It is unfortunate that sometimes teachers tell you that this is wrong or you have to replace this by this. And when you ask them why they are not always sure of their answers. Like what we read about White and Strunk, teachers often tell you what THEY think wrong and make that as a rule for future reference. As students, especially in the early stages of our learning journey, we had to agree. Further, we make stereotypes about grammar rules with the help of our teachers. Then we became older and liguistically aware of different perspectives about grammar, many thing began to make sense for us.
I was many times told not to use the passive voice that I began to hate it and avoid it as much as I can in my academic writing. HOWEVER, and I do not know whether White and Strunk would agree with using it in the beginning of the sentence, I started to understand when we use the passive voice and when we use the active voice. I agree with the autheor of the article we read that it is frustrating to see red-circled words on my paper without knowing the reason why this is wrong. There must be an understanding between the teacher and the students of the purpose behind this grammar point and not that one for instance. The same is said about apostrophes because it was not until recently that I knew the difference between “its” and “it’s”. I used to confuse them but my teachers helped me understand the difference.
One reply on “Adnan’s posting about grammar”
Adnan, I thought about what you said that the teacher should have a clear explanation why something is wrong and should be replaced. However, I don’t know if this is possible all the time in English; because in Arabic, I struggle alot to explain for my friend who is studying Arabic why her sentence should be reviewed just because it sounds wierd. I don’t follow up with further explanation because There is no explanation! She acceots that because sometimes her Arabic teacher says the same thing (don’t ask me why, Allah wants it this way:)