You should know by now that I'm too lazy to be policing threads. I post for a bit, but if I find myself the only one droning on, I stop. So enjoy, drive this thread where you will! And, by the way, that should read 'may'.
That's prescriptive, rather Procrustean, grammar! Could I show you something at Can, could or may ? - English Grammar Today - Cambridge Dictionary
Well, I am unabashedly prescriptivist. Language is power. Wield it with skill or succumb to the power others exercise over you. Yes, this is a lost battle, justified on the grounds that no fine distinction is lost (arguable) in using 'can' and 'may' interchangeably. The troops have moved to the 'may'/'might' battlefront. Now go look that up!
Whoa! What was that? A Darth Vader snarl in a dark and stormy night. Wield it or lose it or be defeated by the force. Knowledge is power, language is power, I wonder what is not power anymore if everything can be forged into powerful weaponry. You are not unabashedly but amusingly prescriptivist. I come from corporate jargon so we flout the traditional grammar rules by verbing nouns and nouning verbs. You might recoil in error if you cast your eye on my office emails. Battles are never lost, a side switches over and peace reigns. Which side switches over is drawn out in a gruesome war of the words between the prescriptivist and descriptivist army with Google Ngram playing the referee. When was the last time prescriptivists held ground in this bloody battle of grammar? They always fret and eventually disband their garrison to commingle in the descriptivist dominion. You still have time. Change sides, as you eventually would.
Wow! I am overwhelmed. What is good writing and how does one do it? Search me. Discovered this thread only today, thanks to Gauri. Shall follow it. Would love to learn the skill of good writing. I often tend to ramble on - a tendency I'd love to curb. Reminds me of precis writing in school. I used to hate it. We were told to reduce the text to 1/3 it's length. I now wonder if anyone read what I had written because lazy me used to choose every third sentence or word and reduce the text to 1/3 the length!!! Wonder what sense the text made.
Hope this question belongs in this thread. Picked up my friend's kid from camp and brought him home. He is attending a writing camp (for 8th-10th graders or something). This week they are working on poetry. They will write 4 kinds of poems from a range of choices - sonnet, ode, limerick, tanka, free verse, haiku, quatrain, refrain... and also ghazal : ) I told the kid if he writes a ghazal in English it will be lost before/without translation. : ) My question - is writing poetry like writing a paragraph, essay or story? I feel writing poetry is like singing. A part of it has to come naturally; there has to be a certain amount of natural talent or aptitude for it.
Free verse is only passion and no prosody. You can croak, sing, thunder or blunder Only when you compose Italian or English sonnets You run into octaves, sestets, quatrains and couplets When not competing for Pulitzer I say, burst in a cacophonous geyser Talent and aptitude are nice to possess But they can be acquired, must I confess Billy Collins drops a mouse in a poem Roald Dahl sells a wonka in his tanka With such guidelines who gives hoots to order Go dare, bend the stanza border Chop chop, a poem or a ghazal No more of this tussle. References: Dahl's Wonka Collins' Mouse
@sokanasanah Hey, you, the tambourine or theremin man! It may be too early to declare a victory but I have incorporated few suggestions on how to organise and structure a write-up gleaned from your insights in this thread and also ramped up my evernote usage to keep track of my tags. Few weeks ago, someone mailed me, "Hey I love your counter-arguments and your style of writing". I owe that "tiny" recognition to you. It is customary for prodigal members to withdraw and then approach saying, "Here is my update on following the recommendations on this forum". So, here is mine — thank you. It is extremely rare to find people who can squander that time and effort to guide and discipline others with no kinship or alliance. Thanks for being that eccentric lighthouse at times. There are several clueless people with passion, interest and enthusiasm but missing that spark of guidance. I am sure this now-dormant enterprise of yours will aid other aspiring souls like me. Good stuff!