Grammar is one of those funny things that everyone needs to know but that not everyone agrees on.
There are some things that most people can come to a consensus on, like the fact that sentences usually end with a period.
Some things are just confusing, like when to use a semicolon, or when to use “who” or “whom”.
And then there are things that are inconsistent within the English language, such as whether punctuation goes inside or outside quotation marks. Sometimes it depends on whether you are an American English speaker or a British English speaker.
Can Grammar Change?
But as frustrating as grammar sometimes can get, it's still an important element in the writing process. Using proper grammar and structure can mean the difference between comprehension and complete confusion in a sentence.
However, elements of grammatical structure are always evolving. Certain grammatical structures and word usage that are in place today were considered incorrect fifty years ago or more. Words like “literally” are now okay to use in other contexts to mean figuratively.
In the constantly evolving world of English grammar that exists today, I'm curious to see what grammar means to writers today.
Do you believe it's still a set of rules to follow? Or is it now a fluid construct that is malleable depending on the writer's whims? Is it more helpful to think of grammar as a writer's Bible, or do the rules of grammar exist to be broken?
Please let me know what you think in the comments section.
Grammar is an ever-changing thing, bend and twisting its rules for who ever uses it. I believe it is up to who uses it to decide how to use it, and i’m okay with that. The most important thing about grammar, in my eyes, is how consistent their use of grammar is. It’s confusing to the reader when one second i’m saying “This.” and the other; “That”.
The reader is the final judge of your grammar. Your grammar may not be perfect, but if the reader does not grasp your meaning because of your grammar, then you, as the author, have failed to communicate.
Grammar’s a tool to aid comprehension, and as such, it has useful descriptive and prescriptive elements. Words, word order, sentence and paragraph length, and even punctuation often have both meanings and moods (as in actual feelings they invoke, not as in the verb aspect).
That doesn’t mean that “rules” no longer apply. It just means the logic behind the rules is more important than “the rulez” themselves—and then the variable or optional stuff is a matter of personal preference and/or what suits a particular writing style better. I like dashes and parentheses and semicolons, and they frankly help me keep my writing clear and concise.
This is a great question and a timely one. As a writer/editor, I feel that it is important to know the rules, but I also ascribe to the notion that clarity is the bottom line. So yes! Break the rules, but do so with concern for your readers.
Good point! The reader must always be the priority, regardless of how we feel.
I totally agree. I have read so many guidelines in grammar because some of what I learned in school in the 60s and early 70s no longer apply. I believe that whatever rule you, the writer, decides to follow, stick with it throughout and if there is a deviation, there should be a character to run interference. Sometimes a little variety in the right place and at the right time adds POP to a story.
There needs to be a happy medium. Some intelligent electronic editor software can help set some standards and guidelines.h
I am a self admitted grammar freak, which is funny, because I always hated English in high school. But I am also a firm believer that rules were sometimes made to be broken. We mess up proper English usage in our speech every day, so making our characters use perfect grammar in every sentence would be unrealistic. So in that case, write it any way you want.
Other things are okay with me, too, like starting a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’. But if I see a misplaced comma, a reference to God with a lowercase ‘g’, or ‘their’ used when it should have been ‘there’, I freak out. Things like that need to be right!
In a nutshell, I think the basic rules of grammar are there for us to use, and should only be broken when necessary. Great post! I love the ones where we have to explore our own minds and figure out our opinions.
“Whatsoever ye do, do unto the glory of God”
Reagan
Grammar is indispensable. When you have less than a minute to persuade someone to keep reading despite adorable cat videos, YouTube viral-ity, and old episodes of Dr. Who – grammar can be the razor’s edge between effective writing and a user imposed redirect.
Point numero dos: credibility demands it. People don’t listen to lowercase ‘i’, advice that runs on and on and on, or the confusion induced by, comma, spliced, sentences…(say wha?)
Effective writing is tight. It’s streamlined cadence to the rhythm of someone that knows what they are doing.
Grammatically correct writing makes the reader feel cared for. It builds trust. Wonderful trust that allows you to take the hands of your reader and introduce them to the world/point/story you’re trying to show them.
