Quote:
Originally Posted by AnotherCat
I also had no problem understanding what you meant. I also found that the usage in the header of your post attracted my attention "What is this about, interesting perhaps" I thought.
But I do accept that some readers have difficulties understanding or accepting the likes of colloquialisms, idioms, humor and sarcasm in writing. The following are just my own views and how I feel within myself, so just personal not lecturing.
I have no problem with accepting that idioms, colloquialisms, use of foreign words, use of social and cultural language, creation of new words, playing with grammar, etc. are all part of the wealth of the English language and contribute to its health, growth and evolution. Many of these things, with time, become mainstream and if they did not the language would not have evolved past its beginnings.
So I think it is best when writing to forget about those who give the impression that the rules of language and informative communication are set in stone, and deviation from them is an error (some seem to think even a sin and jump in to criticize). If they were correct I feel that we would never have had some of the works of writers such as Dickens (e.g. a creator of words), Twain (e.g. use of idiom), etc.. Change can happen quite quickly and "to boldly go" is now familiar to and acceptable to most of us, as are other split infinitives; in fact jokes are now made of those who still insist such are grammatically incorrect. It is about communication, flow of the prose, interesting plays on grammar and words, and liveliness, not about worrying about sticklers to rules.
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I make my living from writing (technical stuff, not fiction), and for the material I write, clarity and lack of ambiguity are the most important characteristics of it. Of course the "rules" of language aren't set in stone, and they do indeed evolve over time, but I would respectfully maintain that being able to write grammatically correct English (or whatever language one happens to be writing in) is an essential skill for the author and, alas, one which many appear not to possess these days. It's fine to deliberately "break the rules" on occasions in order to achieve a desired effect, but before you do break the rules, you'd better know what the rules are!
The company I work for takes on a number of apprentices every year, and unfortunately it's rare to find one who's capable of writing coherent English. I don't know what children are taught in English lessons in British schools these days, but grammar appears not to be among the skills they're taught. I daren't let our customers see the stuff that most of them write - it's not fit for purpose.
I think we're saying essentially the same thing here: there's nothing wrong with innovation in the appropriate context. The issues arise when people just don't know how to write formally when the occasion does require it.