Oh Claire, I should never have said anything! When I reply on a thread, I do so quickly -- whatever comes off the top of my head -- and sometimes I realize too late that I've put my foot in my mouth. I don't want to make people feel self-conscious, or to discourage anyone from writing.
The fact that people don't hesitate to write is one of the great achievements of e-mail, blogging and instant messaging. Prior to this technology, writing so much as a letter seemed like a major effort, and few took the time to do it. Now that we are able to write so often, and with such immediate feedback, it doesn't seem so daunting. We bang off messages all the time. This is a great thing. The drawback, of course, (and there's always a drawback with any new technology) is that so much unedited writing can be viewed publicly that the general quality of writing has diminished. I used to hear English teachers bemoan their own dwindling spelling and grammar skills. They blamed it on the quantity of student essays they had to read, which are usually peppered with errors. It becomes hard to recognize the correct spelling of a word when you've seen it misspelled hundreds of times!
So having said that, I apologize for being an insufferable stickler. Everybody's writing is fabulous. Carry on.
