Develop X-ray vision and see through your sentences
Colleen Trolove | June 22, 2016
A few weeks ago, I ran our Grammar workshop. I loved being on the workshop as much as the participants did. I was so glad to be there! It felt like a healing experience.
The information in the workshop is what I wished I had learnt at school. If I’d known this stuff, my second-year Linguistics paper on syntax would have been less traumatic — probably even pleasant and interesting.
At school, I never learnt the parts of speech or what a clause was. This grammar workshop demystifies all those scary terms I avoided for so long: dependent clause, gerund, modal verb. When I started to understand that vocabulary, I gained power over my writing.
Knowing grammar gives you X-ray vision
Knowing grammar gives us the ability to punctuate with confidence and accuracy.
Grammar also enables us to improve our writing much more quickly because we develop X-ray vision: we begin to see ‘through’ our sentences. We start to deliberately construct clear sentences — and deconstruct ineffective ones. When we can spot a main verb, we can tell whether or not we’ve written a long, abstract subject. If we realise we have, we can replace it with a short, real one.
Ad for X-ray glasses by Rembrandt Co.
This workshop fills a gap in your education
This workshop makes an intimidating subject feel manageable. It breaks down the concepts to their most basic and builds up from there. It makes grammar relevant — you can quickly see how understanding grammar benefits your writing style. That becomes great motivation!