pipisafoat: image of virgin mary with baby jesus & text “abstinence doesn’t work" (paper reading)
🎭 pip ([personal profile] pipisafoat) wrote in [community profile] inkstains2011-05-06 04:30 pm
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TnT: incorrect grammar

contest 33 is open until Monday at 10 pm GMT/6 pm EST.



I know that it is a stylistic choice to have a character speak with incorrect grammar. I know that it is a stylistic choice to have a narrator with incorrect grammar. I have even written both of those in the past and will probably do so again in the future! However, I can't help it: I hate reading something with glaringly bad grammar. Even if I know it's done on purpose, I can't force myself to sit there and wade through it. Even if I know for a fact that the author is a person who has impeccable grammar. Even if you held me at gunpoint with a check for a million dollars waving in my face. (Okay, maybe not then.) And yet, I'll still write things with bad grammar to prove a point or more accurately represent the character(s). However, there are people who won't do it even then.

Incorrect grammar: strength in style or just showing your idiocy?
mercredigirl: Text icon: Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality. (Gaultier) (imagination is a weapon)

[personal profile] mercredigirl 2011-05-07 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
I strongly agree with this! Especially as a lot of non-Anglo Englishes are strictly self-policed in addition to needing external/white 'validation'. I'd sooner preserve the authenticity of our spoken creole over grammar conformity.