Successful writing is about good writing. Good writing requires a mastery of the language in which you want to write. And even more if it’s not your first language. English is no exception. Grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes can make all the difference between a good stuff and a slush item.
I recently read an article Grammatical Griping by Victoria Grossack at Fiction Fix, which I want to share if you are interested in furthering your basics about punctuation, spelling and grammar. For many it may sound like “it doesn’t matter much”. Whether English is your first language or not, there’s still something that you can add up to what you already have in your knowledge stock.
Here’s in a nutshell what Victoria Grossack talks about:
– Punctuation, which has to do with the proper use of periods and commas, colons and semi-colons, dashes and hyphens, apostrophes, helps us convey the meaning we want to; not something else.
– Misspellings can be as funny as irritating in what otherwise could be a good read. Spellcheckers cannot always catch all our mistakes.
– Subject-verb agreement, use of pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs are all that can make up grammatical mistakes if not used properly.
There’s also a number of links that offer more in-depth treatment of the issues mentioned above. An example is How to Use English Punctuation Correctly. Another one is How to Use Apostrophes.
Incidentally The Care and Feeding of Apostrophes is another interesting and informative site mentioned at Nick Daws’ Help With Apostrophes.
Hope that makes sense.
Mauritian residing in Rodrigues, Amanoola Khayrattee (pen name Alfa King) is contributing writer and journalist to La Gazette Mag de l’océan indien and This Week News Mauritius.
Retired, former meteorological cadre, trade unionist and OSH consultant, Amanoola has written for in-house union and other journals, publications and magazines. He runs two blogs since 2007: “Alfa King Memories”, and “Le Journal d’Alfa King”. When he is not reading or writing, he is on a 10+ km daily hike in anticipation of his monthly trails.
Amanoola may be reached at [email protected].
Another great article Alfa! You always impress me.. you one, if The, of the best writers in the blogoshpere!
Keep going Alfa, your efforts will reap its fruit for sure!
Yours,
Wakish
Have you ever read Eats, Shoots and Leaves? I think you would enjoy it.
Thanks wakish.
Beccy, yeah very interesting and enjoying indeed.
I read an article today on the BBC about a group that wants to change the spelling of English to make it easier for students to learn. I’m posting about it tomorrow, but I had a strong reaction against the woman’s argument for changing the spelling. Here it is if you are interested:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6250184.stm
Thanks for the link, Angie.
With due respect to the spelling-changing-advocates, it’s just nonsense. They’ll turn everything topsy-turvy. The language is used not only by english people; worldwide. You imagine the chaos?
Like you I have a strong feeling. But I’ll await your post.
My feeling is completely in line with yours. It’s utter nonsense!