On February 2nd, Minnesota Public Radio aired a show called "The Grammar Geeks" on Kerri Miller's Midmorning show, featuring Merrill Perlman and Lisa McLendon (hear the full show: http://http//minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/02/02/midmorning2/). How convenient! This presented an opportunity for me to learn what the general populous is saying about grammar.
The first point that the guests made is that lots of people apply the overarching "rule," "If it sounds right to my ear, it must be right." This makes me think about the dreaded "pause" rule for commas. I tell ya, if I had a dime for every time a student told me that they "just put in a comma where there feels like there's a pause," I'd be able to purchase an iPad (oh iPad...how I wish you were mine).
They also discussed the comma splice (e.g. That horse has three legs, it gets around fine.). I always thought that the rule was pretty clear: a comma splice is two complete sentences separated out by a comma (where there should be a period or semicolon). Apparently, though, as would be true in the above horse example, if the sentences are heading in the same direction (you could put a "but" in there and the sentences would make sense together), it's not technically a comma splice, to which I say, "Mere semantics!" I will put my hand over my heart and swear most solemnly that my horse example is still a comma splice.
Also, did you know that some people were taught to spell "dilemma" as "dilemna"?? Wowsa.
Regarding semicolons: They explained the rules for semicolons (use instead of a period to connect two complete sentences that are related; use to separate out items in a list in which the items themselves have commas), and suggested that people are afraid of using semicolons. On an editorial note, I find that when I teach students the semicolon rules (specifically connecting two complete sentences), they start getting crazy with the semicolons in their writing. Sometimes I'll see four or five semicolons in a single paragraph, and then we have to have the conversation about variety. "A" for effort though, right?
They went on to discuss "fewer" and "less" (use "less" for things that can't be counted, like water; use "fewer" for things that can be counted) and one gentleman's irritation over the "Ten Items or Less" for express lanes at Target. The Grammar Geeks asserted, though, that because no one gets confused when "less" is used incorrectly on express lane signs, the distinction is becoming moot. This is an interesting point, actually--sure, there are rules that govern language usage, but are the rules really that important when meaning is in no way lost?
This was followed up by the Big Question: Why teach grammar at all? The Geeks said that it's important because we need a structure to learn language and to understand one another. There's a difference between teaching The Rules, though, and understanding the fluidity of language and the differences of audiences (gee, that sounds like something I've blogged about here before...).
They also discussed passive voice ("Mistakes were made.") Some people go crazy about passive voice and say that it should never be used, but I have to agree with the Grammar Geeks when they said that passive voice is fine when the action is more important than the actor. For example, the passive voice in the sentence "The thief was apprehended" might be okay because the whole point is that the bad guy got caught, so who caught them isn't quite as important. In the above "Mistakes were made" example, however, it's pretty important that we know who made the mistakes, so in this case, the passive voice is pretty annyoing. I like this idea and hadn't thought about this distinction before.
They also talked about the idea that grammar can be used to make people who don't effectively use standard written English feel bad--they'll be judged. This is also a concept I discussed in previous posts, and the Geeks reinforced the idea of of understanding your audience and, in writing in a professional setting, it's important for folks to know the rules for standard written English because it's generally agreed-upon. It sounds like I'm on the right track in my research and, on a side note, though I love reading, it's been nice to "listen" to research for a change of pace.
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