Grammar tipsheet

[Tom Campbell <tomcampbell -at- EUDORAMAIL -dot- COM>]

Following is a shorter version of my response to Doug Max.  Since this isn't a grammar and usage list, I'm not including my grammar tips here.  If you want a good reference for that sort of thing, and a lot more to boot, get "Handbook of Technical Writing" by Charles T. Brusaw, Gerald J. Alred, and Walter E. Oliu (1997, St. Martin's Press).  [Or pay for the course Doug's company is offering and get a *free* grammar tipsheet, written by your very own colleagues!]  {HHOK, Doug!}

I disagree with Steve Gillespie's comment: "...nothing in English 'prescriptive' grammar is chiseled in stone."  There are quite a few things that are definitely right and wrong.  (But maybe Steve was getting at a point others have made here before:  In some cases there are rules that can--and should--be broken to conform to the customs of the community reading the material.  However, most of these adaptations concern word choice, not grammar [language structure].)

I think a good way to express the function of grammar--and one that may be more palatable to technically minded folks--is that a piece of technical writing is a machine to convey information.  If the parts aren't put together properly, the machine breaks down.  Clear language is like the oil in a machine that runs like a top.

Of course, a machine that runs well is superfluous if it performs no useful purpose.  So it is with writing.  If the content is not accurate and well organized, elegant style can't salvage it.

Of course this runs the risk of revivifying a debate that's been thrashed to death on this list.  (So why don't I thrash it again, just to be sure it's Really Quite Sincerely Dead?)  Technically adept people with shaky writing skills sometimes try to downplay the importance of grammar.  And good writers with sketchy technical knowledge sometimes get defensive and try to diminish the importance of subject matter expertise.

So what?  I think the goal of every technical writer should be, to the extent possible, to have both.  They are not mutually exclusive.

With that, I place a bouquet on the grave of The Incredibly Tiresome Non-Technical Technical Writing Debate.  R.I.P.  (Scary music pulsates as steam hisses from beneath the headstone, suggesting a nauseatingly violent sequel!)

But I digress...

I do think Steve has a point when he suggests a style guide rather than a "grammar tipsheet."  The ins and outs of English grammar are too complex to fit on something the size of a single sheet of paper (unless maybe you're putting it on microfiche).

Some of the most common problems in business--and some technical--writing are caused by people concerned more with sounding smart or authoritative than with communicating.  Often the solution is to distill the idea into fewer, simpler words.  (Remember the admonition of Professor Strunk: "Omit needless words.  Omit needless words.  Omit needless words!")

Many of the most common problems in technical writing are structural.  By this I mean structure at every level, from the project as a whole all the way down to paragraphs, sentences, clauses, and phrases.

To structure their writing well, writers first need at least a basic understanding of the subject matter.  They also need to understand the needs of the audience(s).  Then it's possible to organize the information logically and present it clearly.

Often this process is subverted by lack of communication, lack of understanding, or lack of coordination among people working on the project.

Just as with an airplane, structural problems can cause a piece of writing to crash and burn.

(Of course, one of the other biggest problems in technical writing is people who spend their time writing and reading about grammar when they should be working...)

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Tom Campbell
tomcampbell -at- EUDORAMAIL -dot- COM
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"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."
--Elmore Leonard
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