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>To defend, or perhaps just give some perspective on your experience with
>people knowing their grammar, I must respond with a rhetorical question.
>*Must* I be able to explain right away every grammar rule in the book
>*during an interview?* I have to say, I find this akin to being asked to
>explain Frame's autonumbering or some such tool procedure off the top of my
>head. If I've worked with it in the last month, I can probably explain it
to
>you. If I haven't, then I may need a little time (say 30 minutes or so)
>working with it before I can remember how to explain it to someone else.
>Give me a day with a grammar book to refresh my rusted memory and I'll be
>good to go.
I have to agree with Lisa, and add that most of us don't approach writing
with grammar rules in mind, but rather we work from tried and true mechanics
that just happen to also be grammatically sound. Emphasis is on technique
and "style" rather than textbook grammar. I quote style because, as you
know, there's more than one style guide out there and which one you use is
dependent on your audience. I currently have a well thumbed copy of the
Chicago Manual of Style on my desk because it is the preferred style for
what I am doing, but prior to working where I do now I didn't even have a
copy. I say check the applicants ability to apply the mechanics, rather than
to remember long lists of rules they haven't seen since college (or
high-school for some).
Like Lisa, I taught grammar prior to becoming a technical writer at my
current company (and I was a techie before that). IMO nothing teachers you
grammar better than having to teach it to a dozen or so twelve-year-old
Korean students. If you think comma placement is an issue here, try undoing
statements made by previous non-native English teachers like "Listen to the
sentence out-loud and place a comma everywhere you'd normally take a
breath."
Charles T. Rich
Technical Writer
Product Development
Follett Software Company
BTW the comma placement by breath thingy doesn't work very well, especially
if you just sprinted to your desk.
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