Article 1 Response: Grammar Rules

This article was actually pretty interesting. It made me rethink the way I write and speak. It pointed out grammar mistakes commonly made in the English language. Some of the points made by the author were bad parallelism, the subjunctive, and semicolon usage. I think this article showed me some things that I need to keep in mind when writing in the future. 


There were a couple of points that went right over my head, and I had to read them twice or three times until I understood. For example, the section about verb problems was confusing to me. I don't think I completely grasp "lay vs. lie" or  "shrank vs. shrunk" concept. The article doesn't really explain this idea, it just points out a few words that are commonly misused, then goes on to the next point.

One point that I could connect with and understand is the one dealing with pronouns. One of my biggest pet peeves is when somebody uses "I" where "me" would be more appropriate, or vice versa. The author makes a note of this, saying, "As long as they're by themselves, object and subject don't give anyone problems. That is, no one who's an adult native English speaker would say Me walked to the bus stop or He gave the book to I." This passage stood out to me because whenever I am unsure of which pronoun to use when talking about another person and me, I usually drop the other person's name to see if it still makes sense. If it does, I know I'm using the correct pronoun. After reading about the verbs, I felt like this little girl; I was completely lost.


I think this article about grammar mistakes was somewhat beneficial to me. I may not consciously think about every point made in the article while I am writing. However, I do feel that I have a better grasp of some confusing grammar concepts after reading this article.