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

[fifi-bonsai.livejournal.com]

Actually, this bit's a little weird:
Let's say it's bad enough to confuses readers and make them want to stop reading after page 2.

I'm not excellent at grammar either, so I feel your pain. I have to think about it so much that it stunts me and cuts off my flow. :DDDDDDDD My muse flounces off in the face of terrible use of commas and the like. I think, though, that the more you write and the more you read (I've heard people say you should read twice as much as you write) the more you get a natural feel for language. The mechanics just start to assimilate and you don't have to work as hard to get it right. So my advice? Read, read, read and try to notice not only what the author says but how he or she says it. Also write a million crappy sentences before you write a few good ones.

Recently, I saw this book and it looks interesting: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_&_Leaves). I'm thinking of getting it myself.

[jinkang.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I think the trick is to mind what I'm reading. I must have read thousand books by now, but because I used to just read for pleasure, I never really noticed the styles or grammars.

Just yesterday, I was reading Ursula Le Guin's The Other Wind again, and realized how simple yet powerful each sentences were. It's important to read for pleasure from time to time; but for me, I think I need to learn a bit more from the masters and pay attention to their works.

Perhaps everyone else has been doing that; it's new to me.

For now, I am trying to 'imitate/learn' Ursula and Terry Goodkind's style by reading their work a sentence at a time. For someone who finishes a novel in a day or two, it's a slow pace but I'm hoping it will help--something I should have done a decade ago, I admit.