Monday 21 October 2013

PS to grammar talk

17. One of the consequences of the preceding 16 points on the previous blog is that we (me too) all get drawn into thinking that 'real' or 'best' writing is in standard or 'correct' English. Yet, every day and night we encounter examples of moving, exciting, challenging, funny writing which is not written in this way - whether that's in drama, film, TV, song, poetry, comedy, comic strips and so on. It is an untruth to talk as if there is only one form of 'effective' English when clearly every day we are entertained by non-standard forms.

So, rather than pretending this huge body of writing and language is irrelevant and/or wrong, perhaps - in the context of talking about grammar - we should be investigating it.