Author Eileen Ressler aka Eben Reilly:
I have shuttled between loving and hating grammar.
On one hand, or down one neurological track, I have always enjoyed pursuing the quirky logic of the English language. As a kid, I actually liked parsing sentences while Sister Celine Marie stood by the window twirling her rosary beads, as a college freshman I elected to take an advanced grammar course which was more about philosophy than parts
of speech.
As a college writing instructor, I have always made time to teach
sentence structure because most of students obviously had never met Sister Celine Marie or
read Perrin's Guide to English in college or Elements of Style.
So one way of thinking roars with the thrill of proper punctuation
when writing technically or reading a student paper.
However, grammar nearly murdered my prose. I had to quit teaching
college English (and recuperate from my MFA program)for nearly a decade before I could write creatively again.
College writing requires correct English; creative writing requires subversion: law breaking, prison breaks, maybe even murder!
A writer must strangle correct English with its own tie until it gasps, uncle, and then after catching its breath, tells the truth.
December 23, 2006 11:18:00 AM PST
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