Grammar and sentence structure, I believe, is fundamental to comprehension by the reader. So is spelling. However, since people speak in different colloquialisms it is fine to have each character speak in his or her specific voice. That is one way the reader can know who is speaking. There are some errors that drive me nuts and you hear them on television shows as well as reading them. Such blatant mistakes as misusing “I ” and “me” which makes me wonder whether the writer/speaker ever had a good English teacher. As a voracious reader, I find these errors so annoying that it ruins the book for me.
It’s a love-hate relationship. I love to hate it, and it hates to love me.
Yes Yes Yes I believe that grammar is very important. If I did not know this then, I definitely know it now. Self consciously, I always knew. I believe that we all know, but sometimes, we have to be told again. I submitted my first short story in the workshop just last week. The critique I received about grammar, sentence structure, characters thoughts, etc. was so helpful and important. And, read your story out loud! I made good grades in English. I never could quite understand how I was able to get A’s and B’s. This is so important that you might have a great story, but that greatness can be ruined without proper grammar. Thanks to all of you who critiqued my last story. I’m sure that I still have a long way to go. But, that’s okay. KEN
Grammar equates with the rules of the road. Like those rules, the rules of grammar evolve over time, but they are still the safest way to get the reader from A to B. As with the rules of the road, you can break grammar rules, but you do it at the risk of not achieving your goal.
On the road, that goal is getting to your destination on time, in one piece, and without participating in the local judicial processes.With grammar, it’s about connecting meaningfully with the reader.
Grammatical and spelling errors distract me from the story, and no author wants that! To me, grammar is the structure upon which a story is built. It’s in the background, holding sentences together and conveying the author’s meaning in an understandable way. If a book contains too many errors, I quit reading and I can’t in good conscience feature it on my blog.
I fully agree.
I agree with you Sandra. One of the hallmarks that makes the English language so remarkable are the many ways words can be constructed together to make clear and concise methods of communication. English is a very flexible language. I’ve often thought that that flexibility is one of the hallmarks of English that most other languages don’t possess. With a multitude of choices of words, sentence constructs and grammar available, there still needs a framework upon which to bring it together and have it make sense. That is what grammar does for me. Yes, English can be manipulated to convey multiple messages in multiple ways. Without a solid foundation to build it on, it will never come together in a meaningful and understandable way.
I, like Regan Colbert, am a grammar freak. I actually do freelance editing and proofreading. However, as a reader for enjoyment, my enjoyment comes to an abrupt end when I begin to discover missing or misplaced commas, spelling errors, awkward sentence structures, words left out of a sentence, improper articles, ignorance about the difference between their, they’re, there, your, and you’re, etc. ad nauseum. I always had to re-read those sentences and, when there wee too many of them, I just gave up. A few years ago I used to contact writers who had a great book, except for the errors, and offer to edit their book for free. Then I ran out of time. My own books go through a minimum of six proofreads/editing prior to publication. Plus, I do a final edit myself by reading the book aloud.
I never learned the “rules” of grammar, but could speak and write “correctly” from the age of nine. I couldn’t tell you what a preposition is, or a dangling participle. I was lousy when it was time to diagram a sentence. I have been told that we should never use a word ending in “ly” in our writing, but sometimes you NEED to say, “nearly”, or “completely”, or “whatever-ly”.
I believe the “rules” of grammar can be fluid as regards such things as starting a sentence with a “But” or “And” or “So”, using language unique to a character’s voice, and many many more ways of using our ever-changing language. But a writer needs to have the fundamentals of grammar in their arsenal or they won’t be able to fully communicate with the reader. And when I see a review that mentions some of these errors then I don’t purchase the book.
Shannon28713, could I please share your post? It has everything I want to say, especially the last paragraph.
Yes, of course. Do with it what you will.
Shannon, I, like Lilian, totally agree. There, I used a word ending in “ly”, because it fit and was correct in the sentence. I too am self taught and having just signed off on my latest chapter, can attest to doing multiple edits, having done so by reading it aloud each time. I find it much easier to pick up on errors while reading that way
Go, Shannon, go! I agree with every word.
But even worse than reading a book full of grammar and usage mistakes, is reading a book full of grammar and usage mistakes that comes with gushing thanks to the author’s wonderful editor.
My feeling is that when rules are broken it should be for effect. If we don’t know the rules, we can’t judge the effect. I find language–any language–beautiful. When our children were learning and the teachers didn’t bother about spellings and grammar, I used to ask, ‘How will they ever appreciate great writing, especially poetry?’ Having said that, they still seem to, so I don’t suppose it did any harm, and I’m sure there must be people who’ve been put off by bad teaching. I’m convinced that anything can be fascinating and meaningful if it’s well taught.
