my Boggart would be a comma
It looks like most people area little scared of grammar. I am too. Through my wonderful journey called school, Grammar has not always been my best bud. One glorious day in English 1010 I was supposed to be working on a paper. My professor came over and asked why I was not working, my response was, “I don’t got any ideas.” She then hit me over the head with a stack of papers. I think my grammar has improved since I took 1010. I was mostly joking around when I said that anyway.
I would say that I have come to an understanding with Grammar and we now get along all right. Through reading at least fifty pages of my own choosing everyday for the past three years I have come to a better understanding of the English language. Once I even choose on my own to read As I Lay Dying for fun, mostly due to the fact that one of my favorite bands share that name. This better understanding of the English language has in turn improved my grammar. My problem and scaredness comes from the fact that I only know what looks and sounds right. I can change it and make it correct. I just do not really know how to explain the whys and hows of grammar. Working in the writing center for a measly three weeks has already improved my being able to articulate grammar principles to the nth degree.
Of course I can always improve my grammar knowledge. I am not perfect, nor do not think I ever will be as far as grammar is concerned. I can continually work to improve my grammatical skills, and will always do so.
Another concept that scares the willies out of me is commas. Again this fear seems to be a common one among my peers. The fear of commas, or commaphobia, is again because I do not know how to explain them. I learned the hard way where a comma goes. It took both 1010 and 2010 to get rid of all my comma splices in my papers. I had a lot. Red ink was all over my papers. I had enough of bad grades n my papers, so I decided to quite using comma splices as a writing strategy. I did this by not using commas at all except where absolutely crucial. Then once I got out of the habit of using commas all the time I started using them again, just correctly. I tutored a student yesterday that had a major problem with commas. She used commas so much, almost every other word. Not really, but it was bad. I had a hard time just comprehending the meaning of her sentences. It was a bunch of thoughts linked together with commas. Her paper was full of run on sentences. I did my best to describe the proper use of commas. I think I did an OK job. She seemed to understand and towards the end was fixing her own comma errors. Looks like I am coming down from my commaphobia.
I would say that I have come to an understanding with Grammar and we now get along all right. Through reading at least fifty pages of my own choosing everyday for the past three years I have come to a better understanding of the English language. Once I even choose on my own to read As I Lay Dying for fun, mostly due to the fact that one of my favorite bands share that name. This better understanding of the English language has in turn improved my grammar. My problem and scaredness comes from the fact that I only know what looks and sounds right. I can change it and make it correct. I just do not really know how to explain the whys and hows of grammar. Working in the writing center for a measly three weeks has already improved my being able to articulate grammar principles to the nth degree.
Of course I can always improve my grammar knowledge. I am not perfect, nor do not think I ever will be as far as grammar is concerned. I can continually work to improve my grammatical skills, and will always do so.
Another concept that scares the willies out of me is commas. Again this fear seems to be a common one among my peers. The fear of commas, or commaphobia, is again because I do not know how to explain them. I learned the hard way where a comma goes. It took both 1010 and 2010 to get rid of all my comma splices in my papers. I had a lot. Red ink was all over my papers. I had enough of bad grades n my papers, so I decided to quite using comma splices as a writing strategy. I did this by not using commas at all except where absolutely crucial. Then once I got out of the habit of using commas all the time I started using them again, just correctly. I tutored a student yesterday that had a major problem with commas. She used commas so much, almost every other word. Not really, but it was bad. I had a hard time just comprehending the meaning of her sentences. It was a bunch of thoughts linked together with commas. Her paper was full of run on sentences. I did my best to describe the proper use of commas. I think I did an OK job. She seemed to understand and towards the end was fixing her own comma errors. Looks like I am coming down from my commaphobia.
posted by Eric at 3:48 PM
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