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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!ihnp4!ihuxq!ken
From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: re: good grammar
Message-ID: <433@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Dec-83 12:54:48 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.433
Posted: Wed Dec 21 12:54:48 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Dec-83 11:14:29 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 29

OK, OK, I guess I've helped this "good grammar" thing get a bit
out of hand.  When I stated that grammar evolved, that subjects
and verbs agree because our brains would like them to, I was
speaking of grammar in a macroscopic sense.  Obviously, there
are many arbitrary rules which need be followed only when
rigid publication standards are enforced.  And some rules of
sentence structure are routinely broken by professional writers.
For dramatic effect.

It's really UN-natural language, like overuse of the passive voice,
which reveals an insidious, creeping brain rot.  Mere misdemeanors
(unintentional ones, that is, which serve no literary purpose)
simply show a lack of attention to detail, like not combing your
hair.  So, who cares?  If I were hiring someone, or looking for a
job, or thought it important to be completely understood, I would.
Otherwise, I'm a class-A slob myself.

The point is not, "Are you a slob?"  It is, "Do you know?"
Note, please, that I have never critiqued ANY prose on the net,
but when I DO criticize a person's writing, it is not to say "you
horrible sub-human" (even if jj thinks so), but just to mention
(and this dates me) "your slip is showing."
-- 
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