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

[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.