RE: grammar

[hawthorn@badlands.nodak.edu (Joan Hawthorne)]

Betsy and Eric get at exactly what interests me.  I tell students that a lot
of sentence structure is more about developing an ear than anything else.
Someone with a good ear may break rules for language use, and we don't mind
at all.  Someone else with a less reliable ear may write grammatically and
stylistically "correct" prose that we don't like.  But how is that ear
developed?  I've compiled my list of thoughts below, but I'd like to know
more about what others think.  

1.  _In-practice_ knowledge of rules helps, I think.  By that I mean the
ability to recognize correctness/incorrectness in your own writing, rather
than the ability to do grammar correctly in test exercises.  

2.  I think a lot of it is reading and writing and paying attention while
you're doing both.  And the paying attention part is absolutely crucial.
And difficult.  

3.  Time and maturity and subject matter competence combine to make a huge
difference in success w/ grammar and style.  Sometimes what I see in the
Writing Center, I think, is adequate writers trying to do something a bit
above themselves.  I figure they'll grow into their own writing in time.

4.  Closely related to #3 is peer group.  Teen-aged peer groups reinforce
oral language habits that are seen as wrong by most of the adult world, and
those oral habits are often evident in written work as well.  Most
teen-agers develop a different style of oral language once they spend more
time with mixed age adults (this often happens on the job).

But what I really want -- what everybody wants -- is a way to make the
process faster and less dependent on serendipity.  You notice how little
control we have over any of this stuff?  That doesn't make me feel useless,
but it does give me a particular perspective on the limits of what I can do.
Fortunately, Writing Center work fits perfectly within those limits.

Joan Hawthorne
Univ. of North Dakota