did good” instead of “I did well.” I know, it is shocking.

It literally hurts my ears to hear phrases such as that, and the problem is, the person doesn’t know what he or she is doing wrong.

The fact that grammar is being taught less and less scares me quite a bit. It shows that our government truly does not care if we sound like we are the most uneducated people.

I am truly glad that Appalachian’s general education curriculum forces students to take an English class every year that they are here, and I am especially glad that they force a “writing in your discipline” section because it shows students why writing is pertinent to their specific field.

Hopefully this class will show students why they need to not only be educated, but be able to portray themselves as being educated.

Bookout, a sophomore French and English major from Charlotte, is a news reporter.