Defining Writing Conventions

As I outlined in my March 31 post, I'm walking us through a variety of writing conventions during the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Every writer should master writing conventions for clear written communication. Mastery of writing conventions also allows the writer to misuse them in order to convey particular ideas or emotion, to build a character, or to adequately describe setting.

But many writers are confused about what writing conventions are exactly. They think writing conventions are loosely organized, long weekend get-aways put together in the name of education and networking, which are often accompanied by canoodling and wee-hour efforts to relieve a great number of cans and bottles of their liquid contents. Today, since we are early in the challenge, is a good time to take a look at what the phrase "conventions of writing" really means.

Definition of Writing Conventions: Conventions are the mechanics of a piece, in absence of meaning, theme, plot, etc, though misuse of conventions can obscure the meaning. Proper use of conventions guides the reader through the piece. Writing conventions include

• Spelling
• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Paragraphing
• Correct Word Usage (especially with homonyms, homophones, and homographs)

Improper use of conventions can confuse the reader and create stumbling blocks for him or her. The reader may get so bogged down in figuring out sentence structure and meaning that the author's creative ideas are lost. Reading a story in which the writer ignored conventions is like listening to a  speech in which the presenter ignored enunciation and pronunciation of words. The message, no matter how magical or awe inspiring, is lost.

Your thoughts? Have you ever had that ugh moment when you went back and read something you published that had a terrible error you didn't catch in the editing process?

Tomorrow: Ellipses

Comma

Comma

It is a form of punctuation that looks like this: ,

I could spend the entire month of April explaining how to use commas. Many of the comma rules require knowledge of other grammatical terms. Keep in mind that a comma is essentially a pause in a string of words. A few quick tips can help correct prevalent usage errors:

1) Use a comma when joining two independent, complete sentences with a conjunction. The most often used conjunctions are and, or, but. Others are yet, nor, so, for.
      For example: Edwayne ate chicken livers for dinner, but he won't touch a gizzard with a gloved hand and a ten-foot pole.

2) Use a set of commas to set off non-essential words (words that could be taken out without changing the meaning) in a sentence.
      For example: Cissy tromped through the parking lot, her flip-flops slapping asphalt, looking for her car.

3) Alert! Alert! DO NOT use a comma between a noun and the word that.
      For example: The catfish that ate the dog food grew the biggest.

4) Use commas to separate lists of nouns, adjectives, phrases, verbs, phrases, clauses.
      For example:  A wicked, slick rattler slithered out of the woods across the path. The Middleton boys ran, jumped, skipped, and hopped. Their mama had always told them that if they came across a rattlesnake not to poke it with a stick, not to kick it with a foot, and absolutely not to stop and look at it.

5) Use a comma after an introductory word, phrase or clause.
      For example:  Nonetheless, the rapscallions contrived a plan to get a closer look. With their mother's warnings ringing in their ears, they tempted fate.

6) Use a comma between a speaker tag and a quote.
      For example:  Junior looked at his younger brothers and warned, "Don't neither one of you dare snitch to mama about this."
     "Awe, Junior," spat PeteJoe, "we ain't gonna tell nobody."

Whatever you do, avoid the comma splice and the dreaded red editing pen. Do not join two complete sentences with a comma alone.

Throw me your comma questions. I'm not Grammar Girl, but I'll give it a shot.

Tomorrow: Defining Writing Conventions

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.

Brackets

Brackets 

It is a form of punctuation that looks like this: [ ]

The use of brackets is less complicated than use of the apostrophe. Still, it is important to know when to use them. Proper use can also be very freeing to a writer. Here's the basics:

1) Use brackets to include explanatory words (the writer's own) within a quote.
      For example, "Marigolds [a hardy summer bloomer] are known to repel insects from vegetable gardens," said Professor Scanolli.

2) Use brackets when you must change a word, such as a pronoun, or capitalization in a direct quote.
      For example, Professor Scanolli believes every Gardener must "find [her] best strategy."

3) Important to Know! [sic] after a word indicates that in transcribing material the original author's spelling has been retained.
      For example, I'm currently transcribing letters written by my aunt and uncle during WWII. They both spell the word night as nite, thus I transcribe it: Good nite [sic] my darling.

Don't overuse brackets as it becomes tiresome to the reader's eye to keep stopping at them. And be very, very careful not to abuse brackets by either a) using them as criticism of another writer's material (pointing out misspellings) or b) using them to change the meaning of quoted material.

How can brackets be freeing to a writer?

Tomorrow: Comma

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe

It is a form of punctuation that looks like this: '

Remarkably there are 13 rules for the correct use of an apostrophe. In my opinion, there is no need to tempt bad luck nor to complicate that itty-bitty bit of a pencil mark. So here's the basics:

1) An apostrophe is used to indicate that letters have been left out.
     For example, in the contraction y'all, the apostrophe stands in place of the o and the u to shorten you all to a word much easier to say.

