It’s hard for me to believe sometimes that I took (and did quite well) in Advanced Grammar while in undergrad. Because when it comes to my own writing, I break rules like its my job. (*cough* starting a dependent clause with because)
Because let’s be real. Grammar is not cool. It was basically invented by old Puritan bossy-butts that couldn’t stand the thought of words running bare and free. Now as you picture naked letters running Sound-of-Music-style through the hills, remember, you like structure. You need structure. I do too.
Without structure, we would be forced to read like some people talk. Without rules we wouldn’t have any rules to break! So as much as I want to hate on them, I know that grammar aint all that bad.
8 of the Basics
1. Where Do I Use Commas?: One day a young duffer sneezed and sprayed tiny ink blots all over his hand-scrawled journal and thought, “Hmm, tis a lovely little speck.” Since then we’ve had the comma, and it’s really been a bugger.
2. Quotations & Punctuation: Quotations and punctuation are a bit like frenemies. You’ve got to know exactly how much space to give ’em.
3. Capitalizing Titles: As with skinning cats, there is more than one way to capitalize a title. Pick one and stick with it.
4. 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling: True or false, I misspelled misspelling the first time I typed it.
5. Apostrophes: These possessive little devils leave us looking silly when we use them wrong.
6. Dashes: Em- or en-. Dashes, dashes we all fall down.
7. 30 Words That Don’t Need Hyphens: Hi, I’m Megan, and I’m a hypen- addict.
And now that you’re officially geeked-out on grammar, let’s just keep it real and remember that the grammar police really are not the best writers out there anyways.
MEGAN RUESINK 