Audience will always be the determining factor. Another way to look at grammar is that writing splits along formal and informal lines. If you are a student formal rules obviously apply because the instructor wants to know that you know the rules of communication in addition to communicating material on whatever subject matter is at hand. The teacher is your audience. Other writing venues are more or less formal depending on filters (editor) and audience expectations. You’ve probably noticed The New Yorker and Marvel Comics are different reading experiences. Different editors, different expectations from their audiences. I won’t even describe a motorcycle magazine I recently “read” which hovers on the edge of no immediately discernible language but was very entertaining.
However, as a writer you are not necessarily “the pickle in the middle” here. Editors have jobs, too. They report to the publisher. Generally, if a boo-boo appears in print the editor gets fired, not the writer. I had a publisher who hyper-ventilated if I let the slightest detail go by which was not deemed kosher by the Associated Press Stylebook. I know another publisher who THINKS he has his editors follow the AP rules, but they are actually HIS rules as he REMEMBERS the AP Stylebook. Bringing up the current AP Stylebook to prove a point to him is not an option. (Old journalism proverb first posited by A.J. Leibling, I believe: The power of the press belongs to the person who owns one.) Now there is a tough person to edit for, because you have to learn his rules one mistake at a time and then remember them.
Then you have writers such as Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson who almost defy editing. They broke many rules, but their ability to communicate to their audience was enhanced by the way they choose to break those rules. As an editor in those cases you almost have to step back and watch the rules bend and break because writing is, first and foremost, a communication tool.
But, as I stated above, those are the burdens an editor has to bear. (See prior discussion on proper use of conjuction to begin a sentence, or, when is a word not a conjunction but a transition?) As a writer, unless you are fully employed by a publisher or editor who has specific quirks, keeping your audience in mind is more important than keeping an editor in mind. Briefly, don’t sweat the small stuff to the point your fear of grammar keeps you from writing. The rules are there to grease the wheels of communication. Make them work for you, not against you. If the editor doesn’t like the way you’ve phrased something, let the editor tailor it to the publication’ s specifications. Fully employed editors are a good thing. Make them earn their keep. Bear in mind I am talking about the occasional misplaced comma, not the content and presentation of your work as a whole. If the publication you are aiming for has posted its guidelines, you must follow those guidelines if you wish to be published in that publication. Sending a fishing article to a doll magazine will not get you published. That would be writing class 1 – not even writing class 101.
A very long-winded way of saying, I agree with the concept, “give ‘em what they want and stay flexible.” My caveat would be, forget what the other writers begin their sentences with and remember who reads the publication. My guess is that “get” or “got” is a word choice problem. I will save “thing” word choices for another rant.
Gosh, how time flies when you are communicating! I must go cook something.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Ava Betz // Feb 10, 2009 at 2:53 am
Please bear in mind the above was exerpted from an email response to a series of emailed discussions on the role of grammar in writing and was not meant to be, nor should be taken as a complete writing product.
2 admin // Feb 10, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Of course, an incomplete writing product is always better than no writing product. It gives you incentive to write more…
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