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Schiappacasse 1

Natalia Schiappacasse

Professor Rieman

English 1103

November 18, 2010

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?

Comma’s go here, sentences need an ending place; paragraphs need to be a certain

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

comprehend the meaning of someone’s written work?”

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

they need is a push.

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

miscommunication when it comes to a different type of writing.

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.

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