Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips Lesson 1.1
Jun 29, 2021 11:05:42 GMT -6
Post by ScienceGirl on Jun 29, 2021 11:05:42 GMT -6
Mignon Fogarty is a superhero! Though I've read her book, I spend much more time on her blog. She also has podcasts about literally everything and is clever, creative, and interesting.
Her flagship book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing has become a bible of sorts for avid writers and English teachers alike. She's now written over 20 guides and someday I hope to have them all! So, that leaves a conundrum? Which book to choose?
I've decided to focus on her blog for now in our study, which has grown into a team of talented writers. And we will start with quote from a post that's quirky and classic Mignon-style, written by Neal Whitman. He begins:
Of course, there's debate about whether or not this quote is actually attributed to Mr. Churchill, but it does point out that sort-of stubbornness we writers like to hold on to when we're in our element. It can feel like a personal attack to have someone apply that much red ink to your writing.
However, grammar rules are... well, RULES. And they were written for consistency. So we should all stick to them like glue, right? Grammar Girl actually has a great podcast on this.
Except we don't stick to them like glue!!! At least not IN OUR SPEECH! Churchill would have felt terribly awkward and impersonal delivering those perfect lines.
See, that's the problem with writing fiction. None of us actually go around talking like we're supposed to write. But a lot of us go around writing like we often talk. (I'd totally speak those lines! Ugly adverbs and all!)
vs. That's the problem with writing fiction. No one talks like they are supposed to write. But many write like they often talk. (Isn't that so much more boring? Lacking personality? It doesn't "feel like my voice" as I often hear editing clients say).
The idea here is that grammar is a tool just like any other writing tool that has to be used appropriately and effectively with discernment. There are times in your story when clean grammar and spelling absolutely matters. It can be chalkboard-screeching painful to read something full of punctuation and spelling errors. Other times, it's okay to bend the rules a bit. The goal in this study is to help us all better understand when we can get away with bending the rules and when we shouldn't.
Ending sentences with a preposition will often land a writer in grammar jail. However, if you sit in any public location and just listen to the folks around you, you'll hear violations of this big bad rule every fifteen seconds. We ALL do it.
Sometimes, though, writers tend to overcorrect in the other direction and you get that flowy, awkward text that feels like some rich, 95-year old grandmother evil queen-ish figure is speaking. What they're really doing is showing their lack of understanding in the different parts of speech and such. For example, in English, a particle is a word that is functional to another word like "take off," "look up," or "knock out." (The particles being off, up, and out).
A preposition is a phrase that helps readers understand space or time relationships. Here's a song that will help you recognize them all.
And finally, we have a writing technique. Pied-piping. According to Whitman,
As Mr. Whitman points out, what Churchill (or whoever it was) has done in the quote is called Pied-Piping the particle, which is against the rules. You can apply the pied-piping effect to a preposition, but not the particle. "up on which I followed," "along with whom I get," "down on which they cracked," "away with which they got," or "forward to which I looked."
In other words, it's okay to move "on which" to the front of the sentence, but you shouldn't move "up."
And that's the explanation of the punchline: “This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put!”
So, what have we learned from this, as we begin a study of all those comma rules and such that trip our readers up?
1) There are times to bend the rules, but only those who are proficient at grammar use can effectively do this in a story. Otherwise your readers will not understand when you're bending rules and when you just don't know how to use them.
2) To fully understand writing techniques (like the Pied Piper), it's crucial to know the terminology and details behind it. Not understanding the difference between a particle and a preposition leads many writers to apply the Pied Piper to the articles and write awkward sentences.
3) Perfect grammar does not belong in the dialogue or internal thought of most characters. It's an effective strategy to vary the grammatical prowess to show differences in socioeconomic status, etc. But be careful with that because you don't want to portray racial or cultural stereotypes.
Onward, forward! Feel free to PM me with grammar questions as we continue on through this series. I'm sure Mignon has a post for that!
Her flagship book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing has become a bible of sorts for avid writers and English teachers alike. She's now written over 20 guides and someday I hope to have them all! So, that leaves a conundrum? Which book to choose?
