By If superfluous commas, misplaced apostrophes (looking at you, it’s/its, they’re/their!), and sentence-ending prepositions make you flinch in horror, you’re in the right place. We take grammar seriously at The Daily Post; my fellow editors and I can often be found quibbling and nitpicking over tenses, modes, and — you guessed it — punctuation. Good writing, though, isn’t merely about adhering to rules. It’s also about knowing how and when to break them. Today, let’s talk about grammar — and the kinds of liberties you might consider taking with it.
Know your grammar
We’d all like to think we’re the Lifetime Presidents of the Global Union of Universally Accepted Grammar. (Wait, you don’t?!) In reality, English is spoken by billions. Everywhere it’s spoken, its grammar depends, to a certain extent, on the community that uses it. One person’s aberration can be another’s standard — so we should all relax just a bit before jumping on every imagined grammatical offense (except for my pet peeves, please; those are clearly unacceptable).
It follows that breaking grammar rules means breaking your grammar rules — those that your community of friends, relatives, colleagues, and readers deems acceptable.
Infuse your writing with human voices
Spoken language is inherently forgiving of grammatical oddities, from up-talk (raising your voice as if you’re asking a question, even though your sentence isn’t one) to incomplete sentences and false starts. Incorporating bits of conversation into your writing will liven it up — and allow you to show a more playful side to your grammar. You could replicate actual exchanges, come up with imaginary ones, or just tone down your usual written voice to a more oral-sounding one.
Like our scars and other imperfections, the errors we make when we speak are an important part of how the world sees us: they make us unique. If you have a verbal tic that really conveys a sense of how you sound, embrace it — even if it’s not 100% correct.
Tip: Engaging speakers often make the kinds of mistakes your composition teachers would really hate (for example, using run-on sentences to convey a sense of urgency). Who’s the best storyteller in your family? Listen to that person talk, and try to nail a couple of verbal tics that might be “incorrect,” but help engage the listener.
Internet grammar is broken. Why fix it?
There’s a whole array of expressions that would make any gruff editor’s blood curdle, yet are indispensable for anyone commenting on and participating in online discourse. Phrases like “I can’t even” and “all the things” are everywhere. So is the grammatically incomplete fragment “Because X” (“I went for a jog. Because health.”). Some choose to avoid these phrases altogether. Others don’t even realize they aren’t, strictly speaking, correct. What about aiming for a more pragamtic middle ground?
While meme-talk isn’t necessarily the most advanced form of rhetoric, these expressions are part of contemporary culture, along with their imperfect grammar. It feels silly not to use them (and other internet-generated phrases du jour), at least in some contexts (not to mention ironically!).
All because of a comma splice?! (Image by photosteve101, CC BY 2.0)
Give your writing a taste of the foreign
Many of us live in international communities, with people speaking English with a whole variety of accents and dialects. It’s often through listening to others that we come to terms with the strangeness of our own language, and incorporating some of this insight into your writing can make it more interesting.
The effects can range from the comical to the poignant. Think, for example, of how Russian speakers often omit the definite article in English (“Can I have pencil, please?”), imbuing specific objects with a touch of universality. Or how speakers of languages with gendered nouns — German, French, Hebrew, Spanish, etc. — will often refer to an inanimate object as a he or a she (try deciding whether your desk, or your eyes, are male or female: it can be hilarious. And/or touching).
Tip: When channeling speakers who use grammar differently, whether they’re foreign or belong to a different community, you might want to take extra care making sure what you’re writing doesn’t come off as parody.
It’s all in the dosage
Imagine a 1000-word blog post written entirely in lolspeak (moar nightmarez, pleaze!). If you survived that thought, imagine, now, a sharply-written piece on electoral reform, into which you drop, mid-way, a sentence with awful feline grammar (“we can haz moar votes,” for example). Context is always key, but so is dosage: whether you use bad grammar for comic effect or otherwise, keeping it limited to specific moments will only make it more powerful.
There might not be a ready-made formula for how much grammatical idiosyncrasy is too much of a good (bad) thing. As a general rule, though, if your reader can no longer know whether you’re making errors intentionally or not, it might be a good idea to dial it down a bit. No one has ever complained about too much clean, clear prose.
What’s your take on grammar? Are there cases where it’s fine to relax the rules a bit? Have you used (or seen) any creative uses of alternative grammar? We’d love to hear your input.
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The Daily Post 
On-screen writing has a lot to answer for, whether it is laptops, or ‘phones. Or social media sites. But the truth is it is actually harder to correctly proof-read on screen. More than twenty years ago, we still printed off hard copy to double-check our computer version.
