On the Merits of Proofreading
I'm going to take a few moments away from ClueChick's excellent advice on content to say something about style. Specifically, on the importance of writing with good use of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Now, I'll admit right off the bat that I'm a grammar snob. I raise my eyebrows at misuse of "who" and "whom", and misplaced apostrophes really make me lose my appetite for love. But that isn't what I'm here to talk about. Not every net.slut cringes when someone says "your so hot". But I bet they all cringe when they get a message that screams "I couldn't even be bothered to take a few seconds to proofread my message!"
Let's look at some examples:
"u can email me at [...] i usually do not find unies and lingere sexy but your bosy suit is ok..." etc. (It got me pretty hot to be told my look is "ok" but that's a rant for another day)
"Ur are an interesting personality...I can't beliee wee match in our intrests.. I certainly like to fuck you hard as I can.....rip those clothes on..and taste that sweet pussy of urs...inf interested let me know..."
Now first, I think lots of women who aren't grammar snobs think "u r 2 hot" kind of writing is eyerollworthy. But let's move on to "unies" "beliee" and "bosy" (which took me several seconds until I realized he was talking about the body suit I was wearing in the pic.) What do these tell me other than the fact that he didn't consider me worth to effort to care about his first impression, to take the few seconds it would take to fix stupid errors. If he thinks "casual" means "not worth any effort" I'm not anticipating his sexual skills to be up to par either.
Oh, and please avoided the dreaded run-on sentence and upper case letters (WHICH ARE SHOUTING!)
"i love to please so cum and let me please you 29 years old 5'9" big love sex especially oral sex so if you want a man who enjoys taking his time to really get you off as much as possible then get in touch thick headed uncut cock"
"LOVE YOUR PICS YOUR JUST MY TYPE..I CAN MAKE YOU CUM AS MCH AS U WANT..CALL ME [...] OR IM [...] CANT WAIT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MY BIG COCK"
Really, do these guys expect me to want to MEET them???
- Sapiophile
Comments
What? No ripping on ripping your clothes on?
Posted by: Too Clever by 48% | January 30, 2006 11:35 PM
Man, you should see if CC will share the limelight with you when she gets back. I think you two are both great writers.
Posted by: Lisa | January 30, 2006 11:51 PM
The sad thing is, you already know the answer to that question. Le sigh.
(Excellent work so far on filling ClueChick's shoes, as it were!)
Posted by: GreyDuck | January 31, 2006 1:01 AM
What? No ripping on ripping your clothes on?
If I had gone through point by point and ripped everything rippable in those sample responses, this post would been a dissertation!
Posted by: sapiophile | January 31, 2006 9:51 AM
My housemate, while on her computer in her bedroom next door to mine, once yelled over, "am I a bad person for not wanting to sleep with this guy because his grammar is so bad?"
P.S. "please avoided the dreaded run-on sentence"
Posted by: Cos | January 31, 2006 9:44 PM