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It's interesting how a thoughtful and supportive answer to a query from a
fellow techwriter can result in such dogmatic flames.
Let's see what's been taught here today:
1. "...language is certainly not the basic component [of our profession,
technical writing]."
2. "COMMUNICATION is the cornerstone of your profession. Grammar is
subservient to communication."
3. "MESSAGE is the core component of what we do."
4. "How we deliver that message is slightly secondary in importance..."
5. "Correct grammar is worthless if the message is wrong."
6. "You can clearly communicate without conventions of grammar."
Comment: The four examples given provide no hint of a verb, so either you
start Word or observe something labeled 'Microsoft Word.' That's the level
of understanding one would achieve by reading these steps.
7. "Translation gets into issues that go beyond grammar alone."
Comment: Grammar is the bedrock of most Western languages. I served as a
Russian linguist for 20 years, translating materials from Russian to
English, primarily. If I knew little of Russian and English grammar, I could
not have successfully translated anything, and I was quite successful.
Grammar is critical to Spanish and German, too (I learnt both as well,
although my proficiency is rapidly slipping through advancing age and
diminishing use of either.) Idioms, colloquialisms, and metaphors are not
"grammatically-safe conventions" at all; in fact, they are not usually
considered to be linguistic 'conventions.'
For all of this, however, no one shows how one can COMMUNICATE a MESSAGE if
the WRITER fails to use grammar, or uses it poorly.
Of course, I know that I shall be proved wrong. I await; let the teaching
begin...
Donald H. White
whitedh -at- comcast -dot- net
804.795.2914
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