And to be honest when we are all doing this for fun who cares?
If we don’t like how people write, then we don’t visit them any more.
I have all the patience in the world with people who can’t spell or who have dyslexia, or any other disability, or poor education. We don’t all come out of the same mould or with the same education.
I commented on say, three posts on my way down? I could have corrected a lot more, which bears out my point about on-screen reading. Expecting perfect comments on your blog is silly. Some of my readers ask me to correct spelling errors as a matter of course, so I do.
Bad spelliing (!) is always noticeable. As is bad grammar. Bad writing is the worst.
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How about this one. I used the word segway instead of segue on a legal blog and really caught some flack from some really arrogant attorneys. Most attorneys are fairly good with the English language and they need to be.
I swear, I cannot ever remember reading the word “segue” before someone pointed it out to me and I’m 61 and read a decent amount. Isn’t that called an eidetic memory. lol
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I really can’t stand meme-speak. I generally refuse to use most of it, because it just sounds silly to me. But I like some of your suggestions here about spicing up copy; they are reasonable and appropriate.
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I just posted a rant on my personal Facebook about should/would/could HAVE. Everyone says should/would/could OF now and it makes me crazy.
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The thing about Russian didn’t strike me until I learnt a little of the language. It is because in Russian they don’t say “May I have three (for example bottles of water)” but instead they say “May I have bottle of water three times”.
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Post after my own heart! I’ve often been called the Grammar Gestapo…..
Complete with Second-Nature-Corrective abilities and compulsions 🙂
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Great post. 🙂 I tend to get overzealous with commas and sometimes misuse colons or semi-colons, but that’s as bad as it gets. Spelling errors drive me nuts, in particular using “loose” instead of “lose” and “of” instead of “have”. Those two make me see red!
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Speaking of colons, I think editing one’s own work is really a pain in the butt. It’s sometimes take a great deal of time to write something halfway intelligent, then you have to go over it about four times, maybe even a rewrite and I still miss a bunch of mistakes.
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A friend of mine just posted a Grammar Police Badge on my FB wall! I am far too lenient to be considered part of an elite squad of language enforcement officers, but a girl can dream… *sigh
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There’s no way I can claim to be perfect with grammar but I try my best and sometimes, I do intentionally mix things up because it feels right and looks right and it’s exactly how I want it to come across to readers.
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This is a very good article, English is my second language I can not remember all the rules of writing puntuation etc. My biggest weakness is commas and full stops but I am sure I write well save for the mentioned problems. Would value any recommendation of how to improve.
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Imagine a world completely populated by editors! I can see them now, hundreds of people all running around polishing the hell out of each other. Only coming to a full stop after having their colon removed. 🙂
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I think the way Irish people speak English (i.e. hiberno english) is very interesting. Irish was the spoken language in many parts of Ireland until relatively recently (150 years or so) and the grammar structure of Irish has a significant influence on how English is spoken. For example, there is no Irish word for “yes” or “no”. A response is always given by repeating the verb so if I asked if someone was at the shops earlier, the response is likely to be “I was”. Or if they start the conversation and want to tell me about something that happened there they might phrase it as “So I was after paying for the milk at the shops when didn’t yer man from next door…”. An interesting vocabulary thing with Hiberno-English is the use of “pan of bread”, showing the influence that French had on spoken language in Ireland. Shall, will, bring and take are all used according to the correct usage in Irish, which naturally enough is entirely incorrect, strictly speaking, in English. If you were to use bring and take “correctly” among Irish people, though, you’d probably get a few odd looks, given that take only ever means to receive into your possession. It’s variation that makes language beautiful and interesting to study in its own right, but that does not ever excuse mistakes and/or sloppiness with they’re/there/their; its/it’s, your/you’re and the like.
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WOW! The number of responses, suggests it is a HOT topic. I hate people mangling the language. I’m English. (albeit from the North West, so have a northern accent in my on-line and off-line voice)
The biggest antagonists to perfect grammar are the Red-Top Newspapers, and the Marketing Men and Women who play with the language, and use guile, and mis-spellings to amuse, but in doing so, (and given that marketing is everywhere these days) leave those learning grammar rules totally confused.
Unfortunately the sound of words and their original 16th century spellings have diverged – even where they’re not fixed, as in the dropping of the ‘y’ in favour of the ‘i’ in olde English, – We have a “Myddleton Lane” near me, which needs to be read as “Middleton Lane” but by the same token, malapropisms, whereby the user deliberately mangles the language can be highly amusing.
