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Grammar, My Old Nemesis, We Meet Again
Aug. 30th, 2006 03:14 pmI got some concrit today, which is completely awesome cause love concrit. But it was about dangling participles. Which brought up the question, WTF is a dangling participle? I am absolutely sure that has never come up before in any classroom I’ve been in or book I’ve ever read. A quick trip to google and I’m onto what they are, but it brings up the bigger frustration of my life - I am so sick and tired of being a grammar idiot.
I’m working on it. I've been reading books and learning through concrit of fics and comments from betas and I've improved greatly. At the beginning of the year I didn’t know about dialogue formatting or even what a semi-colon was. I think I’m getting the hand of when to use a comma; I was bit to quick to use them before. But so many people out there are so brilliant at it and I feel so incredibly inadequate.
And I know I do it a lot, but I see it as something of a flaw to blame others for your own problem, but damn it, I feel ripped off. What on earth were my English teachers being paid for if not to teach me how to use the English language? I only learnt what a verb was because I took a beginner’s French paper at University. It’s not like I didn’t learn anything. I can list off definitions of language devices such as similes, alliteration and metaphors. But still, when I finished high school I couldn’t have picked out a semi-colon in a lineup. University’s not that much better. I got through my first three years and still had no idea of when to use a semi-colon. Then again it’s not a University’s job to point out the basics.
There is no point to this rant. I can’t change the education system and every country is different anyway. I’m just pissed off. But just think what would have happened if I had not ever submitted a fic and had it rejected from FictionAlley. It would certainly have been more embarrassing to enter the workplace with my appalling skills.
I’m working on it. I've been reading books and learning through concrit of fics and comments from betas and I've improved greatly. At the beginning of the year I didn’t know about dialogue formatting or even what a semi-colon was. I think I’m getting the hand of when to use a comma; I was bit to quick to use them before. But so many people out there are so brilliant at it and I feel so incredibly inadequate.
And I know I do it a lot, but I see it as something of a flaw to blame others for your own problem, but damn it, I feel ripped off. What on earth were my English teachers being paid for if not to teach me how to use the English language? I only learnt what a verb was because I took a beginner’s French paper at University. It’s not like I didn’t learn anything. I can list off definitions of language devices such as similes, alliteration and metaphors. But still, when I finished high school I couldn’t have picked out a semi-colon in a lineup. University’s not that much better. I got through my first three years and still had no idea of when to use a semi-colon. Then again it’s not a University’s job to point out the basics.
There is no point to this rant. I can’t change the education system and every country is different anyway. I’m just pissed off. But just think what would have happened if I had not ever submitted a fic and had it rejected from FictionAlley. It would certainly have been more embarrassing to enter the workplace with my appalling skills.
