What’s The “Best” Way To Learn “Proper” Grammar?

Everyone who reads regularly knows quite a lot about grammar, even folks who don’t think they do.

Of course, not everyone can state the rules of grammar; and; even those who can might disagree.

Every aspect of language changes over time—it’s a normal consequence of human social evolution.

If a writer were to conceive of a book written in the style of a young woman in the England of 1325, they certainly wouldn’t do their research with a recent book on grammar.

Then, of course, there are the language mavericks who bring consciously purposeful mutations into the flow of language evolution.

Naturally, there are places for “proper” grammar and places it would sound silly—just like wearing a tuxedo to a beach party.

Fiction is one space that lends itself to grammatical mutations.

In that regard, Martha Brockenbrough, in her role as Grammar Girl, explores grammar in fiction (including Jane Austin), noting considerations of each character’s unique expression and knowing the rules so you can break them effectively, in the article Bad Grammar :: Good Fiction. Here’s one cool sentence:

“I’d go so far as to say that correct grammar might even keep aspiring writers from publishing their work, and that correct grammar in the wrong place might diminish the reading experience.”

Then, there’s the consideration of how best to learn proper grammar even if you intend to twist it…

One way is to read, as widely and deeply as possible. This supports my opening sentence: “Everyone who reads regularly knows quite a lot about grammar, even folks who don’t think they do.”

Another way is to read grammar books, at the risk of never finishing since you continually fall asleep…

I wrote about yet another way in a post back in March, Diagramming Sentences ~ A Lost Art?

If you’ve never seen a diagrammed sentence, check these out:

I quoted Kitty Burns Florey in that March post, from an article she’d written for The New York Times. She’s written a follow-up article, Taming Sentences, where she says, about the first article, that she received, “…more than 300 comments (and close to 100 personal e-mails) in response…”.

Some love it, some hate it. Some saw value in diagramming sentences, some could care less.

Kitty, herself, had a well-balanced view:

“Obviously, I recommend diagramming…”

“…diagramming is not for everyone.”

“…it involves mastering not one skill but two: the rules of grammar and syntax and the making of diagrams…”

“Even if it enlightens us about the parts of speech and how to use them, it teaches us nothing about punctuation, and it can’t help with spelling.”

“Probably the best way to learn the technicalities of language and usage is not to diagram but simply to read books that are full of good sentences.”

And, the real kicker: “…it is like broccoli: it’s good for you only if you can stomach it.”

So…

Whether you read voluminously, study grammar books, or learn diagramming, do visit Kitty’s last-linked article, if only to see how she diagrammed this sentence from Henry James’ The Golden Bowl:

“The spectator of whom they would thus well have been worthy might have read meanings of his own into the intensity of their communion — or indeed, even without meanings, have found his account, aesthetically, in some gratified play of our modern sense of type, so scantly to be distinguished from our modern sense of beauty.”
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