Grammar debate to death

[Surf314]

I agree with you pretty much verbatim crystal. Some of my favorite writers were very big on stripping out all the unnecessary stuff and letting the writing stand on it's content alone. Also style guides annoy me but they try to set up some sort of consistency in a field. Also you think that's bad you'd lose 50 points for a fact error which includes not capatilizing Dumpster (trademark). I still get nervous everytime I write it.

[SBCrystal]

This reminds me of a mild debate I found on Amazon over a book called The Blue Book of Grammar (the comments are near the bottom of the page). Untill I saw this I had no idea that grammar was debated.

My big annoyance is when ppl over use "...." between everything they say.

Example:
I was at the store.... and suddenly.... my butt exploded.... and everyone was there..... everyone... I was soooooooooo....... embarrassed.

Oh and currently I am reading Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.

Cake, that is a really good book! Grammar Girl rocks!

For people who are interested in the English language as a hobby or just for fun I recommend:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss
Woe is I by Patricia O'Connor

They are both quite funny and easy to read. They also explain more complicated concepts quite well.

For people who are hardcore (like me):

Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (a.k.a THE BIBLE)

[Surf314]

Honest I think you are one of the few people I enjoy being anal 

[Surf314]

Crystal maybe you can help me find a book I heard about on NPR. It collects all the regional uses of language and sayings. I guess it is basically a book on different English dialects.

[cakegirl]

[quote author=-ITF- Cake link=topic=3418.msg104567#msg104567 date=1249682562]
This reminds me of a mild debate I found on Amazon over a book called The Blue Book of Grammar (the comments are near the bottom of the page). Untill I saw this I had no idea that grammar was debated.

My big annoyance is when ppl over use "...." between everything they say.

Example:
I was at the store.... and suddenly.... my butt exploded.... and everyone was there..... everyone... I was soooooooooo....... embarrassed.

Oh and currently I am reading Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.

Cake, that is a really good book! Grammar Girl rocks!

For people who are interested in the English language as a hobby or just for fun I recommend:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss
Woe is I by Patricia O'Connor

They are both quite funny and easy to read. They also explain more complicated concepts quite well.

For people who are hardcore (like me):

Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (a.k.a THE BIBLE)

[/quote]

I am planning on buying or giving in and paying my library fines and checking out Eat, Shoots and Leaves. I have heard it is very good. 

[Honest]

Honest I think you are one of the few people I enjoy being anal 

<3<3<3

Also when I read the first post in this thread, all I could think of were the Twilight books and how that's a shining example of commabuse.

[Duck, Duck, Goose]

grammar is useless

durp

[rumsfald]

She thinks it shows you are educated and challenges the reader to get on your level.

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.
            - Woodrow Wilson

Also, I believer in the power of the Oxford Comma to reduce ambiguity, and to rock.

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

[JoKeRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR]

im going to be an english major like ur wife maybe we could get together n talk about english then have sex?

anyways, more punctuation=less ambiguity; more punctuation=more confusing (sometimes), therefore less ambiguity=more confusing (sometimes)?

moral of the story is get yo point across with as little punctuation as possible but still keeping the point pointy!

[ainmosni]

I'd like to weigh in as a non-native and, at the moment, not too sober English speaker.

I've learnt english mostly by "feeling" the language. I've never been one for rules although that goes just as much for my Dutch as my English. I just look at a sentence and if it "feels" right it usually is. Overpunctuating makes a sentence feel awkard but underpunctuating makes it feel even worse. The main use of language is to get your message across and many of the distinctions in a language are there to remove the ambiguity of your message.

In my opinion, there is a definite decline in the written lingual skills of the average person. When you point out the correct spelling or the correct way of writing their message, you are called anal, pretentious or the internet standard "grammar nazi". All these nuances in the language have developed for the sake of clarity. Of course, this doesn't mean that one should use the most "classy" word possible but using correct language and punctuation will make communication a lot easier, especially on the receiving end. Don't forget that, when we communicate using written language, there is none of the natural rhythm or inclination that we take for granted when a message is communicated verbally. Something that sounds very straightforward when you "hear" it in your mind might become incomprehensible if written without the appropriate punctuation and/or spelling.

To illustrate my point on why these things are important, consider these two sentences:

I've helped my Uncle, Jack, off a horse.
ive helped my uncle jack off a horse.

They use exactly the same words but convey a totally different meaning.

So to make a long story short, I think that correctness in language is more important than trying to show that you're educated by constructing overly complex sentences with needlessly "expensive" words.

Edit: Because of this reasoning, I didn't vote because I would vote for a balance betwen the two.

[Luinbariel]

Yeah I didn't vote for similar reasons.


Very well said Ain.

[Sponson]

"fucking a dude"
"Whoops, I meant fucking a, dude"

[Duck, Duck, Goose]

"fucking a dude"
"Whoops, I meant fucking a, dude"

ahaha, that's happened to one of my friends on a facebook picture

and actually, it's "fucking a' dude" if you want to use proper grammar, durp... comma not necessary i believe, but not too sure