More better grammer and speeling please.

[Jdsk]

: - )

I look forward to your opinion of it.

Jonathan

[drossall]

May take a while. I'm a quick reader, but there are those other books...

[661-Pete]

Not long after marrying and moving away, Mrs Mick F and her friend used to write to each other.
Friend hadn't got a clue about punctuation of any sort.

A newsy letter of a couple of pages or more would contain no capital letters, no punctuation and no full stops, and not even paragraphs breaks.

Hard work to read.

Going online to criticise other people's grammar is risky. Reflect on that first sentence.

Indeed. At first glance, I was about to offer poor Mick F sympathy, seeing as his missus appears to have run off with someone else....

No - wait! Perhaps that's not quite what Mick F meant!

See what I mean?

[661-Pete]

If anyone wanted to correct all the bad grammar etc. in forums and social media, they'd be at it for all eternity. Thankless task!

But anyone who's thinking of writing professionally, e.g. as an author, journalist, technical writer, etc. etc. - they'd better learn to get it right! Editors are tough critics and won't stand for any nonsense.

Although neither of us have and aspirations along those lines, I have done a fair bit of writing, and so has Mrs P. She has already self-published two novels, which were carefully proof-read by her literary friends (as well as by me). There may be the odd grammatical or spelling error that got through, but there won't be many. I think doing that is no more than a courtesy to the reader.

I can't claim any literary merit in what I've turned out, but I've just completed a 126,000-word epic (posted on a fan-fiction site) . Probably anyone who dares read it will find it a load of drivel, but at least I've tried to keep the grammar and spelling OK....

I don't know whether I should have mentioned the above....

[Jdsk]

Definitely. Sharing opinions and experiences helps us all think about expression. Any guides that you like or would recommend?

It's the prescriptivist nonsense and the associated knocking of others that's the problem in these threads, not the discussion of style.

Jonathan

[661-Pete]

Definitely. Sharing opinions and experiences helps us all think about expression. Any guides that you like or would recommend?

It's the prescriptivist nonsense and the associated knocking of others that's the problem in these threads, not the discussion of style.

In terms of guidance from the book, there's none more authoritative than Fowler (already mentioned on this thread I think). It's exhaustive - but heavy-going. I wouldn't dream of trying to memorise the entire book!

My own feeling is that avoiding laying a 'false scent', so to speak, is of paramount importance. Take Mick F's quote discussed above, slightly modified to make it less personal:

Not long after marrying and moving away, Mary and her friend used to write to each other.

The problem is that it is not clear whether the subordinate phrase "Not long after marrying and moving away" is meant to apply just to Mary, or to both Mary and her friend. In fact neither case is correct: what the writer meant was "not long after he and Mary got married and moved away". That would have made it clear. But, as written the grammar doesn't admit of that interpretation.

It doesn't matter on the forum, but in a legal document, 'getting it wrong' to that degree could lead to disaster.

[Jdsk]

My own feeling is that avoiding laying a 'false scent', so to speak, is of paramount importance.

Dangling modifiers!

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

IMO, 'avoiding laying a 'false scent"' is a good explanation here. The Two Ronnies illustrated how a listener can be confused by anticipating what's coming next:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFS3DS0DgEA

Now, setting the scene with an absolute(?) clause, is OK so long as it then links grammatically with what follows. With two participles, it's likely to be a bit harder to link both to a subject and here, the point that the concept of "marrying" involves two people made it harder still as there are two subjects who didn't marry each other.

[Jdsk]

Any guides that you like or would recommend?

In terms of guidance from the book, there's none more authoritative than Fowler (already mentioned on this thread I think). It's exhaustive - but heavy-going. I wouldn't dream of trying to memorise the entire book!

Of course it's on the shelf in front of me. : - )

But the one I suggest to others at the moment is Pinker:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sense-Style-Th ... 1846145503

It's modern and it takes into account what we've discovered about psychology.

Highly Recommended

Jonathan

PS: For quick checking I use the Economist:
https://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/ ... e_2015.pdf

[Jdsk]

Emmet means ant in Cornish...

It does in the Cornish dialect of English, but not in the Cornish language.
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornw ... ve-1716444
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmet_(Cornish)

Jonathan

[Mick F]

Cornish dialect is wot they speak here.
Cornish as a language is only used by some speakers of it, but not conversationally generally.

[kylecycler]

Bob Dylan wrote a song called The Ballad of Emmett Till. Don't know if the poor lad's name derived from Cornish but it's a horrible story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

[Jdsk]

Bob Dylan wrote a song called The Ballad of Emmett Till. Don't know if the poor lad's name derived from Cornish but it's a horrible story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

It is.

Several suggested origins of the name, including the English word for ant although it seems unlikely:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_(name)

Jonathan

[Oldjohnw]

You can even get your own jumper: