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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. ¢


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To What Extent Are the Conventions 0f Grammar Necessary In Order To Fully Comprehend the
Meaning of Someone¶s Written Work?

Commas 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
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everyone knows how to use simple grammar conventions. Unfortunately, not everyone knows

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, ³To what extent are the conventions of grammar necessary in order to fully

comprehend the meaning of someone¶s written work?´ ¢



O  

First off, 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.

In my research, there are those who agree with the idea, that correct grammar is not the ¢


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most important aspect in understanding someone¶s written work, as maybe the meaning. This
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idea is completely understandable. However, the extent of their grammar can sometimes be out

of their control. It also depends 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, ³A Writer Teaches Writing,´ he states ³The 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 ¢



      
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that sometimes teachers may look at the insignificant things in our writing, and sometimes forget

about what the writer is actually writing. As Maria P. Rey states in her ³Letter to West Port High

School¶s English Department,´ an assignment for her college class, she speaks of how when she

was taught to write, she had to memorize four basic principles. The principals, or rules as we

know it, that she was expected to memorize were not difficult. They included 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(Rey 325-32).

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 ³grammar

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, ³Looking 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 ³rules of writing´ are not really rules at all, they are 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
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things like this. As we have seen many times, in these countries where things of this nature

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,?
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? , 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, ³If 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, the reader may have 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 than they are now. Maybe their self esteem would

be higher, knowing that someone believes them is all the push they need.

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
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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 one¶s discourse community, for example a professional perspective, one¶s writing   #    

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. ¢



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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.
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Works Cited

Peha, Steven. ³Looking for Quality in Student Writing.´ å ???
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Steve Peha and Teaching That Makes Sense, Inc. All rights reserved. Web.

Rey, Maria P.³Letter to West Port High School¶s English Department.´ ? ??
??  . Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin¶s P, 2011. 225-231. Print.

Williams, Joseph M.³The Phenomology of Error´ ? ????  .

Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin¶s P, 2011. 49-62.
Print.