I have a few writing-related books in my bookcase but the ones I refer to over and over again are “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser, “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr., and the good old Canadian Oxford Dictionary edited by Katherine Barber. I rely on these books when I’m writing and editing because I am not an expert in the written word by any stretch of the imagination. Language is fluid and, as such, it grows and changes over time. “Grammar is the rationale of a language; usage is the etiquette.” – (source: Twenty-one Kicks at the Grammar Horse) Not sure if this fits with your post but I had fun looking up stuff.
It’s been so long since I’ve taken any sort of English/writing class that I can’t speak with much authority on punctuation and conventions (is that even the right word?). But I was always pretty good at spelling so I will react when the wrong word is used such as their versus they’re. But starting sentences with so, but or and (like I just did) doesn’t really bother me. I enjoy that series Liz Bureman has been doing on punctuation rules and picking the right word like affect versus effect.
I think that ultimately, if the reader can get a good read that flows well, then the writer has done their job even if the grammar isn’t perfect.
David, I too am grammatically challenged. I use at least 3 different software to check my grammar and each one usually comes up with different grammar mistakes; so I start checking the Internet and the grammar books that I have as to why these are mistakes and over time, I have learned that grammar is constantly changing to fit this constantly changing world. I have learned that there are editors who don’t like one thing in grammar, but another editor sees that as okay. So it boils down to matching the writer/editor and reader — What’s your target market?
I don’t see anything wrong with breaking some rules of grammar when we write. I love that writers have that kind of freedom and be creative in the process without messing with clarity. I really hate reading confusing sentences because of a missing comma or wrong word choices. Spelling could be forgiveable, but using ‘their’ for ‘there’ or ‘they’re’ is quite irritating.
I’m another self-admitted grammar lover, spent almost ten years studying the “rules” of the craft… and I’ve come to the realization that clarity is the bottom line. The use of proper grammar generally leads to the sharpest clarity when it comes to communicating with others.
And yet.
There are times—particularly when writing fiction—where perfect clarity isn’t what the writer desires. Depending on the style of what’s being written, sometimes the (very) temporary removal of punctuation—either partial or complete—is the most effective technique that can be employed. Outside of specific instances like that, proper use of grammar is key to efficient communication.
Grammar is the building block of a sentence, a paragraph, and a page. To drop it would be like building a house without a blueprint. Once you know grammar, you can use colloquial speech, but nobody should neglect the basic rules.
I love grammar and language. When I was an elementary student many years ago, our teacher taught us to diagram sentences. We learned all the parts of speech and how to use them properly in a sentence. (I used up my one ly adverb in that last sentence.) While judging the last contest I was surprised at the number of sentence fragments writers used. My feeling is that great writers use fragments for dramatic emphasis. Those fragments can be overused so the readers are confused. I agree that the reader is the most important person in this equation. Let’s not confuse the reader with over use of our creativity.
I have been waiting to share a construction I found in an article about a new book you all will recognize. What do you think of this grammar? And can you name the book?
“The illustrations were found by Seuss’s second wife and her secretary. They had been sitting in a box set aside after his death.” Don’t you love the image of the wife and the secretary sitting in a box after his death?! I am trying to find my own humorous side…
Grammar is an integral part of any language. Ursula Le Guin stated in one of her books that if you want to write good stuff, you’ve got to read great stuff because otherwise you’ll be restricted in what you can do with the language. Writers may deviate from the rules at times depending on how a character’s background is portrayed to the reader, but the idea should be clear. It’s part of the craft, and craft facilitates art.
Grammar is important, but only up to the point where your writing sounds robotic and clunky. English is a highly inefficient, and constantly speaking it perfectly can make you sound annoying (and, ironically, stupid).
I DON’T “think about grammar.” I just “use it.”
I don’t “think about grammar,” EVER. I simply “use it.”
I believe grammar is critical to a story. As an editor as well as an author, I have a list of words that are known to weaken prose, although I don’t normally apply to dialogue since it might mess with both the characterization as well as the author style. Time after time, either eliminating/minimizing the use of these words or substituting stronger verbs for example, vastly improves the readability of the manuscript.
