Writing on Writing: Style It Takes

It’s National Grammar Day! Okay, there went the last vestige of my excitement. Not that there’s anything wrong with grammar, in and of itself. We need a few rules so that the words we set down on the screen, the page, or pretty much anywhere else will make sense to someone besides ourselves. Or are grammar rules too much to put up with? Let’s try to somehow get to the bottom of this.

As you might’ve guessed, that last paragraph is riddled with grammatical errors. In fact, there are probably a handful in there besides even the ones I put there on purpose. Right off the top of my head, I’m seeing a rhetorical question, a split infinitive, and a sentence ending with a preposition, and frankly (to quote Rhett Butler), I don’t give a damn.

It’s not as though grammar is useless, or something that we should leave to gather dust as soon as we’ve finished with school. It should be borne in mind, though, that grammar and style are but two of several facets that make up your writing, and there’s no more sense in being a grammar Nazi than there is in getting yourself in a lather over, say, voice.

There’s also the minor fact that many of the grammar “rules” above cited, aren’t. They’re common usage, sure, but then so are using apostrophes to form the plural of words, fanny packs, and heroin. In other words, because they’re common doesn’t make them right. Remember your audience (who also have to sit through what you’ve written), and remember to use the right tool for the job. Stick to the essentials, but (in this writer’s humble opinion) err on the side of readability.

Consider the following examples:
“Mother, may Bobby and I go to the store? I need to secure laces with which to tie my sneakers. Mine seem to have broken.”

Now, this:
“Hey, Ma, can me and Bobby go to the store? I gotta buy laces ’cause mine are busted and my sneakers are falling off!”

Okay, the first example doesn’t have anything wrong with it, strictly speaking. But unless your experience of reading–and, mind you, of life–is limited to something circa Dick and Jane, most people don’t speak that way. The second version, warts n’ all, is probably more recognizable, and more true to the ear, although the sentence’s protagonist is more likely to be going to the store in order to steal a pair of headphones and as many packs of gum as he can possibly stuff in his socks. Just saying.

So yes, there’s a place for proper grammar in finding and using a good writing style. If yours isn’t up to snuff, though, throw up your hands, let loose with a hearty, “Aw, screw it!” and just write. The niceties will come along later, probably courtesy of some well-intentioned reader or readers who will, trust me, be more than happy to point out all your mistakes to you. Including some that aren’t, really.

Postscript one:
National Grammar Day website
One article (and another) on grammar that sparked this post.

Postscript two, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Writing style

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