The REAL reason for bad grammar

This is a secret I discovered while working as a writing tutor. When I’d run across bad grammar in a student’s writing, it was usually accompanied by some kind of unusual turn of phrase that made the whole thought of the sentence seem odd. I would ask them what they meant by it, and they would look at me like, “Huh?

As I thought about their questionable sentence, I would begin to see a number of different possible meanings that it might convey, so I would ask them. “Do you mean ______ or do you mean ______ or do you mean _______?” Then they would stare at me and one of two things would happen:

They would say, “No I meant _______.”
They would say, “I’m not sure…”

Bad grammar doesn’t necessarily happen out of ignorance. Usually it happens when we most struggle to express our thoughts.

Often the students I tutored didn’t know exactly what they meant by a sentence until I asked them. That’s when they discovered the way they rendered their sentence was not what they meant at all. Then they had to clarify, and I got to help them craft their sentence so that it said exactly what they meant. When we know exactly what we mean, it is easier to write with good grammar.

When the students didn’t know which of the optional meanings I rattled off was the one they wanted, that was usually a sign that they didn’t know exactly what they wanted to mean. In these cases, often they had just written what they thought would sound good to a teacher. (Their heart may not have been fully committed to the words on the paper.) When I told them the different ways that their writing could be interpreted, they learned (perhaps for the first time) how their writing affected a reader. I suspect that many of them had never had this experience.

Good grammar and punctuation arise out of being able to make our nebulous thoughts and impressions into words and by examining alternative ways of expressing ourselves. When you are determined to be understood, you want to make sure that the placing of your words exactly guides your reader, and you look for alternate ways your sentences might be read. Try to eliminate those possibilities when you don’t want them. Careful grammar and punctuation is the way you block out the host of unwanted alternative interpretations.