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Natalia Schiappacasse

Professor Rieman

English 1103

How important are the conventions of grammar for effective communication?

Comma¶s go here, sentences need an ending place; paragraphs need to be a certain

length. Our world today is full of grammatical conventions that we use in our everyday language.

Through the papers, emails, texts, and business letters sent a day, one would think that everyone

is a good writer and knows how to use simple grammar conventions. Unfortunately, not

everyone knows the rules and therefore effective communication is sometimes left behind It¶s

like when someone uses a particular intonation when they talk and you know whether it is a

question or not. Well, without the intonation, you wouldn¶t know if the remark was a question or

a statement. The same rules apply with grammar in our written language. If these conventions

were not important they would not exist. But then again, people sometimes take these

conventions a little too seriously and miss the meaning behind what the person is trying to say.

And then there is the simple fact that for different people certain conventions apply and others do

not. So, exactly how important are the conventions of grammar for effective communication?

First of, many people do not know what the conventions of grammar are. They include

separate little sections within them but overall they are spelling and punctuation and grammar.

After the main points, one moves into sentence structure, and how many paragraphs a paper is

supposed to have. In Steven Peha¶s article, ³Looking for the Quality of Student Writing´, he

discusses the importance of the conventions of grammar are important for communication. He

emphasizes,´ The so-called ³rules of writing´ are not really rules at all, they¶re agreements
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between people in a society as to how written communication will be interpreted when it is read´

( Peha). Is this true? Does this mean that only if we write well people will understand what we

are trying to say? Through some independent, unofficial research, on some blogging sites I have

noted that many younger people still understand others, even if their grammar and vocabulary

are not correct. As opposed to older people, normally, write in a more formal way; with the

commas and sentence structure interpret those who do not write as well.

In my research, there are those who do not agree with this type of idea, that grammar is

not the most important for communication, as maybe the meaning. In Donald Murray¶s book, ³

A Writer teaches Writing,´ he states ³The writer should not follow rules, but follow language

toward meaning, always seeking to understand what is appearing on the page, to see it clearly, to

evaluate it clearly, for clear thinking will produce clear writing.´ As a student, I know that

sometimes teachers may look at the insignificant things in our writing, and sometimes forget

about what the writer is actually writing. As Maria P. Rey states in her ³Letter to West Port High

School¶s English Department,´ an assignment for her college class, she speaks of how as she was

taught, she had to memorize four basic principles that her teachers expected her to write in when

she wrote papers. The rules that she was asked to memorize were not hard, they were just some

of the same paragraph structures and sentence rules that everyone needs to learn. She then goes

on to talk about how sometimes she would feel like her teacher would not necessarily understand

the meaning of her work because she was too preoccupied with the little conventions. How does

this relay communication when the meaning isn¶t the article being sought out. Tying it back to

Mr.Murray who says something similar, and Maria Rey, when does the rulebook get to be closed

for a little to be able to understand what the writer is saying between the lines? Is there any
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universal code of grammar that everyone needs to follow and we are just slacking and making up

our own as we go.

As far as communication, does the fact that everyone wrties different ways in different

setting help, or hurt the cause of the conventions of grammar and communication. It is

understandable how it would hurt, because different people write different ways in different

setting and sometimes when someone from another setting sees them in the same place then they

begin to either lookat the same way or in a more negative light. For example, in high school, I

had this teacher who not mind helping her students through email one bit. The only thing she was

seriously bothered by was when students began turning ³you¶s´ into ³u¶s´, As you can see, this

is something that has to be resolved. What if we have people who come from a different country,

will they be able to understand our language and grammatical skill or would they need to go to

school and relearn the information.

Luckily, I came across an article that speaks about grammar from another country and

compares it to living here and learning it hear.

As one can see, grammar in itself I s a complicated thing, now whether or not it is most

important for effective communication, I cannot say. There are so many pros and cons to both

arguments that they can sometimes knock each other out. As far as I am concerned, the answer to

my question still remains a question. There is an incredible amount of information and only one

can decide whether or not the question has an answer. On one side, grammar is important and if

it is not properly placed it will be a distraction to the reader, but on the other hand, maybe those

little grammar mistakes should be second to the meaning that one is trying to communicate with

the audience. Nonetheless, the conventions of grammar are important in effective

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communication, but now the question remains, what majority are the conventions of grammar

important in effective communication.

Works Cited

Nelson, Leah; Feinstein, Sheryl G. ³ Ô
 Ô 
´ (2007): (1-24). 
 Web
Online Submission

Peha, Steven. ³Looking for Quality in Student Writing.´

       
           ?Copyright 1995 - 2003 by
Steve Peha and Teaching That Makes Sense, Inc. All rights reserved. Web.?

Rey, Maria P.³Letter to West Port High School¶s English Department.´     
  
 . Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin¶s P, 2011. 225-231. Print.

Williams, Joseph M.³The Phenomology of Error´        
 .

Eds. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin¶s P, 2011. 49-62.
Print.