Sentence Fragments and Run-on sentences

[MMI]

Anything a best-selling author can do, anyone can do. And, with the possible exception of clasical Chinese, isn't writing simply a way of putting the spoken word into a permanent form?

I agree that the snippet you have quoted is ludicrous, but it seems that otherwise we must agree to disagree.

English grammar is a joy, when it isn't confusing. But who can help being confused when even the best linguists don't know whether the posessive 's is an inflection or a clitic.

And why should the word one take 's in the posessive when the rule is that pronouns do not have an apostrophe?

Confused?

[Clevernick]

Anything a best-selling author can do, anyone can do. And, with the possible exception of clasical Chinese, isn't writing simply a way of putting the spoken word into a permanent form?

I agree that the snippet you have quoted is ludicrous, but it seems that otherwise we must agree to disagree.

This is a feedback forum for helping people get published. Getting published nearly always requires good grammar and correct writing style. Believe me, from both ends, I know. If you want my help getting published, I'm here to help.

If you can't get published but prefer to feel good about the way you already write, talk to MMI. See? Something for everyone.

English grammar is a joy, when it isn't confusing. But who can help being confused when even the best linguists don't know whether the posessive 's is an inflection or a clitic.

This is bafflegab. Anyone can pick out a fringe rule and mention that "experts don't know" the answer, and therefore try to invalidate an entire field. But any field of knowledge worth studying has fringes with fuzzy answers. Get over it. The rules I'm giving here are well in the middle of the parts that there's no doubt about.

And why should the word one take 's in the posessive when the rule is that pronouns do not have an apostrophe?

Confused?

More bafflegab. Pronouns don't have an apostrophe. Except when they do. Live with it. "one's" as a possessive takes an apostrophe to distinguish it from "ones", the plural of "one". Any complex group of rules has exceptions, and natural languages are, um, no exception. Doesn't mean you throw up your hands the first time someone quotes an exception at you.

[Clevernick]

Anything a best-selling author can do, anyone can do.

Strangely, Lynne Truss (of "Eats Shoots and Leaves") made the same tongue-in-cheek observation I did. From Wikipedia:

Lynne Truss[4] observes: "so many highly respected writers observe the splice comma that a rather unfair rule emerges on this one: only do it if you're famous." She cites Samuel Beckett, E. M. Forster, and Somerset Maugham. "Done knowingly by an established writer, the comma splice is effective, poetic, dashing. Done equally knowingly by people who are not published writers, it can look weak or presumptuous. Done ignorantly by ignorant people, it is awful."

There are better, less elitist versions of this rule, I'm sure, but it's a pretty good start. It's a rule to be broken only when you know exactly how and when NOT to break it.

[Shwenn]

Strangely, Lynne Truss (of "Eats Shoots and Leaves") made the same tongue-in-cheek observation I did. From Wikipedia:

Lynne Truss[4] observes: "so many highly respected writers observe the splice comma that a rather unfair rule emerges on this one: only do it if you're famous." She cites Samuel Beckett, E. M. Forster, and Somerset Maugham. "Done knowingly by an established writer, the comma splice is effective, poetic, dashing. Done equally knowingly by people who are not published writers, it can look weak or presumptuous. Done ignorantly by ignorant people, it is awful."

There are better, less elitist versions of this rule, I'm sure, but it's a pretty good start. It's a rule to be broken only when you know exactly how and when NOT to break it.

Okay, now, that really messes up the minds of people who learn almost all their grammar from reading. I didn't think the comman splice thing was even really a rule. I thought it was like splitting infinitives, one of those things nobody actually cares about.

[Clevernick]

Okay, now, that really messes up the minds of people who learn almost all their grammar from reading. I didn't think the comman splice thing was even really a rule. I thought it was like splitting infinitives, one of those things nobody actually cares about.

Yeah, it bothers people. It bothers me, at least, since it looks breathless and weak when I read it. Examples from some other writer:

Getting this over and done with quickly was in everyone's best interests I thought, I could live with the discomfort for the two weeks.

Looks basically unpunctuated and impossible to read aloud. Try:

Getting this over and done with quickly was in everyone's best interests, I thought. I could live with the discomfort for the two weeks.

I'd have to conclude that commas are not periods, and no amount of apathy will make them periods...

I, too, get all my grammar knowledge from reading, not from grammar teachers. The teachers just showed me what to call the errors. And yeah, I see them and they pop me right out of the story.

[Mad Lews]

I'd have to conclude that commas are not periods, and no amount of apathy will make them periods...

I suspect very few of the ladies are apathetic about periods; Commas on the other hand...


Mad