Grammar
Grammar. Just say the word and shivers of aversion travel down the spines of all within hearing distance. Nouns and verbs? Adjectives and adverbs? Is it really necessary to be aware of all these things in order to write a paragraph? Will the reader not be able to work around the tiniest little typo? No. Or, rather, they shouldn’t have to. The reader’s job is to absorb the information: it’s the writer’s job to do the rest of the work.
Why do we bother with grammar? Why not just communicate with words? Because you can’t have one without the other. Letters are put together to make words, words are put together to make sentences, and grammar is the glue that holds it all together. If you don’t use the glue properly – or if you use the wrong glue – all it'll falls well then a parts. Obviously, grammar is entirely necessary, or else you’d be able to understand the last part of that sentence. While most writers are not likely to write anything as catastrophic as that, it’s clear that attention to grammar is important. (It’s okay, though: you don’t have to like the grammar.)
Grammar. Just say the word and shivers of aversion travel down the spines of all within hearing distance. Nouns and verbs? Adjectives and adverbs? Is it really necessary to be aware of all these things in order to write a paragraph? Will the reader not be able to work around the tiniest little typo? No. Or, rather, they shouldn’t have to. The reader’s job is to absorb the information: it’s the writer’s job to do the rest of the work.
Why do we bother with grammar? Why not just communicate with words? Because you can’t have one without the other. Letters are put together to make words, words are put together to make sentences, and grammar is the glue that holds it all together. If you don’t use the glue properly – or if you use the wrong glue – all it'll falls well then a parts. Obviously, grammar is entirely necessary, or else you’d be able to understand the last part of that sentence. While most writers are not likely to write anything as catastrophic as that, it’s clear that attention to grammar is important. (It’s okay, though: you don’t have to like the grammar.)
Punctuation
If you can handle a period and a comma, you’re probably capable of communicating absolutely everything necessary in English; if you’re able to boil water, you could also cook enough food to keep yourself fed, but wouldn’t you get really sick of eating nothing but boiled food? Being able to use a wide variety of punctuation marks is akin to good cooking: you’re able to control flavors and textures to make something amazing!
Punctuation marks show the reader how the words would sound if they were spoken: where the speaker would take a breath, which words were whispered, and which were shouted with excitement. Punctuation marks connect ideas or disconnect them, compare them or contrast them. Words can be differentiated with a hyphen or an apostrophe. By having all the punctuation marks – all these tools – at your disposal, you’ll be able to create powerful sentences which clearly communicate even the most difficult of concepts to your reader.
If you can handle a period and a comma, you’re probably capable of communicating absolutely everything necessary in English; if you’re able to boil water, you could also cook enough food to keep yourself fed, but wouldn’t you get really sick of eating nothing but boiled food? Being able to use a wide variety of punctuation marks is akin to good cooking: you’re able to control flavors and textures to make something amazing!
Punctuation marks show the reader how the words would sound if they were spoken: where the speaker would take a breath, which words were whispered, and which were shouted with excitement. Punctuation marks connect ideas or disconnect them, compare them or contrast them. Words can be differentiated with a hyphen or an apostrophe. By having all the punctuation marks – all these tools – at your disposal, you’ll be able to create powerful sentences which clearly communicate even the most difficult of concepts to your reader.
Mechanics
The mechanics of writing are the boring parts, the most obvious aspects of writing. These are all the things that you learned in grade school like spelling and capitalization (the kind of thing you had to do thousands of worksheets on, the things your teacher marked in bright red ink). While the basics may seem like they’re a little below you at the moment, they’re as worthy of your attention as the more involved aspects like research and citation.
The mechanics of writing play two parts: they aid in communication, and they show how much effort you’ve put into your work. The reader depends on small things like italics to identify the title of a book or a foreign word, and an apostrophe to differentiate between its and it’s. Even if the reader could figure out what was going on, typos and sloppy writing make it clear that the writer has no commitment to the work; if the writer has no commitment, why should the reader? As with anything else, the sum is only as good as the parts.
The mechanics of writing are the boring parts, the most obvious aspects of writing. These are all the things that you learned in grade school like spelling and capitalization (the kind of thing you had to do thousands of worksheets on, the things your teacher marked in bright red ink). While the basics may seem like they’re a little below you at the moment, they’re as worthy of your attention as the more involved aspects like research and citation.
The mechanics of writing play two parts: they aid in communication, and they show how much effort you’ve put into your work. The reader depends on small things like italics to identify the title of a book or a foreign word, and an apostrophe to differentiate between its and it’s. Even if the reader could figure out what was going on, typos and sloppy writing make it clear that the writer has no commitment to the work; if the writer has no commitment, why should the reader? As with anything else, the sum is only as good as the parts.
Sentence style and sentence clarity
Spices are good.
Spices are tasty.
Spices are used in cooking.
Spices make cooking good.
Spices make cooking tasty.
Variety is the spice of life; variety is also necessary if you’re going to keep your reader alert while they’re reading your writing. If you give your reader the same stuff over and over again, they’ll just get bored and stop reading. When you’re trying to explain a lot of things, there’s a tendency to concentrate on what is being explained rather than how it’s being explained; this is rather rough on your reader if they have to read page after page of the same sentence.
There are usually several ways to write a sentence. By varying the word placement and the sentence length, you’ll not only keep your reader awake, you’ll be able to emphasize to your reader which information is the most important. By choosing your vocabulary carefully, you’ll broaden your audience to include readers who don’t understand jargon or specific terminology. While this may seem like icing on the cake, we all know that iced cakes are easier to sell than plain ones… and selling the information is the sole purpose of formal writing.
Spices are good.
Spices are tasty.
Spices are used in cooking.
Spices make cooking good.
Spices make cooking tasty.
Variety is the spice of life; variety is also necessary if you’re going to keep your reader alert while they’re reading your writing. If you give your reader the same stuff over and over again, they’ll just get bored and stop reading. When you’re trying to explain a lot of things, there’s a tendency to concentrate on what is being explained rather than how it’s being explained; this is rather rough on your reader if they have to read page after page of the same sentence.
There are usually several ways to write a sentence. By varying the word placement and the sentence length, you’ll not only keep your reader awake, you’ll be able to emphasize to your reader which information is the most important. By choosing your vocabulary carefully, you’ll broaden your audience to include readers who don’t understand jargon or specific terminology. While this may seem like icing on the cake, we all know that iced cakes are easier to sell than plain ones… and selling the information is the sole purpose of formal writing.