So now we embark upon a new and wondrous experiment—blogging about writing.
Some of you will undoubtedly say that I have blogged about writing countless times. True, but mostly to criticize or ridicule those most pompous yet incorrect in their communicational choices.
No, this new blog topic will address the most common errors writers tend to make (they vary a bit by genre, but most are universal). But rather than just poke fun, I'll break down (1) what's wrong and why; (2) ways to verify that the first assertion is correct; (3) how to correct the mistake; and (4) some ways to avoid the problem in the future.
Virtually all of the material will be either stuff I make up or lines I cull from elsewhere—which I choose will be determined by (1) relevance, (2) expositional value (i.e., how well it communicates the point being discussed, and (3) how funny it is (hey, I didn't say I would never criticize).
Why? And why now?
Let's start with the second question. I now have enough data from projects I've worked on that I believe they are statistically valid. And enough people follow my blog that I thought perhaps I should give them something they can actually use.
During a few years of editing the work of others, I've been privileged to see the good, the bad, the ugly, and the absolutely gruesome in terms of writing. Because of this, I'm better positioned than most to know what errors crop up again and again in writing. And I feel that I can use some of this knowledge to create real-world examples to help writers become better at, well, writing.
In keeping with using examples that I hope will be relevant and identifiable, I'm also planning to keep the professional lingo to a minimum. I'm not going to waste your time or mine discussing participles and gerunds and case unless doing so is likely to make a concept easier to understand. Plenty of sites and books already exist to teach English and writing in a way that is laborious, inundated with technical explanations that would mostly be understand only by those who already know what is wrong with a particular phrase or sentence, frustrating, and boring. Using terms like "prenominative" are only helpful if you know what they mean—I'll try to stick with things like "if the word in question occurs before the word it modifies." I know—more words, but easier to understand, methinks.
Although in my profession it's imperative that one knows the why for a particular grammatical or syntactical point, that's not the case for writers. Don't get me wrong; it's tremendously helpful for one to learn the finer points of English (or any language). But if you had to choose between technical knowledge and writing ability, which would you choose? I've always said it's better to be a great writer who can't necessarily explain everything about writing, rather than a bad writer with great knowledge that you're unable to communicate.
A few other posts:
"Comma Chameleon is write around the corner, so to speak.
Cheers.
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