.jpg)
When used correctly, the English language can be an amazing thing. It can be used to woo someone you love, inspire armies, or transport people to faraway places that don't exist; a good piece of prose makes you forget that someone took the time to arrange the words and construct the sentences.
Used wrongly, which is ever so often the case, it grates, feels forced and makes you well aware that some monkey-idiot must have mashed the keys or held some kind of crayon (All he can manage) in his un-dexterous fist and scrawled what could barely be recognised as anything approaching the English language.
It seems like lately I've been becoming more and more aware of the way language is constructed and what makes a good sentence. I've been busy on my dissertation, but have been stopping every few minutes or so just because I don't like the way the sentence reads. Usually it is just a case of using a comma or not using a comma, or using a colon instead of a semi-colon. But I can't continue unless I fix it, make it sound right.
Part of the reason for this, I feel, is 'The West Wing', in which they spend a lot of their time discussing the way words sound whilst writing speeches. Not only has it taught me rules about the cadence of words, but has also taught me some new ones: effete, incendiary, and the aforementioned cadence.
Another part of the reason is this very blog. Since I'm writing almost every day, excluding when I cheat, I get more of a chance to examine how I write, what works and what makes me want to hang myself. It is also quite interesting to compare how I'm writing this now, and how I'm writing my dissertation. I've trashed a thousand words of it, just so I could start again and write more casually, like I am now. Why? Because I write better like this, argue my points better, and it is just more fun.
The last little bit of the reason is that I'm spending way too much time talking to Emma who, put nicely, is very articulate and who, put nastily, is a grammar Nazi! This is a girl who corrected herself on 'Messenger' when she put "Isn;t" instead of "Isn't". Pedantic much?
I'm starting to feel like I did after a year of 'Media Studies' when I could no longer watch a film without analysing it. The negative side is that I'm spending too much time deconstructing sentences and most people don't care quite as much as I do. On the plus side, good writing means more now. I appreciate good prose so much more now, because it has passed my grammar tests.
It is a shame then that most people don't write well. It's true. You go blog-trawling and you'll discover a weird and wonderful world of spelling and grammar mistakes. No paragraphs, no commas, sometimes no full stops.
Seriously people, full stops are basic grammar! They should be the first thing you are taught in school. Without them, your writing drones on and on and on and on and, you get my point now?
Without paragraphs and commas, your writing becomes an unstructured block. That is a fact. It is hard to read and, you know what, I won't. Unless you have something really interesting to say, I won't make the effort. And if you're writing without commas and paragraphs, whatever you're saying probably isn't that interesting.
But this is all the tip of the iceberg, and only really a problem if you're writing professionally or faux-professionally (As in blogs). My issue with the general public is their utter laziness of spelling. I can deal with lack of commas, but 'u' isn't 'you'!
Quick aside: Yes, I do use 'u' to mean 'you' whilst conversing on MSN, as well as 'ur', 'wanna', etc. This just helps speed up what I type, making the whole thing resemble a real conversation.
'Lyk' is not a suitable alternative to 'like', or a word at all. It is one letter longer, and I don't get why someone would prefer it. 'Gr8' too, is not great.
Yes, I am a believer in the idea that language must evolve to fill a need in current society. But I will also happily highlight to any language mangler that the four most important words in that sentence are 'to fill a need'! Of course, with the invention of mobile phones and, arguably, the Internet, our language needed shortening to fit the form, resulting in the invention of 'gr8', 'lyk' and 'n00b'. But no-one, beyond lazy idiots who cannot see the beautiful form language can take, is asking for these new words to be used in letters, e-mails, blogs, or on TV (Newsround, I'm looking at you)!
Spell check exists for a reason. You can easily find grammar rules on the Internet. Even if you're still confused, get someone else to proof read your writing. Don't accept lazy grammar any more. Take a stand against it right now, before you turn on the TV to find yourself watching '7-3 4PPR3\71(3'
:D
PS. I understand that some people's reaction to this will be to look through what I have just written and find any grammatical or spelling errors, just to point out how high and mighty I've been, despite the fact that I make mistakes too. Let me help you with that.
I use commas way too much, you'll notice that I often cite three things when listing stuff and yes, places that don't exist can't also be faraway. (<--- Notice the rule of three again!)
Any spelling mistakes are probably typos.
The difference is that I know of and care about the rules before I bend them slightly. I know that 'alot' isn't a real word, but use it as a casual alternative to 'a lot'. And I know you shouldn't begin sentences with 'and'. Also, anything in brackets is not important enough to be there (But I like having witty asides).
I'm not perfect, but then who is? If only people who do things correctly were allowed to complain, the 'Daily Mail' wouldn't exist.
PPS. Every time I look at the title, it makes me cringe.
1 comment:
Then change the title! Duh!
Post a Comment