Re: Fwd: Importance of grammar?

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>]

Tony Markatos wrote:

>Lets "get real" on this grammar issue.  Anyone who has written a lot of
>procedures knows that only a small sub-set of the rules of grammar are
>employed.

I'd be very interested to know what "sub-set" you think is used, and
what what you think is ignored.

At any rate, to talk about the "rules" of grammar is to be under a
misapprehension. Grammar isn't a set of rules, no matter what you were
taught in school.

Grammar is a description of how a particular language is used in a
particular culture (or sub-culture) at a particular time. Writers with
sensitivity to words and to their jobs follow those rules so long as
they help to increase clarity, and break them when they don't.

What most people think of as the "rules" of grammar, by the way, is
generally a description of how the language was spoken or written 20-30
years ago by the educated elites.

>And with grammar checkers and administrative assistants,
>grammar is no big deal.

When I taught university composition, I told students that if they knew
enough grammar to use a grammar-checker safely, they didn't need one,
and that, if they didn't, the grammar-checker would cause at least half
as many breakdowns in communication as it corrected.

I probably couldn't now, but, about five years ago, I could make a good
guess at what word processor the worst students in my classes used by
the problems that their grammar checkers lead them into.

I've seen nothing to suggest that grammar checkers have improved since.

As for administrative assistants, few working writers have them. At any
rate, relying on someone one else for something so basic would be
irresponsible and unprofessional.

 --
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Co-ordinator ,Vancouver Technical Communicators' Co-op List
Vancouver, BC, Canada
(604) 421-7189 or 687-2133
bbyfield -at- axionet,com or bruce -at- dataphile-ca -dot- com
www.outlawcommunications.com

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