Informal vs Correct

This site promulgates accurate, easy-to-read writing. I call it expository writing. You use it when you want to explain something and be understood.

If you want to fit in with that stylish gum-chewing valley girl, then stylish imprecise language is fine. But you won’t impress people who prefer otherwise. (I admit, that includes a lot of people whom you might not want to impress.)

This Dustin strip from October of 2013, features two popular solecisms that we curmudgeons like to grumble about, or laugh at.

Why are we against these common usages? They’re okay in informal spoken English, but they don’t belong in the type of writing you use when you don’t want to distract your reader from the topic at hand.

• “Unique” means “one of a kind,” which is an absolute. If you want to emphasize that uniqueness, try a word that admits of degrees, such as “special,” or maybe “unusual,” or even “I never saw anything like that!”
• “[personal pronoun] could care less” is sarcasm, in which you say the opposite of what you mean. You definitely don’t want that when you want to explain something!

Or say “hi” to that valley girl for me.