2) An apostrophe is used to indicate possession or ownership.
     For example, if a man has a hat it is the man's hat. If the cat takes the hat, then it is the cat's hat. If lots of cats come and guard the hat so that the man cannot (or can't) get it back, then it is the cats' hat. In plural possession, the apostrophe comes after the s, at the end of the word.  Oh, except when the word's plural form does not have an s, such as when many men have a hat. Then it is the men's hat.

3) Alert! Alert! Names never have apostrophes unless letters are actually left out or the person to whom the name refers is possessing or owning something.

4) This - 1960's and 60's - is a no-no, unless the decade owns something or possesses something.
     For example, one might say the 1960s were groovy, but the 1960's styles were not.

There is so much more to the apostrophe than meets the eye, but curing the common mistakes makes all the difference in a person's writing (and in the naming of children).

Do you have questions or confusion about the use of the apostrophe? Ask me and I'll try to clear it up.

Tomorrow: Brackets

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.

April A to Z Blog Challenge - Writing Conventions

It's that time of year again. The annual April A to Z blog challenge starts tomorrow.

As I have thought and pondered and wracked my brain for my approach to this year's challenge, I remembered an experience from when I was a blossoming writer. In about the 10th grade, seeking and desperately desiring the approval and encouragement of my very stern and somewhat cold English teacher, who, no doubt, was exhausted at that point in her career by juvenile teenager's self-indulgent prose, I presented her with a poem I had written and naively asked for her honest feedback.

She scanned what I had scrawled across a piece of notebook paper. Frowned. Handed it back to me. Then she said, "Why doesn't it have any punctuation?" And she gave me one of those smiles a person gives when she knows she's said something that hurts.

She could not appreciate the creativity or the expressiveness of my poetry because she could not get past the fact that I had ignored writing conventions. And I had no good reason for omitting punctuation, other than I didn't think my poem needed it. She nonetheless assured me that it did.

Bing! An epiphany: Conventions of writing can be usefully violated when the writer has an intentional reason for doing so. And they can only be successfully violated by a writer who first understands writing conventions and how to implement them correctly. AND they should be implemented correctly, unless the writer has an exceptionally good reason for not doing so.

I am so thankful to that teacher for shooting me down. It was the only way I could build my writing up. (I intentionally ended those sentences in prepositions for the sake of balance.)

So my April A to Z effort will address 26 conventions of writing every writer should understand, follow and use correctly (unless he or she can adequately defend the misuse of them and demonstrate how the misuse advances the story or develops the character).

See you April 1st for the first installment.

Effects of Aging

I can't be sure, exactly, but I think I suffered the ill-spoken of malady of forty-something year-old women, the unmerciful hot flash. I've always heard that hot flashes can happen at any time, anywhere, and that they are entirely uncomfortable. What I experienced fits those criteria.

It happened when I was walking from my car to the door of the grocery store. I'd been to a DAR meeting and decided to grab a few things before going home. I was wearing a skirt that hits just above the knees, strappy wedges, and a 3/4-sleeve blouse with shirring through the bodice, an outfit I adore.

Dropping my keys into my purse, I looked up to meet eyes with a man in his mid-thirties walking in the opposite direction. I'm not ashamed to say, by the way, that his approving appraisal did a lot for my ego and sent a shiver of I'm-still-pretty down my spine.

Naturally, the shiver caused me to straighten my posture

 . . . which unfortunately caused my right foot to errantly step on a stray rock,

. . . which resulted in my right heel slipping off of the tall wedge sandal,

. . . which sent me wobbling through a clumsy adjustment to catch my balance.

The man, very gentlemanly jumped into action. He grabbed me by the elbow to assist me onto the curb, then asked, "Ma'am, are you alright?"

That's when it happened. Sixty seconds prior I was hot, and then - FLASH - I wasn't anymore. I was ma'am to a thirty-something year-old. And very uncomfortable.

Enough is As Good As a Feast

So, Monday I was doing the evening Bible reading with my children. The passage we shared was the well-known one about the loaves and fishes. Jesus and his disciples faced the daunting task of feeding the thousands of people who had come to hear Jesus speak, to spend time in His presence. Just like my children and me in our reading of the account, they were seeking truths, understanding, knowledge, guidance.

Anyway, our tradition in what my children have dubbed "Hall Time," because we meet for the activity in the large hallway between our bedrooms, is for each person to take a turn explaining what he or she gained or learned from the Bible reading. On Monday, the kids talked of Jesus performing a miracle, the importance of following Jesus, and the necessity of faith; all excellent commentary on the passage.

When my turn came around, I was hit by a sudden epiphany; a very simple message that I had missed so many times before, but that is quite salient in these lean economic years. And it hinges on what Jesus did before He performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand with only five loaves and two fishes.

He gave thanks. He did not despair in the critical shortage of food, but instead thanked His Father for what little He had. I concentrated on that singular, often overlooked detail. He thanked God, then He fed the masses.

It is when we dwell on all that we are deprived of that we starve, that we feel empty, that we hunger, that we feel want. When we thank God for what we have, we always have enough. And enough is as good as a feast.