Do You Mind Poor Grammar?

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If a person wants to learn a trade, they take a course and are shown by professors the proper tools to use and how to use them. There is also an ever-increasing awareness of advances in technology and study. It doesn’t take long for such progress to go from the cutting board to the classroom. Therefore, a person taking a trade in a specialized business or craft is usually up-to-date on all the latest trends and technologies.

Therefore, I contend, that because writing is just as specialized a trade as any other, that its students and practitioners should learn the proper tools to use, and how to use them. Among our most important tools are words!

So,  without a good subject and a proper mode of portraying that material, AND, without a firm grasp on the words you are using, then your material will fail to provide the kind of service that the client wants. I don’t know about you guys, but when I go to a book store I expect to find content that has been well thought out, AND, properly written. If either of those modes of delivery fail in my eyes, then the piece in its entirety fails; how can I expect an article that’s riddled with grammatical mistakes to have been written by someone who knows how to communicate an idea well? On the flip side, how can I expect to enjoy a book whose premise or plot has no coherence?

The quality of the writing is always at the mercy of its user, and, if its user is an abuser, then the quality of the writing will suffer. It doesn’t matter what its flaw is; it is the writer’s duty to study the craft and to learn how to use the tools properly. Debating the validity of certain tools is foolish, because all of the tools are important. Yet, I have found in my travails that the most important tools are words! These are, after all, what we use to convey thought. Failing to use words properly denotes a lack of responsibility as a writer—a lack of vision. One of the reasons Tolkien is so revered for his work is because he was always, first and foremost, passionate about words.

There is a certain amount every reader is willing to forgive of their favourite authors, but that bar is lower with less-prominent writers, lower still with writers they know nothing about. Does it not make sense then to present yourself in the clearest dialect that you know if you are not a well-known writer? If anyone is in this “public domain” simply to please themselves with their own butchery, that does not come across as being very proud of your work.

Here’s an analogy for you: words are like the sugar in a donut, content like the yeast. If the content fails to illuminate some fact of human nature, or fails to be interesting at all, then the writing falls flat. If the words are not properly chosen or are ill-used, then the writing fails to taste good at all. A well-mixed blend of all the necessary ingredients is much more satisfying, and not just to the soul.