Topic 5.3: Grammar Notes
Topic 3: Grammar Notes
At this point in the term, you have started taking note of problematic grammar, mechanics, and style in your essays and in the essays of your peers. You have written reports on your problems, and you have read the reports of others. The point of the exercise is for you and your classmates to assist one another collectively in ridding yourselves of grammar problems that may have persisted over time.
Everyone makes mistakes. Even the Grammar Girl Links to an external site. makes them! Listen to her story Links to an external site. about slipping up on National Public Radio (NPR) when she uses the word "fun" as an adjective!
Indeed, it is not the mistakes you make but what you learn from them that counts. Think of tackling writing errors as building a new set of grammar skills (a grammar tool belt, if you will) that will assist you in all aspects of writing during college and your future career.
You may have found in your research that some rules of writing are in conflict. How can this be? Aren't the rules of grammar, mechanics, and style hard and fast? Well, for the most part, they are. But there's always healthy debate.
Take the serial, or Oxford comma, for example. You are probably familiar with the concept of using the comma when you include several items in a series. But you may not know that academics actually argue about the usage—and that they've been doing so for years. Read Maria Kari’s article for The Nation and NPR: "Semicolon, Hyphen and No Serial Comma Links to an external site.."
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