Most Common English Writing Mistakes

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pudding321
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Re: Most Common English Writing Mistakes

Post by pudding321 »

It's good to see people bringing this post back alive.
cloud wrote: There's sort of an "oral grammar" and a "written grammar". Oral grammar encompasses everything and anything that feels natural to a native speaker speaking. It also encompasses local dialects, slang, word order, etc. (ex: Anyway vs. Anyways). Oral grammar is surprisingly flexible -- logical grammatical errors don't matter so much as long as the meaning is understood. Many English speakers won't even notice misplaced modifiers unless they're trained to (ex: Eagerly awaiting her birthday, Mary's presents were all picked up by me). In fact, even the most grammar-conscious writers will slip up in their speech! xD I can guarantee you that. Basically, the rules of "oral grammar" don't necessarily follow the rules of "written grammar".
I think what you are looking for is prescriptive and descriptive (generative/natural) grammar. The problem is that because of the variety of readers in the community, what natural for one is not for another. We hope to make consistency of some sort. By using the word 'mistakes', I do intend to say that the writer is unaware that her audience may not understand or even misunderstand what she means, should she use "descriptive grammar".
cloud wrote: English grammar evolves. It's evolving now. Quite quickly. Standards of English society have changed, mostly.
Despite that you are trying to view the language from its evolving nature and turn down the old to accept the new, you are in fact taking a traditional linguist approach that people use language effectively and unproblematically just the way language is (J. L. Austen). The truth is that we find faulty sentences in light novel translations, undecipherable code in mangas, badly translated Japanese jokes that not even Japanese people can make heads or tails out if it, and the unknown word "accer" repeating itself miserably every chapter in the visual novel Tsukihime.This is why we start off with rules. Anything more than that should be complementary, not contradictory.
cloud wrote: This doesn't mean that grammar rules are ignored. It just means that grammar rules are judged entirely by the audience of peers ("oral grammar"). In the practical world of American publishing, a proper standard for grammar is that of a reasonably educated common American. Note that exceptionally good flow and artful writing can easily compensate mediocre American-written grammar. Alternatively, terrible grammar can kill good writing. There's really a threshold (basically, as long as the grammar isn't substandard). Once the threshold is passed, above-average grammar and much-above-average grammar doesn't make a difference.
For the same reason why editors still exist after the introduction of spellchecking and type-checking software, a better grammar aspect in the writing always makes it the more appealing and thoughtfully done.
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