George,
I don't speak with the precision, as you say, that I write with all the time. It may seem artificial or stilted but I do it on purpose. When I was growing up in Columbus, the neighborhood I lived in was largely black. Now I say this with no disrespect to hard working, proud African Americans. But the, you know, whatever, down with that, bling blang, what it is, sub-standard English always left me cold. When people hear this they judge you as not being intelligent. Myself and other white kids would also fall into the habit of speaking "ghetto" but I promised myself that I would try to speak and write clearly with out profanities and a lot of "you know what I mean man". So I guess sometimes when I post I sound like something out of a book. Sorry about that.
Chase.