Chp 1 & 2
I think the thing that I found the most interesting was at the beginning of Chapter 1 when the author mentioned that both the Greeks and Romans placed a lot of importance on the study of grammar. Being an English major, I have always associated this part of history with the importance of the art of oratory. I know that there were some written texts at the time, but I always thought that they were rare. I have always associated grammar with the written form of language and not necessarily with what is spoken.
I know we talked about how grammar was not being taught in schools, so my question is this,
Do you think it is important to know grammar in order to be a good writer?
I have very definite opinions about this question but I would like to know what the rest of the group thinks about this.
posted by grammar gal @ 8:10 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I love that question. I think it's a great one. I don't know if it's absolutely necessary to understand grammar to be a good writer. However, I think that it is important to understand how language is put together so that you are more aware of what you can do with writing. This will probably make a person a better writer. Not knowing how to present ideas or phrases things effectively and clearly in a sentence can really diminish a person's capacity to express what they truly want to. I think the more knowledge we have about how language works, the more likely we are to have the ability to write better if we apply ourselves. Knowing all your options is a powerful thing.
It is definitely important to know how to use grammar in order to be a good writer. When speaking, it is possible to dismiss grammar errors because the certain verbal factors, specifically voice intonation and familiarity with everyday speaking habits, negate them. However, this is not possible in writing. Because of this, it is important to use good grammar in writing to ensure that the audience will understand.
I think anyone can be a writer, so I guess my answer to the question would be no. However, I believe to be an effective writer, you should have some knowledge of grammar and the workings of language in order to produce certain effects on the reader that will make your writing successful. On the other hand, I believe the most important thing about a piece of writing is how you feel about it and not other people, although this would probably depend on your purpose.
I think it's very important to understand grammar to be a good writer. But, I only say that because, by knowing good grammar, you can experiment and use 'bad' grammar to get your point across. Sometimes you may need a little crazy 'wordage' to get your point across, and if it takes a little bad grammar for that to happen, more power to you!
I also think that you kneed to know grammar for beeing a good writer. Often ungrammatical sentences are exhausting to read and also to understand, so not stickung to grammar when writing a book, might end up in mmaking it boring or just not worth reading as it takes you too long to get the sense or the message of sentences.
I absolutely agree that to be a good writer, one needs to understand grammar. Pretty much everything everybody said speaks for my opinion. If your sentences are too wordy or too staccato, then the reader has a hard time understanding what the writer is trying to say.
I think one can be a good writer (prose style) without being good at grammar. However, I think that to really flourish, the writer must grasp the function of grammar in a sentence; otherwise, no matter how eloquently one has written, strong writing can be hamstrung by poor grammar.
Your comment about oratory made me think about politics today. Our political leaders may or may not know anything about grammatical rules, but you can bet their speech writers know more than most people. Grammar is still very important in speech. I cringe when I hear people speak with poor grammar, even when they are my friends. Maybe that makes me pompous, but I'm not the only person who feels this way. How well you speak influences whether or not people take you seriously. Poor spoken grammar could cost a politician an election, it could cost a lawyer a case, and it could even cost a college graduate a job.
Interesting question. In my opinion, grammar is very important and also not very important. I think you can be a good writer without knowing grammar. Being a good writer goes beyond rules and punctuation but into creation and complexity of stories and ideas. Creativity has no rules associated with it, so when it comes to developing concepts for writing grammar plays no rule. However, if the writing is written in a way that grammatical errors appear in a large amount, it becomes distracting for the reader. This can kcause some people to believe someone is a poor writer, when in reality they are poor grammatarians, not poor writers.
I think that grammar helps the audience to understand what is being written in a rudimentory sense. However, I think it is more important that the writer have an understanding of how language affects AND effects an audience. If a writter has the ability to affect and effect his or her audience with their words than I consider that person a good writter. I don't think that perfect grammar is necessarily needed to be able to bring about an emotional reaction from the audience.
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