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Subject:Re: Is Grammar Important? From:Lisa Higgins <lisarea -at- LUCENT -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 21 May 1998 11:52:35 +0000
> Is good grammar important for effective technical communications? About
> six months ago, I read a book on procedures writing that said "Numerous
> studies have concluded that there is no correlation at all between
> effective technical communications and grammar".
OK. I'm going to let the grammar/usage issue drop this time.
I still don't know what 'grammar' means in this context.
Write simply and clearly.
Use idioms only if they're appropriate and unambiguous.
Ignore, for the most part, those who tell you not to split
infinitives or end sentences in prepositions and stuff like that.
More often than not, they don't even know what infinitives and
prepositions are. Seriously. They think they do, but they're wrong.
If you live in fear of making some 'grammatical error,' you're never
going to write well.
I'd be really interested to know what they mean by 'grammar,' though.
