Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Natalia Schiappacasse
Professor Rieman
English 1103
length. Our world today is full of grammatical conventions that we use in our everyday language.
Through the papers, emails, texts, and business letters sent a day, one would think that everyone
is a good writer and knows how to use simple grammar conventions. Unfortunately, not
everyone knows the rules and therefore effective communication is sometimes left behind It¶s
like when someone uses a particular intonation when they talk and you know whether it is a
question or not. Well, without the intonation, you wouldn¶t know if the remark was a question or
a statement. The same rules apply with grammar in our written language. If these conventions
were not important they would not exist. But then again, people sometimes take these
conventions a little too seriously and miss the meaning behind what the person is trying to say.
And then there is the simple fact that for different people certain conventions apply and others do
not. So, exactly how important are the conventions of grammar for effective communication?
First of, many people do not know what the conventions of grammar are. They include
separate little sections within them but overall they are spelling and punctuation and grammar.
After the main points, one moves into sentence structure, and how many paragraphs a paper is
supposed to have. In Steven Peha¶s article, ³Looking for the Quality of Student Writing´, he
discusses the importance of the conventions of grammar are important for communication. He
emphasizes,´ The so-called ³rules of writing´ are not really rules at all, they¶re agreements
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between people in a society as to how written communication will be interpreted when it is read´
( Peha). Is this true? Does this mean that only if we write well people will understand what we
are trying to say? Through some independent, unofficial research, on some blogging sites I have
noted that many younger people still understand others, even if their grammar and vocabulary
are not correct. As opposed to older people, normally, write in a more formal way; with the
commas and sentence structure interpret those who do not write as well.
In my research, there are those who do not agree with this type of idea, that grammar is
not the most important for communication, as maybe the meaning. In Donald Murray¶s book, ³
A Writer teaches Writing,´ he states ³The writer should not follow rules, but follow language
toward meaning, always seeking to understand what is appearing on the page, to see it clearly, to
evaluate it clearly, for clear thinking will produce clear writing.´ As a student, I know that
sometimes teachers may look at the insignificant things in our writing, and sometimes forget
about what the writer is actually writing. As Maria P. Rey states in her ³Letter to West Port High
School¶s English Department,´ an assignment for her college class, she speaks of how as she was
taught, she had to memorize four basic principles that her teachers expected her to write in when
she wrote papers. The rules that she was asked to memorize were not hard, they were just some
of the same paragraph structures and sentence rules that everyone needs to learn. She then goes
on to talk about how sometimes she would feel like her teacher would not necessarily understand
the meaning of her work because she was too preoccupied with the little conventions. How does
this relay communication when the meaning isn¶t the article being sought out. Tying it back to
Mr.Murray who says something similar, and Maria Rey, when does the rulebook get to be closed
for a little to be able to understand what the writer is saying between the lines? Is there any
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universal code of grammar that everyone needs to follow and we are just slacking and making up
As far as communication, does the fact that everyone wrties different ways in different
setting help, or hurt the cause of the conventions of grammar and communication. It is
understandable how it would hurt, because different people write different ways in different
setting and sometimes when someone from another setting sees them in the same place then they
begin to either lookat the same way or in a more negative light. For example, in high school, I
had this teacher who not mind helping her students through email one bit. The only thing she was
seriously bothered by was when students began turning ³you¶s´ into ³u¶s´, As you can see, this
is something that has to be resolved. What if we have people who come from a different country,
will they be able to understand our language and grammatical skill or would they need to go to
Luckily, I came across an article that speaks about grammar from another country and
As one can see, grammar in itself I s a complicated thing, now whether or not it is most
important for effective communication, I cannot say. There are so many pros and cons to both
arguments that they can sometimes knock each other out. As far as I am concerned, the answer to
my question still remains a question. There is an incredible amount of information and only one
can decide whether or not the question has an answer. On one side, grammar is important and if
it is not properly placed it will be a distraction to the reader, but on the other hand, maybe those
little grammar mistakes should be second to the meaning that one is trying to communicate with
communication, but now the question remains, what majority are the conventions of grammar
Works Cited
Nelson, Leah; Feinstein, Sheryl G. ³ Ô Ô ´ (2007): (1-24). Web
Online Submission
Rey, Maria P.³Letter to West Port High School¶s English Department.´
. Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin¶s P, 2011. 225-231. Print.