Grammar Monday, March 14, 2005 4:54 PM
I just read a chapter about split infinitives and gerunds. I am enjoying the book- “Who’s (oops) Whose Grammar book is it anyway?” by Edward Good. This is my second book about writing and the English language. I am probable beyond hope but I have to give it a try. I can’t be undone by those who snicker at my disuse of the language. I can remember at a dinner party, my ex had me humbled all night because of my unwise use of an adjective.
Writing papers in collage was and exercise in pain. Saying what I wrote was English was like saying Van Gogh was realism. I would space the periods out and pour in about fifteen words. Noun verb combinations, I knew that much, and most of the rest were these, that’s and those. If I needed a thousands words, I would pause ever two lines to count them up. 885,886, 887, I have 113 left to go. Writing ended up becoming a math exercise.
Now with all the software jobs in India it work to just know your sub routines and function calls. I never was a straight ahead programmer and always managing to get assignment where I had creative control. But now I will sell my soul by crafting enchanting prose rather then just another pretty face with a keyboard.