“Writing as Self-Revelation”

Grammar is Only Skin Deep

Let’s face it, English teachers are scary!  I’m laughed at when the people closest to me see how mad I am when I have to turn in a second English paper before the first one has even been graded and handed back.  Why?  Because I never know how that teacher grades or what their expectations are.  Do they put the hammer down on grammar or are my ideas and efforts in translating them onto the page the most important?  I have been in several classes when I have said out loud (well not close enough for the teacher to hear of course) that no matter what I do it will never be good enough.  I have even been told that my writing was “stiff”, “unrealistic.”  Yes, and when I walked away from them I had a few choice words.  Of course they were wrong!  I was using big words, I sounded smart, and I even used a thesaurus!   Need I quote Stephen King once again, yes I do, “Any word you have to hunt for in the thesaurus is the wrong word.  There are no exceptions to this rule.”  What I had a problem with was finding my own voice.  I was too concerned with writing for the teacher rather than just letting myself be heard beyond the surface.

There is a part in “Writing as Self-Revelation” where the author Luella B. Cook talks about a time when she was asked a question, “But what do you do about all the errors in grammar and spelling?  Do you just over-look them?”  Her reply was simple, “Temporarily yes.” She is “looking for something else, for something real that a pupil is trying to say, for some hint of possibility that I may help him build upon.”  In analyzing this “nervous concern over errors” Cook believes it comes from “criticism.”  “Criticism has long been our stock and trade.  Pupils write and we carefully correct their papers judging the value of our own efforts by the thoroughness with which we have identified their errors.”  Doesn’t that explain the comic above?  Instead of the teacher finding value in the content of the past student’s words, wanting to be recognized and remembered, he’s basically shhh-ing him because incorrect grammar he believes reflects badly upon him as the teacher.

Is the constant need for immediate proper grammar the same as talking in someone else’s voice?  It’s rule following at its best.  You’re doing it simply because someone else told you to.  If the content within is the mouth watering dessert you were craving, does it matter if it’s served on a paper plate or fine china?  Getting your ideas down and having that teacher who helps you develop it is priceless.  The grammar can always be fixed when you’re finished.

While I am not saying its okay to not learn and practice proper grammar, I am saying that WHAT a person says is far more important than HOW a person says it.

John Grisham’s commencement speech at UNC-ChapelHill in 2010 gives a great argument on the importance in finding your own voice.  He says the “most difficult task facing a writer is finding the voice in which to tell a story.”  After all I do agree when he says “a voice is more than a sound”, holding “three essential elements”, “clarity, authenticity and veracity.”  So I say find your voice.  Screw the thesaurus and have a teacher that "temporarily" looks beyond the surface of the skin/grammar.  Let them see the depths of the content, there is a good argument to be had here.  Challenge them.  If all you’re being graded on is grammar, ask if you could see what your grade would be if only looking at how your voice translated to the paper.  Speak from your heart, plead your case and be heard beyond your skin.