Who can forget the wonderful use of language of Messrs Corbett and Barker in their witty exchanges, or for the older reader, Nellie Pledge of Pledges Pickles fame, so skilfully played by Hilda Baker?
Of course that’s true, but like the originator of the article, the skill is to know – wen u cn gt dn wiv th kidz, – and when to do so would be a “faux-pas”.
W.
(http://moneymatterstoo.wordpress.com)
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It’s difficult to be grammatically correct when you don’t know the correct grammar.
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Living languages change, and there are often deep rooted political and social implications to how communities that speak the language respond to that evolutionary process. For example, the role of demotic Greek, as opposed to “purist” Greek is linked to the development of Greek national identity, just as the choice of English (Middle English as we would call it now) for Chaucer, over French or Latin was part of the process of developing an English identity.
Ultimately history will decide which changes and innovations, new spellings and new usages will survive. What it suggests to me is that we need to have a sense of humility. The rules we cling to today may become the symbols of anachronism and oppression to future generations.
Language is inextricably linked to identity, freedom, control and influence. As lovers of language, and the arts of communication lets remember the legacy of what we write and how we choose to write it.
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Bonza, ripper, beauty Mate!
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Anyone who can tell me some grammatical mistakes here. Many thanks http://ajbozdar.me/be-better-than-the-day-before/
Ex-ZerotoHero Blogger. 😉
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Hi Abdul — for feedback on your writing, I really encourage you to visit the Community Pool, open every Sunday here on The Daily Post.
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Will Community Pool appear as an article on my reader or do I find it elsewhere? Thanks
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It will — if you’re following The Daily Post you’ll see it there. Of course, you could also visit the site directly, at dailypost.wordpress.com.
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This is not the best written post.
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Having proper grammar, just makes a person more attractive.
Actually grammar can even save lives:
“i want to eat grandma” VS “i want to eat, grandma”
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So many interesting comments! I have very mixed feelings about grammar: one of things I love about languages is that if they’re alive, they’re constantly evolving. At the same time I can’t stand “ungrammatical” usage! It exists on several levels, one being that of technology-based instant communication – the use of email spawned a huge upsurge in bad grammar, uncorrected typos, etc, because of the writers being in a hurry, and simply not caring. Texting is even worse, or perhaps not: it has created a new, code-like language with its emoticons and lower-case acronyms. But in general, there is usage that simply display the illiteracy, the lack of education, of the users. The ones that make me angry are pretty typical: “it’s” for “its,” “there’s” for “there are,” etc. Illiteracy also engenders horrible shifts in the meanings of words, one of my favorites being, “his interest was peaked,” when the original expression uses the word “piqued,” which, of course, has an entirely different, more subtle, meaning. All very interesting. And of course, one recalls the example in Steven Pinker’s “The Language Instinct,” where he proves that a piece of writing by an urban gang leader was actually more grammatically correct than a passage by the language maven William Safire! Hmm.
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I think your comment sums up many of the opinions on this thread. An A+ on the content but some one more competent than I, will have to provide the score on the spelling and grammar. Kudos.
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I stop caring about grammar when I’m writing dialogue for characters who don’t have English as a first language.
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Sometimes, I fear I fuss too much over grammar.
Adds a bit of pain to the writing – and totally throws me off an otherwise informative reading.
!.!.!
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imisi – I feel your pain and the pain and the seldom pleasures my teachers placed upon me from K-12.
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I love to break a few grammar rules every now and then. On purpose!
I start way too many sentences with ‘And’ and ‘But’ and overuse parenthesis at times. I do wonder, though, how many readers think my grammar is just poor?!
Then there are the honest mistakes I make — dangling modifiers, passive voice, comma splices, etc. At the end of the day, I try to write clean, but many of my grammatical mishaps are meant to enhance humor and drama.
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Hello friends
There is maximum no. of peoples in the world those who are facing such type of grammar and spelling problems while writing English. Having a proper grammar can make you more professional and improve your writing skills. Sometimes I am also facing the same problem can anyone suggest me? How to overcome this problem?
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Thanks for the post, it gives confidence !!! 🙂
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I never thought that some write such a great post on this general topic, hats off to you and thanks for providing such great information.
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I am always worried that I am making grammar mistakes. I think that it is almost easier to notice it in another person’s writing. I also agree that sometimes people becoming a part of the grammar police is frustrating.
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Excellent advice. Ya gotta know the rules if ya wanna break ’em.
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