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Originally Posted by gmw
Things seem to be getting a little out of hand here in places. The topic was about grammar. Editors are not (just) about grammar. Grammar is not (just) about commas in the right places. The right grammar can aid a writer to achieve much of what people have been talking about here as if it were somehow separate - character development and pacing. Pacing relies quite heavily on grammar to make the story flow appropriately at different stages. The subtle use of grammar can help to make certain aspects of character appear in the text without having to spell them out.
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This is exactly what I was talking about in an earlier post. But that sort of subtlety is only possible if the writer actually knows the rules of grammar well enough to be able to bend them when needed.
Different styles of writing (more or less casual, stilted versus flowing) can be used for that as well, but I'm not sure if grammar and/or style are one and the same. I'm fairly certain they influence each other though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Grammar really is important. It's an integral part of what a writer produces, it's part of the story and cannot be separated from it, the same sequence of words with different grammar can tell a different story - or were you too busy eating Grandpa to really understand the point of that example? It was never about the comma, it was about how the reader understood what was written. If you get the grammar wrong but your message is still clear, then sure, the grammar mistakes are not important. But, if you get the grammar wrong and your story goes astray, then these are technical errors for which you only have yourself to blame.
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And this would be my point. If the grammar mistakes make a sentence mean something other than what the writer wants it to mean, then that writer should perhaps not be a writer... or should at least have that editor of theirs question and ask about what exactly they meant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Even people who know nothing about repairing cars know that brakes get adjusted as well as repaired and replaced.
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We do?
Right. Of course I do. Now.
But the example of breaks and brakes is a good one. It proves that the rules of spelling and grammar matter, because though the two words sound the same, the spelling tells us which of the two you're talking about. Context implies, and the spelling confirms it. As with its and it's, they're and their (and there), you can figure out which one the writer means by looking at how they use it. But as why make it harder than it has to be for the reader to discern the meaning of a sentence?