Quote:
Originally Posted by mukoan
Thanks one and all for the responses. A lot of food for thought here... I really appreciate it.
Hi Rhadin: The example you've provided clearly illustrates your point, and it makes sense the way you've described it. It highlights exactly what I suspected was wrong with the sentence, (and the whole reason I posted the question). My only problem is that even though the sentence appears to be syntactically correct... it just kind of sounds wrong now, (to my admittedly very amateurish ears). For some reason my brain still wants to replace that "is" with a "was", even though that would be again mixing past tense with present tense. Perhaps it's just a case of re-training my slow brain correctly  |
The problem with "sounds wrong" is that it ignores what is being conveyed. The sentence may sound wrong but accurately convey what is meant, whereas it may sound right and not only not convey what is meant accurately, but cause the reader to stop and contemplate a sentence that doesn't deserve contemplation.
The difference between a great writer and a so-so (at best) writer is that the great writer understands the purpose of grammar and attempts to be grammatical except where it would impede something like character development. In the example you provided, I see no reason to be ungrammatical and I certainly wouldn't want a reader to pause and contemplate that particular sentence. It doesn't strike me as being
the focus sentence (and I may be wrong as I am reading it in isolation).
An author needs to keep in mind that there is a difference between oral communication and written communication. Oral communication can be more lax because there are other important cues to guide the listener; those cues are missing in written communication.
If we were to accept the "sounds wrong/right" perspective for writing, then we should accept
seams and
seems as being interchangeable spellings of the same word, as in: "She seams to coordinate her clothing." Or we could accept spelling of
quick as
kwik; they certainly both sound correct (as does
great and
gr8).
Finally, tense matters. Using the correct tense tells a reader when something supposedly happened/happens. Mixing tenses leaves a reader wondering whether it happened or is happening, and shows an author's poor command of his/her writing.