Yes, It Matters!
Correct grammar does in fact matter. The impact is very different when correct grammar is used, and when it is not used. The three biggest inappropriate grammar misakes I see are no capitalization, no commas, and probably most import the use of the wrong words and phrases. In the following phargraohs I will discribe each is important.
Capitalization- I recently came across a story where the grammar was perfect execpt, that the writer purposely refused to capitalize,to support their ‘sylitic’ sense. I believe capitalization is important, particularlly in regards to peoples names because it gives them respect, and (at least in my opinion) shows that you see them as a person instead of just an object. You are free write in whatever style you would like, but if you should choose keep everytjing lower case the please, please “Keep in mind, capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse” (anonymous).
Commas- Commas are equvilant to the rest symbol in sheet music. For a musician the rest symbol aloows them to get in a quick breath, and can allow the music to flow much more naturally. Commas do the same thing when reading, They allow the reader to pause so long sentances do not run together, and they can reconize two seprate thoughts that work cohiesively together.
Using the Correct Words and Phrases- Please do not confuse people by using the wrong phasing or words. I read a story where one of the lines was “his own personal sleeve slave”. did you go wait ‘sleeve’ what? did you re read that believe the line should have been ‘his own personal sex slave’. Well you would be right! the word sex should have been in place of sleeve. In right the previous sentance I almost used the word replace instead of ‘been in place of’ I changed it because sex and sleeve are not interchangable, one can’t be replaced by the other. A person should not have to re read your sentances and fix it in thier head so it actually makes sense. It is annoying , time consumming, and you can’t be sure every one will be able to rearange the words to match what you actually mean. It can also mean the difference between the past and the present. For example, I believed is different from I believe- one means I no longer hold that said belief and the othe means I still do. The diffence in impact and meaning is phenominal! Just because a word is spelled right, and microsoft word or grammerly do not pick it up does not mean it is correct.
I do not want read a story where I have to fix every thing in my head. I have read plenty of potentially good stories that I have dropped after the first pharagraph, because I just could not continue re reading every single sentance. I have also read the comments for these stories where the commenters will trash the writer simply for having bad grammar, even if the bad grammar was minimual. There was one such writer who said they would stop writing because if the hatefull comments. When I read thier goodbye it was like I was watching someone with thier heart broken crying thier eyes out. I do not want someone to stop writing because of hatefull comments over thier bad grammar. I do not want writers to have potential readers to skip over thier story in droves because of thier bad grammer. I do not want someone to say oh English is not my first langage so ’Oh Well” as an excuse. I want them to improve thier writting, and continue perhaps try getting a beta reader to help them. All writers deserve to have thier stories properly read reviewed, and given constructive criticism. Good grammar is a big step towards that goal.