Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Importance of Syntax and Grammar Especially in Regards to Historical Documents



In literature class, we created grammar notebooks, places for us to practice and improve our storytelling by using correct grammar. We also looked at the syntax of a description of Ichabod Crane to determine more about his character. There was an abundance of meaning in just those few sentences, demonstrating the astounding effect of organization. Any effective writer must know how to play with structure to convey more information than could be contained in words alone. However, to ensure that the reader can understand the base message, the author must stay away from overly complex or scrambled organization, like we are learning with our notebooks. Hence, to be an effective storyteller, one must walk the fine line of inserting meaning with syntax and hiding it with incorrect grammar. If this is done correctly than the reader sees more of the picture in the writer’s head and the gap between the two minds is closed. This is especially important in historical texts because the author is, in essence, documenting an event with their words. If the historian or reader cannot glean an accurate representation of what happened, then that moment of history is skewed in its representation and many people are misinformed, possibly leading to future consequences. Overall, syntactical structure and its manipulation within the realm of proper grammar is imperative to the success of any storyteller, particularly when that story is of historical value.

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