Edit: I had the original title of this diary use the word "right" - which is a non-standard usage, and apparently the pet peeve of many other Kossacks! However, Arbiter came to my rescue and provided the word "properly" which is a better fit.
I'm a fiction writer, not an editor. This sort of issue is, in fact, why I'm not an editor. Sometimes you need a second pair of eyes to find better word choices.
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On one of the new Facebook groups dedicated to boycotting AZ and abolishing the racist, xenophobic law, the right wing trolls have invaded in full force.
One of them patted another one on the back with "Matt your the only one with a clue."
This started a back and forth exchange regarding me being a grammar Nazi, and English major (I was, so what?), and the troll being a troll. I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but this little exchange was just another battle in my personal war to save the English language on the Internet.
English is an adaptive, fluid language. It has evolved over 1500 years to its present form, undergoing vowel shifts, spelling standardizations, and a massive vocabulary increase, especially in the last few hundred years.
The rules change. Most recently, the decision was made by the People Who Decide These Things (the lovely folks at MLA) that the previous recommendation of leaving off the second S after an apostrophe for a word that already ended in S was no longer the correct usage.
So if you were taught to write this:
Chris'
Jesus'
Mass'
when writing a possessive, it's changed.
Now you should write:
Chris's
Jesus's
Mass's
because that is the way the word is pronounced.
The Internet has the power to change and sculpt English in ways we can't even imagine. But there are certain rock solid rules that will persist, even as our language ebbs and flows in the electronic medium.
Contractions will always be indicated by an apostrophe.
So there will always be a difference between your and you're. "You're" is a contract of "You are." There will always be a difference between there, their, and they're - because the last one is a contraction. There and their may blend together a few hundred years from now as people who text become increasingly lazy, but they're will always remain its own word.
It's one little key. Just one. It's right there next to the enter key. You don't have to hit shift. You don't have to go hunting for it on the QWERTY board. No archaic ALT codes required to find it. The apostrophe is here to stay. Learn it, love it, use it when it's required.
Something I've noticed is that those who speak English as a second language take more care with it, especially when writing. My friend Netta from Israel, who learned to speak and read English almost entirely online, is indistinguishable from a native speaker on her Livejournal. (I had a lot more trouble understanding her in real life!)
Those who abuse the English language - whether it's Teabaggers and their misspelled signs, or random trolls on Facebook groups - don't deserve my respect for their racist and xenophobic opinions.
If they're so damn proud to be an American, they can damn well learn how to speak and write American English properly.