Question: Grammar issues, any tips?

[jinkang.livejournal.com]

I usually try to be careful but it seems there is something fundamentally wrong in my brain. I suppose verbal and online messages put less emphasis on correct grammar, for better or worse, so I don't notice them on daily basis. At least, I haven't been chased by a grammar nazis on the street, as of yet.

Writing, obviously, is a different medium. I have taken grammar courses at school, after school, and even at home. I even read several grammar books for pleasure. Perhaps, pleasure is a bit far fetched.

Last year, I took a course at a continuing education program and got 90%. (This was a summer session, by the way. 40+ hours long) The mark doesn't mean much but the instructor thought I was doing alright. So I rekindled a tiny hope.

Alas, why is it that I can't seem to communicate with my readers? How bad is my grammar? Let's say it's bad enough to confuses readers and make them want to stop reading after page 2. That's on a short story with probably only few more pages to go.

If anyone had a serious issues with grammar, and overcame it, I'd like to know how you did it. Thanks.

Comments

[wylde-writer.livejournal.com]

I feel for your frustrating situation.

One thing I would look for is very specific analysis of what and how and why what you write is confusing or off in grammar. I know a lot of critique groups and readers leave their commentary at the level of "You lost me here when Joe does x..." - but that is not sufficient feedback for the writer to figure out how and why. You need someone who can go through your text sentence by sentence, and point out in each bit of sentence structure precisely what is unclear.

For instance, if took this sentence in my work:

"When he gave him the book, he didn't know if he should read it."

- I would expect grammar critique that points out that it is unclear which "he" is meant in the clause following the comma. In this case, it would be more clear to substitute a character's name for one of the "he" pronouns.

- and so on, throughout the work.

You are probably making certain types of mistakes again and again - and they can be relatively subtle, like the unclear pronouns above. Once the specific type of grammar confusion is pointed out in that kind of detail, it is easier for you to see where you have a habit of thought that leads to confusing sentence structure, and can learn instead to phrase things more clearly.

Ultimately, the final test for writing clearly is to ask if each and every sentence has an absolutely clear meaning, and just 1 meaning. Can it be read and understood in only one way? That is ideally what you want to achieve (unless you're intentionally working with ambiguity, but that's something I'd let wait until the basics are down). If someone could take your sentence more than one way, then its meaning is unclear.

For this purpose, the technique of reading each sentence out loud is useful, as is reading from the back to the front. That separates out the meaning of a single sentence from the thrust of paragraph, and lets you hear (or see) more clearly if the meaning is singular and clear.

In the alternative you might be able to find a writing partner (not a group) who is willing to provide some of the detailed sentence/paragraph analysis of the sort I describe above.

Good luck with your efforts. It is a surmountable thing, but requires that you be able to figure out where you're going wrong in the written construction. Your shorter conversational messages (like here in this LJ entry) are obviously fine in construction, so you're not that far away from your goal. :)

[jinkang.livejournal.com]

I am thinking of this great application idea.. haha. Not sure whether I will detour from my writing but I thought perhaps I should make an application where you open the 'text' version of a story.

Then the program either randomly selects a sentence (but go through them all) or select from the bottom to top.

Then it show the sentence on the screen. And only that sentence. Perhaps it should highlight 'verb' as well.

The goal would be for the user to NOT change the meaning, as it may disrupt the flow, but make the sentence clear and, well, grammarically correct.

Is there any such applications? Hmm... I wonder how long it will take me to code this. A week I think...to perfect it in C# or C... hmm... or javascript even.

[wylde-writer.livejournal.com]

while it should be possible to parse out basic grammar structures in that manner,, I don't think it's possible to (quickly) code a prog that picks apart more complex structures and things that involve judgment calls and subtle rules of usage.

In the example of my earlier post, for instance, in the sentence with the unclear use of pronouns: grammatically, there's nothing wrong with that sentence, so a program that analyses on that basis alone wouldn't spot anything wrong there. Even whether or not the pronoun definitions are unclear to some extent depends on the context of the preceding sentences. Programs are less good at contextual assessment of that sort.

Also, ultimately for one's own writing, it's critical to develop an internal feel for the language, to have that in one's head and know internally what "sounds right". The only way to get there, I think, is to do that kind of sentence analysis by one's self, the old fashioned way.

[jinkang.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I did manage to waste an hour last night but stopped after I realized the same thing.

Better that I 'learn,' than to teach a program. :)