Grammar and Usage Resources

By now, you know surface level errors--errors dealing with punctuation, spelling, and usage-- aren't as important as you were led to believe in high school. Yes, they matter; but, most audiences are willing to read through a reasonable number of surface level mistakes to get at your deep message. Having said this, there's a grammar Nazi in almost everyone.

This past summer, I helped to hire a new English professor at Reynolds. As part of the hiring process, I read over sixty applications for the job. I shared my part of this reading with a computer instructor from the Business program, and I lost count of the number of times he said something like, "If they misspell X, do we want them teaching English?" I didn't go into my, pay-attention-to-what-they-are-saying, not-how-they-are-saying-it routine." Why? Because, to him as an audience, these issues matter.

You need to pay attention to surface level issues because you don't know when and to whom they will matter. You know they almost always matter in a job applications, where any difference in ability will help your audience weed the pile of applications down to the best of the bunch. You hope, when writing your significant other a love letter, your audience is paying attention to your deep level meaning and not your spelling. Think about getting a love letter back with zero comments on content and marked in red for grammar.

The truth is, there's no big secret to mastering grammar, and it isn't true that some folks are better at grammar than others. After all, a part Native kid from a mill town in North Carolina got a doctorate in English, and he still struggles with usage and grammar. Believe me, if I can master grammar well enough to major in English, anyone can. Even you. (Take that Ms. Robins--the 9th English teacher who said I'd never get through college English.) All such mastery takes is the right approach and right attitude.

Think Kaizen, that is, tackling your worst grammar problem, learning to recognize and fix it, and moving onto the next problem. This skill set is one you are learning this week. To help you, I thought I would refer you to some resources to help you with your research. You get Protestant Good Works points for any other useful resource to which you refer the class.

Don't say, "Uck! Grammar. That's boring." Life is full of boring tasks you do because it will help you look a tad less dumb, improve your ethos, and--in general--do better at difficult ongoing tasks like writing. Then again, I am not a grammar Nazi, nor am I a grammar nerd. My advice? Lose the attitude. It isn't helping. Mastering grammar (and writing and most anything) is just a matter of taking the bit into your teeth, realizing you have a long road ahead (look at the banner on the class blog), and getting on with the next step...

If you can, enjoy. If you can't enjoy, look at these links anyway, and think of England.

Steve


A list of common usage errors in English:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

"Five Common Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb":

http://www.copyblogger.com/5-common-mistakes-that-make-you-look-dumb/

The "Blog" of "Unnecessay" Quotation Marks:

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/


Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tricks to Improve Your Writing ("Yes, Virginia, there are grammar nerds."):

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

Purdue's Online Writing Lab's (OWL's) Handouts on Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/

The Rules of Comma Usage:

http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp