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Subject:Grammar From:Toni Williams TPG/SG <towilliams -at- PROCYONGROUP -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 5 Jun 1998 08:10:11 -0700
I can only agree with Bruce Byfield who wrote:
>Grammar is a description of how a particular language is used in a
>particular culture (or sub-culture) at a particular time. Writers with
>sensitivity to words and to their jobs follow those rules so long as
>they help to increase clarity, and break them when they don't.
and
>When I taught university composition, I told students that if they knew
>enough grammar to use a grammar-checker safely, they didn't need one,
>and that, if they didn't, the grammar-checker would cause at least half
>as many breakdowns in communication as it corrected.
Grammar checkers at the very least create a false sense of security and
also result in a diminution of the writer's skills. IMHO.
Bottom line is if you can't use the language as your audience expects it
to be used, you can't communicate thus you can't instruct or inform.
Come on, Tony M.; you're fighting a losing battle.
Of course all of this is just my $.02.
Toni Clark Williams
The Procyon Group
Documentation Department
