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you know, i don't particularly care about this one.
the index of some greater cultural malaise centered on ignance isn't spelling or sentence structure: it's content---actually now that i think about this for a minute (my 3rd cup of joe seems to push me further) the real malaise is passivity: passivity with respect to content, passivity with respect to form.
i'm not sure that you want me to get started on this.
anyway vacant content written in a grammatically correct manner is still vacant content.
another way:
it is simply not the case that fashioning perfect little sentences that say nothing is better than fashioning imperfect little sentences that say nothing.
or:
if you have nothing to say, attention to spelling and grammar won't save you.
in 3-d, i've taught writing for a long time.
i know lots of folk who believe that grammar is fundamental and that one's ability to think clearly starts (and too frequently stops) with grammar.
these people in general make me laugh--well that and they make me think it is indeed a good thing that i am not a student who could have the misfortune of landing in one of their classes.
this is not to say that i operate from the reverse position: things are not so simple. sentence structure is important--but i approach teaching it as a device for breaking up and ordering content, taking control of information.
so first you have to be trying to say something.
you know, have a fucking idea.
then what matters is logic--how you sequence the idea.
grammar comes at the level of getting that sequence to work in the most effective way--and you can't judge effect unless you are working with something.
spelling is a reflection of attention paid to the writing, the care put into it.
i generally pitch attention to this as a way for students to sell their work: the consequences of not paying attention to it are often entirely out of line with the significance of the errors--but if you know this is a possibility, then you have to control for it.
i don't see anything involved at the level of principle.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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