Some Grammar Frustration

It continues to amaze me how many grammar rules I have forgotten—not that I never use them, but that I can’t explain the rules or why I place a comma where I do, etc.. I remember learning about conjunctions, but I don’t remember what I learned. Though, now maybe I will remember with the acronym FANBOYS, since acronyms help me to remember. For me, writing has become simply something I do; it’s not something I overly think about.

Even this last week I was asked by a friend what part of writing “is” was and I couldn’t remember, then we learned it was a linking verb in class. I never really think about what part of grammar a word falls into, I simply write. If it sounds funny, then I change the sentence until I am satisfied with it.

With all the different rules, it makes me wonder how often I am wrong in the way I write. The idea of being all wrong is scary and allows me to appreciate how students must feel when they turn in their work and then get all red back. It’s not a pleasant feeling. Especially since even when I do learn a grammar rule, every once in a while I still get mixed up and have to remind myself of the correct rule—even when I’ve been using that rule for years!

Though I think it’s important that students know the basic rules, I don’t want them to feel like they are set in stone—after all, sometimes the rules can be broken on purpose and it adds a deeper level of richness to one’s writing. I don’t want them to get so caught up in the rules of grammar that they forget how to write freely and creatively. The rules simply help our writing make more sense and be understandable to those who read it—it is essentially the way we talk written on paper, with all the pauses, stops, excitement. I don’t want my students to hate writing because they get so caught up in the rules of it; I want my students to know the basics so they can write better and be understood. Few things are more frustrating that not being understood, especially when you have an important point to make.

Question: In teaching students grammar rules, how do you prevent them from becoming frustrated with all the rules?

Creative vs. Academic

As much as I love writing, reading, and English in general, it’s weird to me that I never really gave much attention to subject—verb—object agreement. I knew what it was and I knew in general how to locate each, but I never really thought about it and how it worked—like what would happen if you removed one or switched them around. I’ve never taken the time out to actually check if a sentence is complete or not in someone’s writing. If it sounds odd, I can generally pick out what needs to be fixed, but never really focused on the why.

As one who enjoys creative writing (both the reading of novels and the writing), I’ve always figured that “errors” were intentional. Like using a single word sentence to add emphasis—incorrect grammatically, but creatively it works. However, if that single word sentence had been used in a report or a research paper, I probably would have freaked out. Seriously. I suppose examples like this are why we’re not allowed to use creative writing pieces in class—because creative writing seems to have its own set of rules.

But I did not know about the different kinds of verbs. I had no idea that there were transitive and intransitive verbs. Granted, I’ve used them all my life, but I never stopped to consider how sometimes a verb did not have an object/noun attached to it or whether that was right or wrong. If it sounded odd, then I would mentally fix it in my head (unless it was me checking someone’s work). I guess it’s like Barbara said, we’ve used most of these rules in our own writing, now we’re just naming what we use.


It still surprises me how the rules I thought were “rules,” really weren’t rules at all. Rather, they were someone’s interpretation of a grammar gray area. BUT even if the rules are not rules, there are still times when it is appropriate and times when it is not.

As a creative writer, I break the rules intentionally at times—though I honestly could not tell you when, since I just put what feels and sounds right. BUT even when I break them, I do it with intention and a purpose. For example, I use short choppy sentences to confuse readers (so they feel the confusion of the person they are reading about) and to add a tense feeling of suspense; I also use one word sentences to emphasize a point or to add to the drama of the situation. It’s so cool to me how grammar can change the mood, meaning, and feel of a story!


Question: Are there ever times in academic and/or professional writing when it would be appropriate to break the rules of grammar (I’m not talking gray areas)?

Gray Areas

It’s interesting to me how there are gray areas in grammar. I always thought grammar was right or wrong—black or white. I was always taught that if there is an “s” at the end of a noun and it was supposed to be a possessive noun then all one had to do was put an apostrophe. Granted, I knew that it could be Chris’s vs. Chris’, but at I thought that was just a matter of preference. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as “house style grammar” where there were multiple gray areas in regards to apostrophes, dashes, ellipses, commas (before an “and” or not?).


One “house style” which I noticed in People magazine is in regards to numbers. I had always been told that when a number is less than ten, you spell it out; if over 10, then you could write the number. But People magazine seems to spell numbers out only when they are used as a noun—which seems odd to me, because of what I have been taught, but at least they are consistent in this method (at least, as far as I have seen). They also only use periods between acronyms if they are part of the title of the piece, otherwise they leave the periods out.

I honestly can’t figure out whether gray areas are a good thing in grammar or a bad thing. Gray areas make it difficult to pin down exactly what to use, but they also leave freedom to create style. These gray areas are FUN, STYLISTIC, CREATIVE. But they are also DIFFICULT, INCONSISTANT, TROUBLESOME. It’s hard to pin down whether it’s a good or bad thing that there is gray, rather than simply right and wrong answers. There are benefits and downfalls to the lack of regularity in grammar.

For example, I think it’s cool that writers can choose their own “house style,” since it’s a writer’s style that makes them individuals and separates them from other writers. But my problem is in teaching grammar, how does one know what to teach? Do we need to teach every rule, every style, and every gray area? It seems rather inconstant, since what one teacher says is right might not be true for another teacher who would mark it as wrong.

However, in a lot of ways, the lack of congruence is unfair. After all, my students are going to be taught one way of grammar, but another teacher later down the line may use a different form of grammar. Who is right? How is this fair to students who are being taught more than one way? Wouldn’t that seem to make teaching grammar inconsistent and confusing for them?