[REALITY CHECK] - Grammar & Punctuation – The “Rules” are Meant to be Broken

Language is not static. Language evolves over time. Words come en vogue (or are invented) and some words become passé or archaic. As language changes, so do the “rules” of its use.

For example: someone says to you that “every sentence ends with a period and that rule will never change.”

Oh, really? That’s news to me! Sentences can end with a question mark, an exclamation point, or even with a colon.

“Never start a sentence with a conjunction.”

But why not? This can be a personal preference or a “house rule” for a publisher or publication, but it is not a law and if you break it you not go to jail. My husband, who also edits, follows this rule but I don’t. We still manage to have a happy, loving marriage despite this difference in our editing preference.

“Sentence fragments are wrong.”

Baloney. What kind of writing are you doing? I would say this is true for academic and business writing, but in fiction writing, sentence fragments are allowed and even encouraged.

“I write like this because it’s my style.”

Well, if your “style” is crap—mission accomplished! Don’t take this prima donna attitude when trying to define your “style” to your confused, long-suffering editor. Your editor may know more about grammar and punctuation than you do, but that doesn’t absolve you, as the writer, from your responsibility to learn the elements of fiction writing and the rules of grammar and punctuation.

“OK, Miss Know-It-All-Editor. One minute you say it’s fine to break the rules and the next minute you say I have to follow them. Just what are you trying to tell me?”

My point is simple. Before you break the rules, you must know the rules. Relying on the spelling/grammar check on your computer does not count. A word processing program cannot tell the difference between your writing “style” and the grammar and punctuation “rules” coded in its program.

When it comes to writing fiction, a lot of the rules we learned (or should have learned) in school can be bent, stretched, and even broken. A competent author will do this to create a certain effect or mood. Unless you know these rules, you won’t know the ones you can use and the ones you can do without.

If you want to be successful (i.e., published), and have editors love you, take time to learn the grammar and punctuation rules of your language. And don’t call them “rules;” call them nuances because by applying certain nuances of grammar or the use of one form of punctuation over another, your writing will have more depth and more meaning.

Yet, despite all of this, I think there is one rule we can all agree upon that gives us hope when it comes to the sins and transgressions made in the editing and writing process.

Pobody’s nerfect.

©Zetta Brown. First published on the blog The Blood-Red Pencil (October 2008). No part of this article can be used without written permission from the author. If you like this post, then stop by Zetta’s Desk or her other blogs: Random Thoughts, Full-Bodied (Book) Blog.

Tags: Brown, Grammar, Zetta, rules

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Comment by Zetta Brown on September 4, 2012 at 6:28am: @Sandra - Although I think it's OK to break the "rules" (within reason), I do think that too many people think it's OK to simply ignore things like grammar and punctuation because "it's too hard" or they're just too lazy. It's like losing weight. You have to do the work if you want to see the results--or you can pay someone a lot of money to surgically remove the weight for you.

There are plenty of excellent resources online and I have nothing against them, but if your aim and desire is to write and publish, there's no excuse for not taking the time to learn the tools of the trade and the biggest tool is language usage.

I can understand if someone is writing a book about something and writing is not their talent. Take, for example a pilot wanting to write a how-to about flying. They may or may not be able to string two sentences together, but their book is not going to sell unless they make it readable. This person has options. They can 1) learn or take refresher courses to get the skills they need or 2) hire a ghostwriter. If they enjoy the experience and plan to continue to write, those options are still there, but part of me thinks that if they decide to make a career in writing and publishing, there's going to come a time when they may want to invest in their own education rather than pay someone else to do things for them. That's just my opinion, though. :)

Comment by Lorna Collins on September 3, 2012 at 7:41pm: Sandra,I'm afraid you may be right, and it's lead to some really bad writing. Thanks for the reference.

Comment by Sandra Miller on September 3, 2012 at 7:18pm: Great article, with so many people self publishing do you think we are becoming a bit more lenient when it comes to grammer/punctuation errors in books and on blogs? A great (grammar) resource for me is: Common Errors in English Usage by Paul Brians. No need to buy the book, all the rules are available online. http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html. Thanks for sharing!

Comment by Zetta Brown on September 1, 2012 at 8:52am: @Michael N. Marcus...and anyone else, really :) I was at Merriam-Webster Online looking up a word when I found this little video about prepositions that may interest you. Velllly innnnteresting....

http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0025-preposition.htm

There are other short video tips y'all may find helpful too.

Comment by Zetta Brown on September 1, 2012 at 5:47am: When it comes to breaking the rules three things are important:

1) Knowing the "rules" - and I don't mean all of them. If you've studied English as long as I have, you will know that for every "rule" there can be at least a half dozen exceptions. Why do you think there are so many manuals and references out there? Unless you have a photographic memory, how can you be expected to know them all? Look it up like the rest of us mortals.

2) Knowing the purpose of the "rules" and how they work

3) Knowing when to break them

It's the "knowing when" that gets writers into trouble, in my opinion. That's when the terms "writing style" comes into the discussion. Once again, in my opinion, there's a very thin line between writing "style" and writing "sloppy." Others will argue differently, but if your writing "style" becomes a barrier to my enjoying and comprehending your work, I'm not going to struggle with it long.

That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate writers who break the rules, whether they go all out or use restraint, but the good writers make it look easy and their writing is skillful. I'm not a big fan of poetry, but ask any poet and they will tell you that often they will spend lots of time trying to find the perfect word.

Frankly, I don't care what your writing "style" is. I just want to be able to read, understand, and hopefully enjoy your writing.

Sometimes the context of the work itself will allow for liberties. But it's vital to know when breaking the rules can be seen as an artistic and creative asset to the work...and when it'll look like sloppy and ignorant writing.

Comment by Jennifer Christine Sjolund on August 31, 2012 at 4:46pm: "And don’t call them “rules;” call them nuances because by applying certain nuances of grammar or the use of one form of punctuation over another, your writing will have more depth and more meaning."

Grammar is admittedly a tedious subject for me! Thinking of it in this perspective is motivating. Thank you!

Comment by Vivienne Diane Neal on August 31, 2012 at 2:53pm: Zetta, this is a great article, and thank you. A professor recently criticized me because the dialogue in one of my stories was in italics with quotation marks. If my memory serves me right, I learned this back in college. I said to myself, There is nothing in the Constitution that says you should never write a dialogue between characters in italics, even though I saw this format in a short story titled Lantern For The Dark by Jessica Stirling, which appeared in 4 Best Sellers in One Volume. Nevertheless, I went back and removed the italics in all of my stories.

Comment by Kitty K. Free on August 31, 2012 at 2:18pm: In "No Country for Old Men", Cormac McCarthy didn't use any quotation marks. It gave it such an unrestricted, lawless, feel, which added so much more to the reading experience. I absolutely loved it. Know the rules, then break 'em!

Comment by Ariel Rosetti on August 31, 2012 at 10:46am: "Allyce in Wunderland" went live today; it is the rush of a lifetime let us see who has the courage to pick it up.

Self publishing how bad can it be?

Comment by Lorna Collins on August 31, 2012 at 9:07am: One of my pet peeves is statements punctuated with question marks. e.g.: He wondered why she didn't smile?

HUH? It's a STATEMENT, not a question.

It's being done very often, and it always annoys me!