Hello Jack! Please tell us the words to eliminate or minimize. I’m always seeking how to improve my writing.
Thanks!
Here is the post from Kelly Abell . . . also gives instructions on how to set up a macro in MS Word to highlight the “bad words.” https://writewithkelly.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/sittin-on-the-porch-with-kelly-author-jack-strandburg-setting-up-a-macro-in-microsoft-word-to-target-weak-words/
I quite agree that grammar is important. Problems with ‘who’ and ‘whom’? No problems if you remember that ‘who’ is the subject and ‘whom’ the object. (John, who is coming to dinner…’ John, whom I knew at school…)
Had problems with post and it refused to continue.
Anyway, I recently had an on-line discussion with an ‘author’ who thought that insistence on correct grammar was pedantic and nit-picking and it didn’t really matter. The one thing I could say to him was that you won’t put many people off with correct grammar, but you will lose lots of readers with poor grammar.
The thing that worries me most is the number of traditionally published books that are full of grammatical errors. Once you never got errors in published books. These books are supposed to have been professionally edited. Does this mean that editors don’t know their grammar either?
Grammar is there for a very good reason. It makes reading comprehensible.
Oh, and punctuation marks in dialogue always go inside the quotes. If, like in my previous post, the quotes are round one word that is not dialogue, then the punctuation goes outside.
Language changes as we all know. I usually use the subjunctive after a conditional when writing, but don’t get my knickers in a twist when someone doesn’t. That is something that is changing. I don’t like to begin a sentence with a conjunction though. I was always taught that a sentence stands on its own. A sentence beginning with a conjunction doesn’t. (And John came to dinner.) A conjunction is a word that joins two sentences. That’s what the word ‘conjunction’ means. (‘I went to town. It started to rain.’ This can be rendered as ‘I went to town and it started to rain.’ The conjunction is joining the two sentences.)
Yes,I am a grammar freak!
Grammar can an does change. And for grammar freaks its hard to take, It is somewhere in between a set of rules and a fluid construct that is malleable. But it sin’t about a writer’s whims or her ignorance. Grammar like all language changes with common usage. It is very uncommon anymore to hear or read someone who correctly uses “whom.” Because so many people never use whom, and always use who, the use of whom is fading into the archaic, no matter what the rules say. But it is rare that anyone misunderstands the meaning even when the whom rule isn’t followed.
So, chillax, grammar guards, but be careful, you devil may care rule-breakers because breaking the rules can change meaning and/or confuse meaning and that isn’t good writing.
The funny thing is, as I’m writing this, I’m imagining how everyone will criticize my use of grammar.
I’m also self-taught.
I started reading in primary school after picking up a Jacqueline Wilson book ‘Double Act’, and I was hooked, and I wanted to write like that for other people.
A few years on I’ve tried and failed with stories, giving up and feeling like I can’t construct a decent enough sentence… and if I don’t want to read it, who else will?
Recently I went back to the story I’ve been trying (and failing) to write for about two years, if I remember correctly.
I’ve changed almost everything about it, except the general plot line and the use of the characters I’ve created (to be good/bad).
I’m writing and writing and writing even more, and trying not to be perfect, I’m just going along with it.
I think personally there are too many rules.
If you stick to the basics, and know the difference between your, you’re, their, they’re and there – you can’t really go wrong.
So I’m using that attitude when I write. Because who wants to be dragged down by such strict rules, when writing is supposed to be enjoyable?
I, too, am intrigued by grammar. I always loved those diagrammed sentences–different-colored lines for different parts of speech–beautiful! It’s embarrassing when I find myself craving a blue pen so I can proofread my library book.
I have not yet seen an instance in which “literally” means “figuratively” correctly. I think that’s just wishful thinking. That’s like men who think “no” means “yes.” It ain’t gonna happen.
Some things have evolved; language is dynamic, ever-growing, always changing. Who would have expected “tortilla” to become a part of our language, along with “sushi,” “spaghetti,” and “hor d oeuvres?” (You notice food words are accepted pretty easily.) But that’s semantic growth.
Grammar is the corral fence that keeps our words, sentences and paragraphs penned in to give our writing meaning. If we keep our fences mended, what we write conveys what we intend.
I like your last paragraph about grammar especially ‘if we keep our fences mended, what we write conveys what we intend’.