Wolverines Are The Mascot For The Grammar Police

So, this picture appeared on yahoo’s front page today and it pretty much coincided completely with what we were talking about in class today regarding the “grammar police!!!!!!” The headline of the article said “grammar fail,” as if some pretentious young columnist had nothing else to write about other than the misprint on the tee. Now, for me personally, the lack of apostrophe that occurs in the word “let’s” does not hinder my understanding of the message the tee is trying to tell. “let’s go Michigan,” is what I am getting from the print and as a matter of fact, until I actually look at the picture longer, I didn’t even notice there was something wrong.

As was brought up in class today, we spoke a lot about strictness while referring to grammar usage. We also spoke about the importance of using grammar properly in the professional sector of this world. Now, I do see why the company selling this tee would be upset with whoever printed the shirt, but at the same time I feel that it’s a bit drastic to call the mistake a complete fail. I strongly believe that anyone could look at the shirt and derive meaning and although the phrase may be incorrect as far as grammar usage goes, it’s still a good print with a good message. What peeves me is the fact that yahoo took the time to put forth this article about the misprint as a headline when I feel there are much more important things to bring to the attention of the world. How about all the hurricanes or stock market prices falling or even Steve Jobs retirement? I don’t know, and maybe some would call me crazy but I feel that this improper grammar usage as a headline is ridiculous and though I see the importance of the all-powerful apostrophe, maybe I am unable to see the relevance of having said apostrophe in the building of meaning. We learn by firstly making meaning (top - bottom learning) and not by diagnosing the nuts and bolts of grammar. We learn by experiencing the world and defining things in our own internal dictionary and although there is a time and place for the MLA handbook, I would rather sit back, relax and scream, “lets go Michigan.”