Tracker Pixel for Entry

Write This Way

Live and Learn | December 10th, 2015

I’m seeing red. It’s no coincidence this is the color of ink generations of teachers have used when correcting papers. I may not be an English teacher, but the slow, torturous suffering of the written word is enough to make me bristle. My note in the margin, “which is used for dependent clauses and does not begin a new sentence,” written in jaunty purple ink just doesn’t express the necessary gravitas.

Perhaps I’m being nitpicky. If lyrics from the preset channels on my teenager’s car radio are any indication, my language sensibilities went extinct with the dinosaurs. Perhaps I should embrace the linguistic diversity of our ever-evolving lexicon? Was Geoffrey Pullman right in his English Todayarticle calling the Strunk and White’s classic “Elements of Style” an “error-stuffed, time-wasting, unkillable zombie of a book”? I have been in academia for more than 30 years so my view from the top of the Ivory Tower might be cloudy. Does anyone really care about grammar anymore, or am I just keeping Bic in business?

Of course students are concerned with getting the skills that get them the jobs, particularly those jobs in emerging areas such as technology, business and global affairs. But higher education is more than just job training; no matter what the major, the emphasis is on developing skills like critical thinking, communicating and problem solving. These so-called soft skills are in demand in the workplace every bit as much as the technical skills. According to a recent report at CNBC.com, “Communication skills ranked as the most or second-most desired baseline skill in all industries … Organizational skills and writing abilities were also in high demand across the board”.

When it comes to writing, students are often frustrated by what is the “right” way to write? It seems that each professor wants something different: short answers, long essays, abstracts, lab reports or term papers, and the forms are almost as endless as the citations styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). And just when you’ve figured out how to write for one professor, the class ends and you have to learn a new form for another class, like you’re writing some kind of discourse decathlon. A childhood spent with a handful of years in “grammar” school is not enough to master the linguistic vicissitudes of the college classroom, or the “real world” for that matter. Pioneering novelist Gertrude Stein recognized that “writing for the normal person is too complicated an activity to be indulged in automatically.”

But practicing a variety of written forms is the key to mastering function, and the function of language is communication. Being able to express yourself and communicate ideas across a wide range of disciplines, audiences and styles is key. And of course this is why skilled writing is such a valued commodity, in and out of academia. Learning the rules of successful and effective writing goes well beyond diagramming sentences. MIT linguist turned activist Noam Chomsky says that language, “for all it’s open endedness, it’s not a free for all, it obeys rules and patterns.”

OK, so if you’re Gertrude Stein you can be forgiven for bending the rules. But even her famously nonsensical quote, “There is no there there,” is grammatically correct (she didn’t write, “Their is no there they’re”). Adherence to the rules of grammar even allows us to make some sense of the very strange poem in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass” that begins, “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.” Elbow deep in red ink-stained term papers, I can sympathize with Alice. And when the grammacide is more than I can take, I turn to the classics. Wasn’t it Keats who wrote:

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, O Grammarly.com! O Online Writing Lab!

Who say’st unto you, replace that period with a comma,

For a dependent clause is not a sentence.

That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

[Editor’s note: Dr. Nawrot is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Child Development Lab at MSUM. She earned a Masters degree and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley, and has been working on her M.r.s. and M.o.M. degrees for over 20 years.]

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.comThe Fargo Park District will host the Kids Triathlon on Wednesday, July 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event will be held at Madison Park and Bicycle Playground, located at 3010 11th Avenue N.…

Back-to-school season is on the horizon, but there's still plenty of summer left. Check out our favorite August attractions and events in North Dakota and western Minnesota. And if if you missed them, here are a few excellent May…

June 21, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.Fargo Theatre, 314 Broadway N., Fargo“We Watch Shudder,” Fargo’s favorite horror podcasters, bring on the darkness during the longest day of the year. The Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival features…

Fighting the good fightBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Over two thousand rallies took place nationwide June 14 as part of the “No Kings" protest. Ten of those protests were held in North Dakota, with thousands in attendance.…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWhy doesn’t the world require politicians to leave office at 60?Most of the leaders of countries, whether gods, fascists, democrats or socialists, are not doing very well these days. David Van…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com The weather warmed up quickly here in the upper Midwest this spring, sparking prime eating season. This means burger battles, food trucks and lake-season food travel. The 2025 Downtown Fargo Burger…

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.comThe Moorhead Public Library will offer three free, all-ages outdoor concerts featuring regional bands this summer. The series begins on June 12 with the Meat Rabbits, a group that blends…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Filmmaker Matt Wolf, whose lovely “Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell” suggests he would be the perfect director to construct the definitive biographical account of the wholly…

By Deb Wallworkdwallwork@icloud.comI first met Catherine Mulligan at a party at her house. It was a small gathering, spontaneous, just a few people over for dinner. Directed toward a stack of plates and bowls and a big pot warming…

North Dakota play about mental health launches Midwest tour in AugustBy Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.com A new one-act play inspired by patients buried in the Old Cemetery at the Jamestown State Hospital will tour festivals in…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

The drug that keeps re-purposing itselfBy Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com There is a drug that is getting a lot of attention nowadays all over the world. It has various commercial names (Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus), but…

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson@rocketmail.com Working in the Bakken oil fields of the Williston Basin is so different from my home in Fargo. I'm not judging, because the people working and living in western North Dakota are very…