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- Title
Reconsidering Some Prescriptive Rules of Grammar and Composition.
- Authors
Connatser, Brad
- Abstract
The article discusses rules and exceptions to the rules of grammar and mechanics. Grammar is a system of syntactic, semantic and phonological rules that govern the use of language. The danger of violating organic grammar is the unintended shift in rhetorical roles from reader to error detector. On average, a respondent was likely to use organic grammar in one way but prescriptive grammar in an opposing way. Both editors and readability formulas assume that active sentences are simply more effective and engaging than passive sentences. Composition of a document involves not only grammar but also mechanics. Mechanics is a set of rules that govern the visual representative of spoken language including ink on paper and the activation of light on a cathode ray tube or liquid crystal display. There are no capital letters in a spoken language. Hyphenation is a thorn in the collective side of technical communicators. Hyphenating unit modifiers in noun strings is one way to clarify what modifies what. Hyphens are also used to break words at the end of a line. Periods are used for things beside terminal punctuation namely decimals and ellipses. Therefore, consider using a period at the end of a list item not as terminal punctuation for a sentence but as terminal punctuation for an item.
- Subjects
COMPARATIVE grammar; GRAMMAR; LANGUAGE &; languages; HYPHEN; PUNCTUATION
- Publication
Technical Communication, 2004, Vol 51, Issue 2, p264
- ISSN
0049-3155
- Publication type
Article