Everyday Canvas

Conforming to Grammar Rules or Not

Prompt: Rabindranath Tagore said in Sadhana, “When we come to literature, we find that, though it conforms to the rules of grammar, it is yet a thing of joy; it is freedom itself.” How much do you think literature, in fiction or poetry, should stick to the rules of grammar? Or should it, at all?

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I do appreciate the grammar rules. They help us to use the language properly and efficiently. If one is putting together a serious thesis for academia or if he is writing for a serious publication, all grammar rules need to be obeyed.

On the other hand, for me, perfect grammar has nothing to do with great writing because, in the case of writing poetry and fiction, meaning comes first. If a slight wavering from a grammar rule will light up a character, a feeling, or a story event, I see no reason for strictly sticking to the rules. Then, with poetry most rules can be broken and they are by the best poets, especially while writing free verse.

The older English teachers usually find fault with the now-obsolete rules, outdated for fiction and poetry, such as using sentence fragments, using slang, starting a sentence with a conjunction or ending it with a preposition. To me, such corrections are useless if the wavering from strict grammar helps the flow and the telling of the story. In addition, a writer’s voice, writing style, tone, and genre can and should influence choices in how to craft the narrative, internal thinking, speech, and description. Above all, a character’s voice is the most important, and especially for that, most of the rules can often be set aside to convey a realistic personality.

Still some basic rules should be observed in order to keep prose from becoming muddled, clunky, or redundant and thus lose meaning. It is every writer’s job to learn the simplest unbreakable rules of grammar. Even so, I cringe when I see a novice story writer or a poet worry about grammar and even state in advance when asking for a review that their writing isn’t perfect. Grammar rules are for serving the language of the writer, not for making him feel bad about his writing, especially if his writing shines in other ways.