One of my mugs at work says "I am silently correcting your grammar".
When I first got it, one of my students informed me I was a liar:
Apparently I am never silent about it.
I circle errors on students' writing in pink or purple. I want them to figure out when to use the proper verb tense. I want them to know how to spell and how to express themselves in more than emoticons and single letters.
But how does that translate to my own first full manuscript?
It doesn't. At least, not at first.
There seems to be two schools of thought on editing while you write. One school says to throw your words and thoughts onto the page - er, screen - and go back to edit later. The other school says to edit as you go.
Me? I dwell somewhere in a combination of the two. I try to fling as much out as possible, getting lost in the characters and the plot and just the story of everything. Other times, when I need to step away, that is when I go back in and edit, so I am staying connected while not being immersed.
When I have completed my first draft, then I go back from the beginning and reedit everything again. So, I do edit as I go, and then I edit again after.
Then I get other grammar nerds that I know to edit it for me. And finally I will pay someone to edit it one more time.
Does correct grammar and writing still have a place in today's world?
The long and short of it is: Yes. Yes it does.
My tenth grade students have to answer the question as an essay the first day of every semester. (Yes, I'm kind of mean.) You know what? Almost every one of them says that it does. Granted, quite a few of them say that "it dose".
But then I get to teach them about irony.
U Got 2 B Kidding.
Language also is continually changing. I happen to be terribly hypocritical about this.
I am regularly breaking grammar rules, for example, to help with meaning and effect. That does not mean that I do not understand the rules.
Language may be always shifting, which is rather cool, but it also seems to be diminishing. Which is decidedly less cool.
We have made words easier to understand, but also stopped using so many truly beautiful words.
Like my favourite word, which is defenestration. Not because I am a particular fan of throwing people or things out of windows, but just because I think it is so awesome that a word exists that means that.
Why does it matter?
Is it just me, or is it hard to take writing pieces seriously that are full of errors? I am sympathetic to the occasional lapse, but really, I hold my students to a high standard, and I would expect an even higher standard for works that are actually published, actually out there in the great wide world of books.
That being said, I also think that worrying about every single nuance of correctness can take away from the meaning of the words themselves, which is just as bad.
How can you get better at grammar and spelling and other matters of correctness?
Okay, here it is... the great big secret.
Ready for it? Lean in closer... good...
Honestly?
I read. That's it.
Guess that isn't such a great secret after all.
Am I actually any good at all of it?
Sort of. I get a little angry when I see misspelled or incorrect punctuation on signs.
But I have so much left to learn.
I believe you have to know the rules to break them, and then break them for effect.
I believe that lack of proper communication should never impede meaning or impact.
I believe that proper communication, though, sometimes breaks the rules of technical good grammar. For example, you have probably noticed quite a few technical errors throughout this post alone.
(Hmm, do you think maybe I left those for a purpose?)
I believe that grammar and all of that is not the epitome of good writing at all.
But I also believe that it should not be ignored.
What about you? Do you think grammar and all those mechanics are still important? Do you edit as you go, or do you wait until the end?
Do you have any editing tips you would like to share?
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