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Author Topic: Words and Grammar and Stuff  (Read 126269 times)

alexarch

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #390 on: August 26, 2009, 03:28:04 PM »
I'm going to point the struggling author to this thread and she's going to read your mocking posts and then she'll get all weepy and sad and probably pull her eyebrows out.

So, wait, is that a run-on sentence?  What do the rules say?!

pixote
I want you dead.

pixote

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #391 on: August 26, 2009, 03:28:39 PM »
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alexarch

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #392 on: August 26, 2009, 03:30:56 PM »
I want you dead.

Meanie!

pixote
God bless Antarctica, your avatar makes everything you type manic.

alexarch

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #393 on: August 26, 2009, 03:36:56 PM »
Here's the thing. In my writers' group, we have to critique this piece of writing. I understand that rules of grammar can and sometimes ought to be broken. As you know, I break them all the time. However, if I want to be a real writer, I ought to know when I'm breaking them. Breaking the rules should be a conscious decision, not a product of ignorance.

roujin

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #394 on: August 26, 2009, 04:00:29 PM »
My college students now have either had no grammar ever or they've collectively had their grammar memories wiped. Most of them can't even identify the subject and verb of a sentence, much less figure out what a run-on is.  ???

Hello.

pixote

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #395 on: August 26, 2009, 04:17:28 PM »
Here's the thing. In my writers' group, we have to critique this piece of writing. I understand that rules of grammar can and sometimes ought to be broken. As you know, I break them all the time. However, if I want to be a real writer, I ought to know when I'm breaking them. Breaking the rules should be a conscious decision, not a product of ignorance.

I feel ya!

But, I dunno, it seems to me (not that I know what I'm talking about) that the idea of run-on sentences is pretty much something that elementary teachers make up to get kids to throw a second period in a sentence like "I like soda my brother is a jerk."  Just a dumbed-down way of explaining sentence structure and punctuation.  Then, in high school, teachers shy away from that imaginary idea and talk more concretely about things like comma splices.  (Microsoft Word's goddamn paperclip operates at the grammar school level, of course.)

Spot the fragment!

pixote
« Last Edit: August 26, 2009, 04:22:08 PM by pixote »
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alexarch

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #396 on: August 26, 2009, 04:25:02 PM »
Just a dumbed-down way of explaining sentence structure and punctuation.
And you should never start a sentence with a conjunction.

oneaprilday

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #397 on: August 26, 2009, 04:28:48 PM »
My college students now have either had no grammar ever or they've collectively had their grammar memories wiped. Most of them can't even identify the subject and verb of a sentence, much less figure out what a run-on is.  ???

Hello.

Hi!

alexarch

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #398 on: August 26, 2009, 04:33:57 PM »
And I'm going to continue avoiding this particular piece by posting here because the piece hurts my head. It's about cops and a mystery and people speaking gruffly. Plus the author just switched from third-person limited to omniscient, and I didn't catch it. So, I was two-thirds of the way down a page before I realized I wasn't following the character that guided me into the scene.

pixote

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #399 on: August 26, 2009, 04:37:18 PM »
Just noticed the caption on your avatar.  Nice.

My biggest grammar confusion is probably still that vs. which.  I think it might be a case where I know the rules, I just don't like them.

pixote
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