Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Natalia Schiappacasse
Professor Rieman
English 1103
Self Assessment
As I began to write this paper, I had a lot of difficulty. In the beginning, it was the road
block of thinking that this paper was a research paper. That kind of made me a little nervous, but
as we talked in class this was just a paper with some added resources. It has gone through three
changes of the question, and the last one was made two nights ago. The reason being that, the
Writing Resource Center is always booked and that was my only time slot. I quite enjoyed my
final topic and thought that it feels a little more comfortable than my first few drafts. This topic
interested me because I have gone through the detailed writing correction of my work and not
been told how my actual writing is. This paper also brought about new questions that I had not
thought of before and ones that hope fully I can try to discover the answers to in the future.This
paper has definitely gone through a lot of work and it has most definitely been a struggle.
Overall, I hope the meaning is clear and the paper flows. Other than that, it was a definite
process of work and a definite possible candidate for the digital portfolio.
To What Extent Are the Conventions 0f Grammar Necessary In Order To Fully Comprehend the
Meaning of Someone’s Written Work?
length. Our world today is full of grammatical conventions that we use in our everyday language.
Through the papers, emails, business letters, notes and even texts written per day, one would
think that everyone is a good writer, due to the amount of writing we participate in, and that
everyone knows how to use simple grammar conventions. Unfortunately, not everyone knows
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the rules. Therefore effective communication is sometimes left behind. If these conventions were
not important they would not exist. Then again, people sometimes take these conventions a little
too seriously and miss the meaning behind what the writer, whether it be a child in the fifth grade
or a published author, is trying to say. There is also the simple fact that for different people,
depending on the circumstance, certain conventions apply and others do not. So, the question
then becomes, “To what extent are the conventions of grammar necessary in order to fully
First of, many people do not know what the conventions of grammar are to begin with.
Each section of grammar is like those Russian dolls, you have the main point to begin with and
piece by piece you pull another out. In the other small dolls, there are tons of grammatical
conventions, but overall the main dolls are spelling, punctuation and grammar. After the main
points, one moves into the nitty gritty sentence structure, and how many paragraphs a paper is
suppose to have and where and when certain things should be said, for example, “you’s”, “and’s”
or “buts”, etc.
In my research, there are those who do not agree with this type of idea, that correct
grammar is not the most important aspect in understanding someone’s written work, as maybe
the meaning. This idea is completely understandable. However, the extent of their grammar can
sometimes be out of their control. It can also, depend on the purpose, type of writing and
personal background of the writer. It is unfortunate, that, on occasion, teachers, professors and
employers delve too much into the grammar instead of the meaning behind the work of the
author? In Donald Murray’s book, “A Writer teaches Writing,” he states “The writer should not
follow rules, but follow language toward meaning, always seeking to understand what is
appearing on the page, to see it clearly, to evaluate it clearly, for clear thinking will produce clear
writing.” As a student, I know that sometimes teachers may look at the insignificant things in our
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writing, and sometimes forget about what the writer is actually writing. As Maria P. Rey states in
her “Letter to West Port High School’s English Department,” an assignment for her college
class, she speaks of how as she was taught, she had to memorize four basic principles that her
teachers expected her to write in when she wrote papers. The rules that she was asked to
memorize were not hard, they were just some of the same paragraph structures and sentence
rules that everyone needs to learn. She then goes on to talk about how sometimes she would feel
like her teacher would not necessarily understand the meaning of her work because she was too
preoccupied with the little conventions(325-332). How does this relay understanding when the
meaning isn’t being sought out. Tying it back to Mr. Murray and Maria Rey, when does the
rulebook get to be pushed aside so that these “grammar Nazis” can be able to understand what
the writer is saying between the lines? Is there any universal code of grammar that everyone
needs to follow, despite circumstance, or are we just ignoring the universal code and making it
up as we go?
