I remember the videos on TV in the 70’s under the title Grammar Rock. I really loved these videos. Grammar seemed like a fun concept when I was a kid. Lately, though, we seem to have lost some of our enthusiasm for excellent grammar. Back when Grammar Rock was playing on Saturday morning television I had a junior high teacher named Mrs. Wallace. She taught me how to diagram a sentence. It was a game to figure out where prepositional phrases fit and what could be done to repair a dangling participle. I believe this activity is now limited to college linguistics classes.
Since the 70’s I have been a grammar champion. I know the difference between lie and lay (thanks to my Aunt Gwen) as well as how to use objective and nominative pronouns. A few years ago, my eldest daughter asked for a book titled Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a hilarious take on the misuse and correct use of English grammar. We referred to her as the Grammar Nazi all through high school though she was not allowed to use the moniker online as it contained the dreaded ‘n’ word. She corrected spirit signs in the hallways of her school with a little red Sharpie. She later took to calling herself the Grammar Bandit. Very few people knew who was defacing their grammatically impotent signs but still she found satisfaction in the act. It’s not a crime to break the rules. It’s limiting, though, if you don’t even know what the rules are. My other daughter is a writer who knows the rules and chooses to break them regularly.
It seems to me there are more and more journalists and other types of writers graduating without a solid foundation for their writing. Grammar is important for linguistic continuity and as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) point out in a position statement on the teaching of grammar in American schools, “knowing about grammar helps us understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise.”
I thought playing the grammar game in junior high was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed diagramming sentences and I work hard not to end a sentence a preposition with. This is, sadly, something many radio and TV journalists have forgotten. Many times, I hear them say things such as, “where the economy is headed to” or “here’s where we’re at” and I cringe. I know the preposition they are adding is superfluous but, clearly, it seems necessary in an age where words seem cheap. But words are not cheap. It’s how we use them that cheapens them.
SallyPAL 