9. Working with Grammar and Style

You can write in any way you like; it’s a free country. But it’s useful to know how readers are likely to react to your choices.Joseph M. Williams. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Sixth edition. New York: Longman, 2000. vi.

MANY STUDENTS FEEL a shiver of apprehension when they hear the word grammar, particularly if it emerges from the curled lips of an English teacher. They associate the term with papers covered in mysterious red marks or with difficult and/or boring exercises assigned in high school. They consider “grammar” as something they “ought” to know, something they should have learned a long time ago and that “good” writers have somehow mastered. If you ask students, even graduate students, ...

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