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One of my more frequent criticisms I receive on the internet is how I use proper grammar and a particular stylistic choice when typing my words. I still remember when people online used to bitch and moan about how someone didn't spell properly. It would appear you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Caught Red-Handed?
Since the advent of AI programs and services, the latest accusation against me is that I'm using AI to write my content. Whether it's blog content or just a few lines of text in a chat messenger of my choice, all my output is natural, organic.
Implying or even suggesting that I'm using AI to create my content is quite insulting to me—especially since I actually put the effort and work into creating it, unlike so many who just copy others' content.
Polished Versus Standard
You may have noticed that all of my content is polished. I could just use a few commas and be done with it, as long as they are properly placed and serve to add clarity and flow. However, sometimes, when I talk—much like when I speak verbally—people occasionally misinterpret what I'm saying.
So, to help myself out and get around such failures of communication, I will use semicolons and other special characters or symbols to emphasize what I’m really getting at. In my mind, this is to make my intentions crystal clear and leave very little room for misunderstanding.
Unfortunately, I am still sometimes misinterpreted. But that’s less to do with me and more to do with how others decode information presented to them. It’s still irritating, especially if the other person is biased or has an agenda, so they can't see past the trees—so to speak.
Detention Showed Me The Way
This may come as a complete and total shock to those who know me—said nobody ever! I spent a lot of time in detention during my academic career, such as it was. Part of this punishment was standing at a chalkboard, writing in cursive and using proper sentence structure.
Whether after school or during school, I spent hours upon hours writing the same lines over and over again at my teacher’s behest. She was from England, had a sense of humor, and was a real ball-buster. She also reminisced fondly about her time back in England, getting to beat kids who gave her grief.
Needless to say, she hated my guts and made sure I knew it. I absolutely resented her for making me stay three hours after school every single day for an entire school year.
Decades later, I still write like a five-year-old... BUT! I at least know how to properly write my atrocious handwriting—that's what matters most!
Doing My Own Thing
This is why I just do my thing and don’t pay attention to what others say. There’s always going to be that one someone who thinks they know best on any given subject or situation. The trick is to accept what they state but not necessarily agree with it.
Of course, one could argue that I’m not sticking to my website tagline—Unfiltered or Unapologetic—merely by polishing my final content. Quite frankly, it’s a personal choice.
For me, with my OCD, I do things a certain way because it allows me more freedom than fighting with myself about doing things simply or more complicated—because that’s what my OCD calls for.
Typing a message with perfect grammar is challenging for me. Even using limited punctuation, I always have this urge to go all out and dress my sentences to the nines—as if they were at a fancy dinner party.
Recently, I’ve begun to tamper down my grammar and style choices on a personal, one-on-one level—more as a test to see if I can do it and, more importantly, what it would feel like afterward.
I also tend to use more words rather than fewer when explaining things because I found that, by using complicated sentence structures, my audience would often get lost along the way.
I hate to use the words "dumb down," but I attempt to use language that most people can grasp and understand—which, coincidentally, means there’s more to read.
Final Thought
Ultimately, my blog is still fresh—still new. I have some content, but not enough, in my opinion, to decide how I will present myself to the world going forward.
Perhaps I don’t need to polish my content as much as I have, or maybe I don’t have to be consistent with every post. I could have an entry that’s polished one day, a more casual one the next, and occasionally mix a hybrid of the two styles.
For what it’s worth, I’m currently happy with all my content so far. In my opinion, it’s above par in terms of being educational, thought-provoking, and even snarky.
Some entries are more contemplative and serious than others, but they all are genuine, sincere, and transparent—most importantly, to me. And that’s what matters most.