THE GRAMMAR POLICE

      The grammar police visited my post A Memory. 

      Have you ever had grammar police visit your blog? 

     This visit was more of a raid as they went a little further than just grammar. 

     I had tried to say that Mr Pudding from Yorkshire Pudding had been to his favorite pub for quiz night. Question # 12 gave me a good memory for my post. I was chastised because  I hadn't explained "Mr Pudding" or "Yorkshire Pudding" In fact, they thought that so much was missing that I may have had a TIA. Well part of this is their problem but I admit that it was a  sloppy paragraph. 

   There were further omissions and out right mistakes. I confess to some very poor editing. I was in a hurry. 

   So this would bring up a question for bloggers. How much should we concern ourselves with grammar? Are bloggers supposed to work to rule? Is it necessary to have completely correct grammar? I'm sure everybody has their own opinions. What makes up a good blog? Does it take correct grammar to have a good blog? 

    When you read my blog I think you see that I am somewhat informal. That's me. I'm that kind of person.

    When I read your blogs, which are all good, I see different styles. People can write the way they talk and it makes for an interesting blog. 

     With so much variety blogging is very interesting. 

      So since I have confessed to some errors, will the grammar police wonder what I'm talking about or will bloggers wonder what grammar police are? There seems to be something wrong with my last sentence but I don't know what it is. 

     

Grammar

       Well, grammar is certainly another topic with conflict? If I took a survey, I'm sure most people would say they dislike grammar. I'm sure many people would not find grammar useful. However, writers should find grammar useful and would probably like to learn or relearn grammar. 

        So here goes. I think grammar should be taught is schools. You may say , "Isn't grammar taught in schools." Well, no it isn't. 

       When I went to school from 1944 to 1957, I was taught grammar. It was not my favorite subject. When I got to teacher's college we were given a general grammar test. I failed miserably. I kept the test for years as it showed that I did not know the difference between a noun and a verb. 

       We were given remedial grammar lessons.

       I actually learned basic grammar when I had too teach it. Unfortunately, I taught grammar the same way I had been taught so probably very few of my students learned much grammar.

      Now it gets worse. Somewhere in my career I began teaching language arts. Yes, I taught grammar the same way I had always taught it with about the same success. 

     Gradually teachers began not teaching grammar. They also stopped teaching spelling. I kept on teaching grammar and began relating all the grammar rules directly to their own writing. So I would use a kid's piece of writing as an example for teaching the grammar. Where's my subordinate clause? I made them look at their own writing. Grammar was used to tell if  things were tied together. They could move things around in their sentences and paragraphs like we do on the computer.

     As a blog writer, I usually write the way I talk. It's informal and fun.

    However, I think that an understanding  of grammar and looking at my writing once in a while would improve my writing and make it easier to follow. 

    Somehow , I don't think this is ever going to happen!

    Now I'm just waiting for some grammarian to go through this piece of writing as far as grammar goes!

    Now , I just noticed that there is a National Grammar day  which is Mar. 4. It was founded by Martha Brockenbrough for the promotion of good grammar. 

Grammar Police

       I listened to an interview with Steven Pinker the other day. Pinker is a psychologist who specializes in communication. He's written a number of  books on the topic and is known world wide.

       Pinker's latest book deals with effective communication. Guess what? He says throw out the rules. So I assume that means toss the grammar.

      Now a couple of bloggers I follow have from time to time written about good writing and the rules that guide us.

     I started to think about his proposition. As a blogger, I rarely think about the rules. I like to spell things correctly and my friend, the spell check is a great assistant. I like to be able to write something that will make sense to the reader. If it doesn't make sense people will not read me and not follow me. I do go back over what I've written to see if it makes sense. I add more information to give the reader a fuller picture of my topic. But I don't really think of the rules. I don't think about sentence structure. I don't watch my punctuation. I've forgotten what dependent and independent clauses are. I end many sentences with prepositions.

    Now to make an admission. I was a Middle School language arts teacher. I thought grammar was important and spent much time trying to teach it. I taught grammar every year until I retired. It got harder and harder because they stopped teaching it in elementary school. All my colleagues stopped teaching grammar. And now I've forgotten most of what I taught! So Pinker's proposition got me thinking.

    Now I look around at the blogs I follow and enjoy. They get their point across and describe something interesting or present an interesting idea. I follow some awesome photographers. They don't just let their photos do the talking but they add great descriptions and discussions. If I was to consider the writing abilities of different bloggers I would soon quit blogging. The fun part of blogging is to have something to say and be able to pass it on in a meaningful interesting way and have readers respond.

    So do you think the rules should be rigidly applies?

March 4th: National Grammar Day

     Now I'm sure that every one of you is just thrilled to know that Mar. 4 is National Grammar Day. I had never heard of it until yesterday. National Grammar Day was established in 2008 so it only took me four years to find out about it.


     Many bloggers from time to time make comments about their writing ability and specifically with relation to grammar. People know that there  is a grammar which is made up of rules for correct writing. People will say a remember taking grammar in school but I can't remember any of it. I remember taking a grammar quiz in teachers' college and it showed I didn't know the difference between a noun and a verb. I got sentenced to remedial grammar and couldn't get out until I passed the test. 


     Sadly, I think there are potentially many excellent bloggers out there who do not blog because they are concerned about the grammar thing.


     I applaud all bloggers I follow for their willingness to write! That is the key goal ...to write. Some bloggers write as they talk and their posts have an interesting flavor. For these blogs if they changed their style I probably wouldn't follow them. Other bloggers are more aware of some rules but also like to use an informal style which will be more appealing to the reader. A few blogs are written quite accurately when it comes to grammar.


      I have two grammar police on my blog. It's been a long time since they've done anything with my writing. It was always surprising how much editing they did. So I thank Jock Mckenzie for supplying me with help. Jock has written a novel Dealing with Dymans. MK is my daughter and she's a real stickler. I can learn a lot form her. She is also an excellent writer. My third adviser is Brian T. Kline and he is an excellent writer. He has very tightly controlled and logical writing. One of his jobs was to turn engineering language to regular language so sales people could describe their products. But with all this help I still like to write in an informal style. 


   Basic grammar is very simple. It's right or wrong stuff. For people to get grammar it has to be applied. You have to apply grammar to your own writing as you write or look at it after you've written. Grammar is easy to teach but it's difficult to teach well. Sadly today grammar is rarely taught. I still wish I had a basic grammar text in the house. Wait a minute , couldn't I find all the grammar explained on the net? 


    So to all my followers "Happy Grammar Day" or whatever appropriate thing you're supposed to say.