RE: Act versus pass (WAS Disp versus App-Which One? ) (slightly O T/ra nt)

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- kinzan -dot- com>]

> Jo Byrd writes:
> 
> For some reason I managed to get through grade school and 
> most of high 
> school
> without having a grasp of grammar...

Barbara Yanez says:
> 
> 
> You and I had the same experience. I didn't understand 
> grammar very well
> when in elementary school, high school, etc., - in fact I DETESTED ths
> subject...

Idunno if it's just that I'm *O*L*D* <toothless-g> or it was the
parochial school education, but I had grammar drilled into me at
a very early age. In fact, I used to think that diagraming sentences
was great fun! So much so, in fact, that I wrote a love poem that
included a diagramed sentence while I was in high school. (okay,
so there was a little bit of e.e.cummings influence mixed in with 
the nuns!) 

And in college, I'd use sentence diagrams to help me make sense
out of exceptionally dense text -- Thomas Aquinas comes to mind.

When I interview job candidates, I always try to include a 
discussion of grammar. It's getting harder and harder to strike
up a grammar-based conversation, though. <sigh>

Me: So, what are your grammatical pet peeves?

Interviewee: Huh?

Me: You know, if you were editing me, what points of grammar
    would you always catch because they sound like fingernails
    across a blackboard?

Interviewee: Huh?

Me: You know... passive voice... not using possessives before a 
    gerund... Grammar. What are your pet peeves?

Interviewee: Idunno. Passive voice, I suppose.

Me: Okay, what else?

Interviewee: Idunno.

Me: So, can you give me an example of passive voice?

...and the conversation degenerates from there. <sigh>

And here I thought it was just me.

-Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- kinzan -dot- com



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