Are You a Stickler for Good Grammar?
“I don’t like to end sentences with prepositions,” my friend said while we were discussing ways to restructure a sentence.
“But it’s fiction. That’s a whole different ballgame,” I told her, “In college, as a creative writing major, I was taught to learn the rules, then break them.”
Writers need to value good grammar, but sometimes being creative means breaking the rules.
Good Grammar vs. Breaking the Rules
There are countless arguments for sticking to the rules of good grammar, just as there countless reasons to break those rules.
Ultimately, each writer has to decide whether or not to be a stickler for good grammar. Some writers intentionally toss out the rules, and develop a writing style that’s outside of the rules. Others adhere to proper grammar strictly and evenly.
Maybe there’s a nice spot in the middle – where you learn the rules and then figure out when it’s appropriate or desirable to break them.
Grammar is Good
Practicing proper grammar has its advantages:
- Adhering to strict grammar rules demonstrates superior language and writing skills.
- A thorough knowledge of grammar is a sign of intelligence in a writer.
- Accurate grammar indicates a writer who has mastered the craft.
- Following grammar rules all the time adds an interesting challenge to the writing process.
- Practicing good grammar keeps the language consistent and concise with well-defined rules.
Rules Are Made to Be Broken
If you do break the rules of grammar, it sure helps to know them first. Otherwise, your writing might come off as amateurish. If you’re planning on letting your good grammar go bad (or at least naughty), then make sure you know the difference between good grammar, lawless grammar, and plain bad grammar.
- Since spoken language rarely adheres to proper grammar, writing that relieves itself of the rules can be easier for readers to absorb.
- Dialog that sticks to the rules of grammar can sound unnatural.
- Taking creative license with one’s art means breaking the rules.
- Bending the rules can add punch, as in starting a sentence with a conjunction.
- Ignoring the rules, or tweaking them, can help a writer develop a personal style.
Your Thoughts on Grammar
Do you think good grammar is important for writers to master? Should we even bother with all those annoying rules? Many writers feel that we should focus on voice or story and leave grammar to proofreaders and copyeditors. Others say that understanding proper grammar is a basic writing skill.
What’s your position?
Share your thoughts on good grammar and breaking the rules of grammar in the comments.
This is the best summarization I’ve read for the to-do or not-to-do, pro v. con schools of adherence to grammar in fiction or satire. While adherence is certainly necessary in journalistic or technical writing, and professional correspondence, it’s nice to relax when writing for entertainment. Admittedly, this is something over which I anguished until I noted how successfully Elmore Leonard uses small departures in the dialogue of his characters. The departures can be used to establish specific, tangible personalities in a medium that lacks the telltales of inflections and mannerisms. Certainly an author can establish these devices in the descriptions of his/her characters, but it’s much more compelling if the characters do so for themselves via dialogue. Likewise, departures from grammar are especially useful in establishing tones and/or themes in experiential satires.