Words to Write by Wednesday: It’s Grammar Time!

Admttedly I am old school (which BTW is probably spelled skool), I like guys to open doors for me, I like songs where lyrics are sung to music and I like the use of standard english rules to govern writing,

“Gotta love technology these days!” Well, I do, however, technology should not supersede good writing skiills. Some things are just sacred - or they should be. But even the dictionary adds new words every year based on popular culture and online newspapers are fraught with typos.

Txtng (texting), FB (facebook), tweeting (twitter) all have their own writing style; whether it is 140 characters. or quickie memos. Social media, while it has supposedly increased the way we communicate, has eroded the way we write. This is not a campaign to make sure schools will not change the way they teach kids to read - although it’s not a bad idea - it is a plea to encourage the use of the same grammar rules we were taught to use in school.

For example:

1.  Avoid beginning sentences with conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘because’, ‘while’ or ‘but’. This because we often leave out the subject or the verb, making it a phrase/incomplete sentence.

2.  Don’t use gimmicks (quotation marks, bold, capitalization) to make your point, use good, strong sentences. You’re writing a book or an article, not a flier.

3.  ‘Seen’ is not the past tense of ‘see’. Saw is. “I seen the accident” is incorrect. “I saw the accident” is correct. 

4.  Have a bless day is incorrect. Have a blessed day is correct.

5.  Simple errors  – your and you’re; these are not the same words. Your(s) is possessive meaning something belongs to you i.e. “your sweater” or “the ideas are yours”. While you’re is a contraction combining the words ‘you’ and ‘are’ i.e. “you’re the cream in my coffee” or “you’re not all that”  

More reminders are coming so stay tuned!

#writingtips, #manifoldgrace, #wordstowritebywednesday, #amwriter

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