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Re: What do you think are Important grammar rules/ideas?
Subject:Re: What do you think are Important grammar rules/ideas? From:"Higgins, Lisa" <LHiggins -at- CARRIERACCESS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 26 Jul 1999 14:01:33 -0600
I won't get into the content of "grammar" books and websites here, but it
seems to me that the target audience isn't going to have the time, interest,
or patience to read through a lot of material.
I think the earlier suggestion someone had to go through what they're
currently writing and identify problem areas is good. I'd also tell them,
this:
Keep sentences short and to the point, avoiding both complex constructions
and superfluous information.
Read over what you've written as though you were stupid and naive. Try to
misunderstand it. If you can figure out a way to misunderstand, rewrite it
to eliminate the ambiguity.
That's all.
Lisa, who refrained from mentioning that if school kids' science textbooks
were as antiquated and wrongheaded as their "grammar" textbooks are, they'd
be all about alchemy, spontaneous generation, and how to read head lumps.
> There is a great deal of difference between style and grammar. Without
> the foundation of good grammar, style is insufficient. There
> have been a
> number of posts to this list asking what and how to teach
> about grammar.
> A web site that may prove useful is
>http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/grammar.htm. It's focus is
> grammar, not style.
>
> Style is important, and many organizations have their own
> style guides.
> However, if the subject is grammar, a style guide may not provide the
> backup you need to teach grammar or to edit for grammar. "Just do it
> because *I* know it's right" sometimes doesn't go over too well, I've
> found.
>
> Eric - I don't mean to flame you. What I would like to flame
> is the fact
> that it seems so difficult to find a good grammar guide, unless you
> steal textbooks from school kids, but style guides abound.
>
> Having spouted off, I hope I haven't humiliated myself by including
> several grammatical errors in this reply. (I'm sure someone
> will be kind
> enough to point them out if I have.)
>
> Eric J. Ray wrote:
> >
> > Isn't there an IBM style guide to reference?
>
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