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My Writer's Journal

What's the Matter with Grammar?

I remember learning to write, probably because my mother saved some of my first efforts, but, oddly, I don't remember learning to read. I don't remember learning grammar, either, but it must have happened before 6th grade, because by the time I was in junior high (7th grade), I had it down. By the time I was in high school, Miss Frankenberry had taken over my writing life (see Grammar Dragon), and she simply didn't allow anyone to use bad grammar. Misspellings didn't go down well. And when I was a college freshman and took whatever that Writing 101 course was, 3 errors of any kind (grammar, spelling, punctuation) in a writing assignment and you were down one letter grade. Didn't matter how brilliant or creative your writing was--if you couldn't write correctly, well then, you weren't really writing.

So whatever happened to that idea? I worked with some 7th graders at the zoo this summer, and I could barely translate their sentences. 2 mch txting, I think. There was also this notion for awhile among educators that making kids write correctly somehow impeded their creative process; better just to let it flooooowwww. Were they kidding? I hope that has changed. At the risk of sounding like an old fartress, let me just say that grammar and spelling, and punctuation, too, are the basic tools of writing, and if you haven't mastered those skills, you're not going to get anywhere.
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