The Red Pen

A good friend, a very well-educated lady, recently commented that when she writes something to me she worries that I'll notice a grammatical or spelling error.  I've had others say this to me, too.  I know it is because I'm an English teacher, but I wish I could reassure everyone that I really don't judge anyone by their grammar or spelling.  I'm not at all perfect, and I know my writing sometimes has errors that I miss.  Writing online is much more informal than traditional writing as I have my students do in my English classes, and even then, I hate using my "red pen."  My pen, in fact, is never red.  I feel like red is an angry color and I don't want to slash a bunch of red ink all over someone's hard work.  I used to use turquoise, but now it is becoming harder and harder to find that shade of ink.  So, now, I generally use purple or bright blue, or any other color that will vary from the usual blue or black ink my students use.  I sometimes just use pencil so that they can erase my corrections, if that's what they want to do.  I focus much more on writing comments on their papers and exploring their thinking, rather than their way of expressing their thoughts.

My point here is that I don't look for errors in everyday writing.  I'm not anyone's teacher right now since it is summertime, so I'm officially off work.  However, even if you were one of my former students, the last thing I think about is looking for mistakes in your writing.  I just enjoy communicating online, and connecting through writing with others.  I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference in the world.   I chose to teach English not because of a love of grammar.  Quite honestly, grammar bores me.  I chose English because of a love of literature and writing.  Nothing makes me  happier than teaching a classic novel, or a play by Shakespeare!  Analyzing a poem is fun to me, but figuring out its rhyme and meter, or trying to figure out why the poet broke the rules and wrote only in lower case letters isn't so exciting.

So, next time anyone wants to write something to me, whether through e-mail, or a comment on one of my posts, just write from the heart.  I won't be wielding a red pen, or a turquoise or purple pen, either.  Please just be yourself and know that connecting with you is all that matters to me.

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