See Advanced Grammar Checking in Action!
« English Grammar Software: How Well Will It Help Me? | Home | Organizing Your Paragraphs »
Grammar Rules We Love To Break
Grammar rules are fine for the most part. Following them allows you to ensure that you writing reads correctly for most people. Clarity, after all, can often make or break a copy.
When you run a grammar software to fix up your copy, it will show you all the changes you can make to improve your writing’s clarity and overall quality. These intelligent pieces of software can take any written work, put them through the rules of grammar and show you the offending parts.
Of course, not all grammar rules are set in stone. Some can actually be passed over, without affecting the clarity of your work. In fact, intentionally breaking them might make it even more sense.
Here are a few situations where you can actually break grammar rules and get away with it.
1. Beginning sentences with conjunctions
I used to break this rule incessantly. I have since tempered myself, but some sentence transitions just work better when you start a new sentence with “And,” “But” and other similar conjunctions. When used to drive a point home, it creates a much stronger impact than most any other way you can arrange your sentence.
2. Ending sentences with prepositions
The practice of ending sentences with prepositions is formally regarded as incorrect, but remains constantly used across many forms of writing from newspapers to academic reports. Some sentences simply work better that way.
3. Splitting infinitives
The word “to” plus its corresponding verb is the standard infinitive of the English language and, for a long time, it was considered sacred – you were not allowed to insert any word in between them. Often, though, sentences do read better with split infinitives, especially when enriched with a descriptive adjective between them.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.