I've decided to focus on her blog for now in our study, which has grown into a team of talented writers. And we will start with quote from a post that's quirky and classic Mignon-style, written by Neal Whitman. He begins:
Here’s a famous grammar joke about Winston Churchill. You’ve probably heard it. This version is from a 1946 story in the "Washington Post":
stuffy young Foreign Office secretary … had the job of “vetting” the then Prime Minister’s magnificent speeches. The young man disliked the P.M.’s habit of ending sentences with prepositions and corrected such sentences whenever he found them.
Finally, Mr. Churchill had enough of this! So he recorrected his own speech and sent it back to the Foreign Office with a notation in red ink, “This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put!”
stuffy young Foreign Office secretary … had the job of “vetting” the then Prime Minister’s magnificent speeches. The young man disliked the P.M.’s habit of ending sentences with prepositions and corrected such sentences whenever he found them.
Finally, Mr. Churchill had enough of this! So he recorrected his own speech and sent it back to the Foreign Office with a notation in red ink, “This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put!”
However, grammar rules are... well, RULES. And they were written for consistency. So we should all stick to them like glue, right? Grammar Girl actually has a great podcast on this.
Except we don't stick to them like glue!!! At least not IN OUR SPEECH! Churchill would have felt terribly awkward and impersonal delivering those perfect lines.
See, that's the problem with writing fiction. None of us actually go around talking like we're supposed to write. But a lot of us go around writing like we often talk. (I'd totally speak those lines! Ugly adverbs and all!)
vs. That's the problem with writing fiction. No one talks like they are supposed to write. But many write like they often talk. (Isn't that so much more boring? Lacking personality? It doesn't "feel like my voice" as I often hear editing clients say).
The idea here is that grammar is a tool just like any other writing tool that has to be used appropriately and effectively with discernment. There are times in your story when clean grammar and spelling absolutely matters. It can be chalkboard-screeching painful to read something full of punctuation and spelling errors. Other times, it's okay to bend the rules a bit. The goal in this study is to help us all better understand when we can get away with bending the rules and when we shouldn't.
Ending sentences with a preposition will often land a writer in grammar jail. However, if you sit in any public location and just listen to the folks around you, you'll hear violations of this big bad rule every fifteen seconds. We ALL do it.
Sometimes, though, writers tend to overcorrect in the other direction and you get that flowy, awkward text that feels like some rich, 95-year old grandmother evil queen-ish figure is speaking. What they're really doing is showing their lack of understanding in the different parts of speech and such. For example, in English, a particle is a word that is functional to another word like "take off," "look up," or "knock out." (The particles being off, up, and out).
A preposition is a phrase that helps readers understand space or time relationships. Here's a song that will help you recognize them all.
And finally, we have a writing technique. Pied-piping. According to Whitman,
The linguist John Robert Ross coined the term “pied-piping” in his 1967 dissertation to refer to the way that English allows prepositions to be moved from the end of a sentence to before the verb, in sentences such as “In which hotel will we be staying?” In Ross’s analogy, the “which” is like the Pied Piper, and the “in” is like an enchanted rat, following the “which” all the way to its position at the beginning of the sentence.
In other words, it's okay to move "on which" to the front of the sentence, but you shouldn't move "up."
And that's the explanation of the punchline: “This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put!”
So, what have we learned from this, as we begin a study of all those comma rules and such that trip our readers up?
1) There are times to bend the rules, but only those who are proficient at grammar use can effectively do this in a story. Otherwise your readers will not understand when you're bending rules and when you just don't know how to use them.
2) To fully understand writing techniques (like the Pied Piper), it's crucial to know the terminology and details behind it. Not understanding the difference between a particle and a preposition leads many writers to apply the Pied Piper to the articles and write awkward sentences.
3) Perfect grammar does not belong in the dialogue or internal thought of most characters. It's an effective strategy to vary the grammatical prowess to show differences in socioeconomic status, etc. But be careful with that because you don't want to portray racial or cultural stereotypes.
Onward, forward! Feel free to PM me with grammar questions as we continue on through this series. I'm sure Mignon has a post for that!
You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
