Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Spending most of my life in academia, I found waaaay too many people concerned more about grammar and spelling than about content. To me, that is just wrong on so many levels, and all too often wipes out that spark of desire to 'learn' that brings people to higher education in the first place.
Stitchawl
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Actually, a strong understanding of grammar can go hand-in-hand with content. A writer who understands the power behind even the smallest change in sentence structure--and not just how to eliminate errors and mistakes--will be a stronger writer.
Let's imagine a writer going through a multi draft editing process. On the first draft, she writes, "I like coffee. I don't like cake." Each of these sentences is grammatically correct on its own; however, the space in-between the sentences is a cavern of lost potential meaning. What is the relationship between the coffee and the cake?
Trying again, the writer combines her sentences: "I like coffee, but I don't like cake." We now have a coordinating conjunction, which places "coffee" and "cake" in the same category of things. In other words, they are merely items on a vast list of
things. Here is my list of things I like. Here is my things I don't like. Why not pick one from each list and slap them together in a sentence?
Perhaps the writer decides to forgo the conjunctions and simply uses a semi-colon: "I like coffee; I don't like cake." As a strong grammarian, she knows that a semi-colon is used when there is a relationship between the two independent clauses. The sentence becomes slightly more intriguing: is a love of cake to be expected from someone who enjoys coffee? On the other hand, is disliking cake simply the logical consequence of liking coffee?
The writer tries once more to use grammar to express meaning. This time, she adds a subordinator: "I like coffee; unfortunately, I don't like cake." Suddenly, her sentence begins to tell a story of guilt and regret, which to my eyes is much more enticing to read than the two lonely and isolated sentences from the beginning of this journey.