In Bishop's article, she addresses grammar as "styles of grammar" and then describes how Winston Weathers names these styles as "grammar A" and "grammar B" and so forth. This implies that grammar is not this singular, concrete entity that we must learn the ins and outs of but simply a widely "agreed upon" mode of communication. With grammar now posed as a "suggestion" of sorts, how can this change the way we write and then orally communicate?
Sommers discusses advanced writers taking a second draft to notice a general framework within their work and then either dissect it or strengthen it. Is this something that anyone else in here does? Why or why not?
Rosalyn,
ReplyDeleteI think that with grammar only functioning as a "suggestion," our written communication will suffer. Of course I agree with some liberties, especially when it comes to creative work, using grammar in a nonconventional way. However, as an avid defender of the Oxford comma and how it impacts the way we read and understand, I think grammar does need to have consistent structure. All of that said, when it comes to orally communicating, I'm not sure how much grammar affects the way we speak at all. We use run on sentences, slang, etc. while speaking, so I'm not sure how it would impact our oral communication if at all.
Hey Rosalyn,
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your second question, I always have to look at my second draft to get a framework, often even going to someone else to talk to them about what the framework might be. This is for a couple of reasons. One is because I tend not to plan my work, I just kind of jot things down as they come to me, then develop the ideas wherever they go independently from one another. The second is because even when I do plan my work - when I sit down and tell myself "alright, this is what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say" it usually winds up significantly different, and indeed, attempting to frame an incomplete work tends to interrupt or impede upon better thoughts that will (eventually) fit just as well together in a different frame. That is, if I'm trying to plan out a framework then I start thinking too far ahead, which winds up making me anxious and getting nothing done, or producing writing that I don't truly believe in due to it more or less being forced out in an unnatural shape. So I don't really see trying to frame it from the get go as a good use of my time or energy within my writing process. In fact, it can often be damaging to my writing.