After lunch, after we had put away our lunch boxes and settled back into our seats, my third-grade language teacher, Mrs. Ramsdon, would grab the English workbooks off her desk, and some kids would moan in distress. As for me, I didn’t moan. I was excited. English was my favorite subject, and as she traveled around the room handing out the books, I took solace, knowing that we would soon be knee-deepin the different parts of speech, in capitalization, in punctuation, in syllables, and in -my absolute favorite –spelling. In a few moments, I would become a player. In a few moments, I would be forgiven for my morning math atrocities.
My love for English class continued through the years, and when I was in high school I was assigned to write a three- page essay about what I wanted to do for profession. I wrote that I wanted to be a writer. When I got my paper back, I saw that it was ravaged by red ink. On the top, there was a scribbled note: “If you want to be a writer, you need to work on your grammar. Read and write more.” I
took that suggestion pretty seriously, and I believe that reading and writing is most effective way to learn grammar. By writing, you are experiencing trial and error. By reading, you are seeing how it’s done. I read and write every day.
Now, I’m in college for the second time, and I’m still discovering few grammar rules. I’m beginning to think it’s a life long journey. Even when you figure everything out, there is going to be a degree of maintenance required to keep it fresh in the brain. So, I’m always looking for good books to sharpen my skills. Right now, the most useful thing I’ve found is Strunk and White‘s “Elements of Style.” It’s really concise, and it’s and taken pretty serious in the field.
Photo Credits:
Writing tools by Brainonlithium @ flickr