In Steven Peha’s article, “Looking for the Quality of Student Writing”, he discusses the
importance of the conventions of grammar but at the same time, how they were made. He
emphasizes,” The so-called “rules of writing” are not really rules at all, they’re agreements
between people in a society as to how written communication will be interpreted when it is read”
(Peha). The rules of grammar were not only created yesterday but have been around since way
before any of us existed and through those years grammar has also developed due to the changes
in society and modern life. Relating back to Steven Peha’s quote, it is like the saying beauty is in
the eye of the beholder. We each interpret different written works differently due to the many
things that have shaped us from past experiences. For example, in some parts of the world
women are not allowed to go to school. I assume they learn the basics, for the grocery list and
things like this. As we have seen many times, in these countries where things of this nature
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occur, women are in danger and begin to write their story hoping to one day get their message
across. If the grammar of these women is not correct, does this deflect from the meaning of the
story she is writing. Does the message brought from the excerpts of slaves, not pass the minds of
the readers, because of the grammar, or does the lack of grammar emphasize the point?
The same should apply when it comes to knowing who the author is. In Joseph Williams’
article, The Phenomology of Error, one would most likely never question his work because after
all he is a published author, with various other types of work. He ends his article on page sixty
two with a question, “If you had to report right now what errors you noticed, what would they
be?”(62). He ends his article as a search for the errors that, because of the mentality that he is a
good writer and cannot make any mistakes, missed. Shouldn’t the same apply to students in a
classroom? Students tend to make mistakes, but just as Maria P. Rey speaks about in her article,
the teacher would only look at her grammar mistakes and not her actual writing. This is because,
teachers, as well as parents and even peers, walk into the situation expecting there to be error,
and inevitably they find it. If as we read another writer’s work, we carefully read the work first
and then after finding the meaning, find the grammar errors, maybe some kids would be more
motivated to write then they are now. Their self esteem that someone believes in them and all
As we sit in class each day we see the same students who are texting in class, even
though they think one can’t see them, writing formal papers in the library. It is understood that
depending on the type of writing one is doing, and who the audience is, they should change the
type of writing that one does. For example, I have seen many students email their teachers, in
slang terms; I have even seen formal papers include this type of writing. What I do not
understand is, why if they write correctly in one situation, why would they need to write
differently in another? As one argument, from the grammar is important, it can be seen that
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depending on where one is coming from, for example a professional perspective, to understand
one’s writing it would need to be more formal than when one speaks with friends. Sometimes I
wonder, whether or not it would be easier to write correctly in all terms of writing, not only for
professional writing. If we allow ourselves to have the mindset that professional writing is
important then we would write like this everywhere, and not have a problem with
In conclusion, writing is a very complicated topic and to answer the question, to what
extent are the conventions of grammar necessary in order to fully comprehend the meaning of
someone’s written work, is a very hard one to answer. There are so many positives and negatives
to one way or the other. Based on the information, I cannot come up with my own conclusion but
I can say that the extent to which conventions of grammar are necessary, depend solely on the
audience. If the audience comes in with an open mind and expecting a meaning they shall find
that instead of errors. Also, the conventions of grammar in certain works do not just depend on
the universal rules of grammar, but they depend on the type of writing, as well as the purpose of
the writer, and the educational and personal background of the author.So, did you get the
meaning of my paper, or were you too busy looking at all of my grammar errors?
To answer the question: to what extent are the conventions of grammar necessary in order to
fully comprehend the meaning of someone’s written work? The only answer is only you can
decide.
Works Cited
Nelson, Leah; Feinstein, Sheryl G. “ U R WHAT U WRITE” (2007): (1-24). ERIC. Web
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Online Submission
Peha, Steven. “Looking for Quality in Student Writing.” Learning to See the Things Kids Can
Do So We Can Teach Them to Do the Things They Can't: Copyright 1995 - 2003 by
Steve Peha and Teaching That Makes Sense, Inc. All rights reserved. Web.
Rey, Maria P.“Letter to West Port High School’s English Department.” Writing about Writing:
A College Reader. Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s P, 2011. 225-231. Print.
Williams, Joseph M.“The Phenomology of Error” Writing about Writing: A College Reader.
Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s P, 2011. 49-62.
Print.