Minding or Bending Rules

 Q: What’s your position on ending a sentence with a preposition,  grammar others might be afraid of? What non-grammatical writing styles do you firmly support?

 

-       from Susan

 

As a former writer of academically-oriented texts (not a scholar), I worked in the language that represented literate administrations, their presidents, and higher ed institutions in general. The language had to have a certain tone, cadence, and rhythm. Frequently, I was tasked with making the case for something that might not be universally popular. Often, I was charged with polishing the apple, or trying to gentle whatever audience the written communication was aimed at into supporting a president’s or a board’s decision. In marketing communications, my job was to show potential student, parent or donor audiences the benefits to them of getting involved with a school. 

 

In all of that, there was no room for dangling participles, prepositions sliding off the ends of sentences, exclamation points, slang, sentence fragments or – in most cases – overly informal language. 

 

I was also charged with telling the truth, even if the ways I communicated it might be sugar-coated.

 

It was like summer vacation when I kissed that career goodbye and turned to the freedom of writing fiction. I now had the freedom to play with language, to make things up, to veer into such pleasures as dialogue where the characters can talk any way I want them to. (Notice the last word in this sentence?) The only problem I have is I actually like good grammar, am not prone to exclamation points except in emails and text messages, and can’t give up the Oxford comma. My own books don’t break many use of language rules because that would be artificial and awkward for me. Maybe I’m still conscious of all the academic leaders for whom I wrote. (Notice that I chose not to let that “for” dribble off the end of the sentence?)

 

I firmly support talented writers doing whatever they please. If their writing is good, I’m all in and will relish the styles they invent as long as I can understand the story. James Joyce’s Ulysses is my perfect example of a writer going off the grammar rails deliciously and creating a masterpiece. The Commitments, however, lost me completely, so I guess there’s a limit. 

 

Good writing is so much more than good grammar, and meh writing can’t hide behind it!