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A Writers' Magazine
- Article from:
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Humanities
- Article date:
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May 1, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright Superintendent of Documents May/Jun 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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I don't go, as boxing fans say, to the fights. I do, however, like a good dustup in the arenas of grammar and usage. Of course, who doesn't enjoy a little roughhousing when comma placement is at stake? But these set-tos over punctuation and usage sometimes leave me feeling cheapened, as the crime of, say, confusing comprise and compose is prosecuted only, it can seem, for the vulgar pleasure of ridiculing common (or even debatable) errors. Then I wonder if this emphasis on the rules of grammar threatens to distract us from the more important task of giving great attention to our choice of words.
For improving one's use of language, work, I find, is about the only thing that works. This ...