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It's bad enough, to me, that people claim that grammar isn't important in an email or an internet posting. (Do these people not realize that bad grammar can count against you when your message is being read? I have a colleague whom I've just written off as an uneducated idiot for her bad grammar.)
But it's even scarier to me to see someone taking the position that grammar doesn't even matter in professional writing, although obviously there are all kinds of levels of grammar, including subtle things that most of us aren't aware of (like the subjunctive). I'm wondering where that figure of 200 is from.
Recently while reading two different authors, I noticed the use of the word "then" instead of "than". Both times that the word then was used incorrectly, it brought me right out of my reading and really bugged me. While I agree with others about the usage of "their," "there," and "they're," I've found that I have made this mistake often myself. I know the difference and meanings and it sometimes takes two or three rereads before I spot what I've done.
One thing that has been bothering me recently is the authors who do not write complete sentences. I particularly noticed this while reading Sanderson's completion of the last three Robert Jordan novels. When did it become acceptable to have a clause as a stand alone sentence?
I just started on George R. R. Martin's Songs of Ice and Fire series. I find myself getting annoyed by the use of names as sentences. For example, in his paragraph describing who visited Winterfell with the king, he listed individual names and titles each as a single sentence. Later he mentions one child's favorite heroes and, once again, each name was a sentence.
Last edited by Deelighted; 05-13-2015 at 09:36 PM..
Reason: spelling
One thing that has been bothering me recently is the authors who do not write complete sentences.
Elmore Leonard would drive you mad.
I don't expect every line of fiction to be a perfect sentence, worthy of an 8 row diagram. That is stale writing. It's okay to break the rules on occasion for affect.
But writers who break the rules just to be different, in some sort of affected effort to be "Original" with a capital O ... yeah, that makes me crazy. It's why I have such a hard time reading Cormac McCarthy. The guy is a brilliant storyteller, but his refusal to use proper punctuation pulls me out of the story every time.
Yes we need them. It's okay to have slang, but a language needs standards.
And yet what is considered correct grammar in England will be thought of as incorrect in Canada, the U.S., and Australia. I come from Scotland (Scots is a completely different language), I live in Canada, and write in American English.
I began writing a nine-novel series twelve years ago (it is now completed) and the 'rules' regarding what is and is not correct in grammar have changed several times since 2003. I revised my drafts several times in an effort to reflect the changes, but gave up after a while. There are over three million words in the saga and one just can't win 'em all! Whatever I do, I'm going to be considered incorrect in some parts of the world.
I don't mind differing styles or incomplete sentences, and as long as the story is communicated effectively, I couldn't care less about 'correct' punctuation, as no two English-speaking countries agree on what that is.
While some of what is acceptable may differ from country to country, some things are plain mistakes. If a book I'm reading has "should of" instead of "should have," that's it--I'm done. A grammar or punctuation mistake is almost always enough for me to stop reading.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlow
While some of what is acceptable may differ from country to country, some things are plain mistakes. If a book I'm reading has "should of" instead of "should have," that's it--I'm done. A grammar or punctuation mistake is almost always enough for me to stop reading.
I don't expect every line of fiction to be a perfect sentence, worthy of an 8 row diagram. That is stale writing. It's okay to break the rules on occasion for affect.
But writers who break the rules just to be different, in some sort of affected effort to be "Original" with a capital O ... yeah, that makes me crazy. It's why I have such a hard time reading Cormac McCarthy. The guy is a brilliant storyteller, but his refusal to use proper punctuation pulls me out of the story every time.
Cormac McCarthy is definitely difficult to read, but I don't mind if an author is doing something on purpose for effect, as opposed to making a mistake. Writing is a craft and an art and a writer needs to master the tools before trying to sell me the product. Just IMO, of course.
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