Grammar

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Here’s my opinion on grammar: I love grammar, without it, I can never understand anything. Although, let’s admit it; no one likes grammar. It’s too much for people to handle, and not a lot of people would really care about grammar. The way people view grammar is like government laws: it’s too strict, it’s not needed in life, and it doesn’t allow freedom of expression.

You can think of so many opinions on grammar, but here’s a little insight on grammar: it’s only used in writing. And, it’s not meant for everything or everyone. If you don’t like grammar, well okay. Good luck with people trying to understand you. As for myself, grammar is a skeleton under your skin: it gives structure to help you stay organized.

By the way, grammar exposes the human mind of speech, in my opinion. For example; run-on sentences- your mind is going on and on and on and on. Fragments- it’s a robotic mind. You may or may not agree with me, but it’s just my opinion. Grammar brings clarity to the message. You can sound all emotional, but if you don’t use grammar, you’ll sound like someone just going “blah blah blah, blah blah.”

\Here’s my experience with not using grammar properly: I remember one time I entered a writing contest, and I wrote my first short story. I was super excited to turn it in, until… I got it back. The amount of markings I got on my paper made me run out the door. As I read it over, I realized how badly written my paper was. The story was good, but it was just not that good. It was (drum roll) my grammar.

I’m also super shocked of the number of students not using grammar today yet end up passing English! I mean, WHAT?! All because the schools are afraid of looking bad when the students fail English because of GRAMMAR. I know times have changed, but grammar shouldn’t have to be ignored. Therefore, I became more obsessed with grammar.

So, I don’t care that students fail English because they don’t feel like using grammar. At the end of the day, they can never grow without grammar. Let’s use an example of someone not using grammar: A 9th grade student is writing a paper, and they’ve used “its” for “it is” instead of “it’s”, “your” for “you are” instead of “you’re.” They’ve turned in their paper and the teachers see all the mistakes found in the book, yet they’re afraid of losing their job or their school will get a bad look for failing all the kids in school. So, the teacher passes the student.

Fast forward: the 9th grader just graduated from college and is looking for work in their field (whatever field it is, you can choose one.) The “interviewer” looks at their resume, and then they say, “We will call you with the decision.” They never called. After almost 100 interviews at different places, the student applies for McDonald’s. They look at her resume, and they hire her. Why not the other jobs? You know. The ones that will give the students “six-figures”? Let’s just say one day, the student called one of the places, and she asks, ” I never got a call. Do you know the final decision?” With some hesitation, the person on the other line says, “I’m sorry, but we don’t see you as a fit. Your resume looks elementary.” You know what that means? There were grammatical errors in that resume that the most intellectual person would say, “Fool!”

Get this: what if I told you that the student was applying for the newspaper companies or looking for administrative work? Then, it makes sense. Think about this: grammar is only a skeleton under the skin. It’s one way of showing clarity. In my opinion, grammar helps bring out the message to the world.

Remember, you don’t have to see it as government laws, but rather a ruler to help you draw the lines.

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