{"id":43,"date":"2014-11-10T18:57:56","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T18:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/englishcomp1kaleidoscoperevisedmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=43"},"modified":"2015-06-23T21:05:02","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T21:05:02","slug":"matters-of-grammar-mechanics-and-style","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-herkimer-enhancedwriting\/chapter\/matters-of-grammar-mechanics-and-style\/","title":{"raw":"Matters of Grammar, Mechanics, and Style","rendered":"Matters of Grammar, Mechanics, and Style"},"content":{"raw":"For many students, the discussion of grammar, mechanics, and style is intimidating. There are rules, and lots of them. And when rules are broken, some kind of inquisition or punishment is bound to follow. Any student who has experienced an instructor's editorial comments (also known as the red pen \"blood\" in the margins of a paper) knows what it feels like to be a hapless violator of the rules.\r\n
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Rules Matter<\/h3>\r\nDespite your gut reactions to learning certain rules for grammar, mechanics, and style, you have to acknowledge\"Photo<\/a> that the rules matter.\u00a0 People communicate daily in written forms, such as emails, letters, reports, and essays. And many of them need to communicate in such a way that they are taken seriously.\r\n\r\nIn academic writing, it is your job to make sure that the people who read what you write (your instructor and classmates) understand what you are trying to say. If your thoughts are not arranged appropriately, your readers may get confused. If you do not acknowledge and employ the rules of grammar, mechanics, and style, you are at a distinct disadvantage as a communicator.\r\n

The Grammar Report<\/h3>\r\nBeing able to identify grammatical, mechanical, or stylistic problems that exist in your writing is one way to improve your writing. These problems may have been with you for some time, failing to be identified, researched, and remedied.\r\n\r\nThe Grammar Report assignments will assist you in not only identifying your problem, but also you help you seek out examples of the problem, research the rules related to the problem, and finally \"reporting\" on your experience to your classmates.\u00a0Indeed, the process is not just about you addressing a writing problem; it is about sharing your experience and remedies, so that you can teach others to avoid writing errors.\r\n

Improving Grammar, Mechanics, and Style<\/h3>\r\nThere are a wide variety of resources to support your research. A good place to start is the free online textbook,\u00a0Successful Writing<\/a><\/em>. You can use the find\/search feature of your browser to look up particular topics and use the practice exercises to work through the process of identifying and correcting errors.\r\n\r\nHere are some online resources that you may find useful, as well:\r\n