Grammar
Problematic moments arise in each work day. Today was no exception from the tedious task of “how do I survive cube fever”. As a response to this dichotomy of hate of work and love of reading, I met the challenge in the middle with work in the morning and leisure in the afternoon. Today’s idea was to research criticism of that famous little book we get in highschool or college telling us how to write well. Now as you read my writing, forget what follows or what rules you know to be “true” grammar. There has never been a positive review of my grammar or syntax. In fact, my favorite feedback was: “Jay, you sentence structure really needs help.” That was it. The end of the feedback for a twenty page paper. Did the teacher while lying in bed, throw down his pen and give up. Or was my paper the last and to avoid work he scribbled a lie to mess with my mind but to save him time for sleep? For whatever reason, I am stuck with a memory that is part of a bigger list of reasons I have for why-you-shouldn’t-analyze-my-grammar. With needless digressions aside, the search for criticism of The Elements of Style began with Google. Wikipedia has a section of criticism–although, it is very small. It links to a hilarious article: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497. Not only is this article great at showing contradictions between the rules and the writing of the actual book, it gives us hope that a passive sentence isn’t wrong. (I felt so guilty in eleventh grade when I felt rash one day and threw passive sentences all over a paper. Surprisingly, that was the only paper I got an A on. Maybe because I left grammar worries behind to focus on the ideas?) But since I need to leave work now, I’ll leave other criticisms for this book in the google-wait-tank.
