Latent Grammar Geekism

"[Lionell Trilling] returned [my] paper with a wounding reprimand: "Never, never begin an essay with a parenthesis in the first sentence." Ever since then, I’ve made a point of starting out with a parenthesis in the first sentence." — Cynthia Ozick

Last night someone asked me if I loved grammar in school. Her question surprised me, because it was my least favorite subject. I’d rather work on a algebra problem than diagram a sentence. To this day if someone talks about clauses and modifiers, I fall into a stupor.

Still, she had a reason for the question, and after a bit of reflection, I realized that I have come to appreciate good grammar, and although I don’t like to describe it, I strive to improve it. I don’t think about prepositional phrases, but when writing a phrase I do want to use the correct preposition.

To this end, I am reading more about grammar, looking up the rules and asking questions when I am stumped. Mrs. Holton, my 7^th grade English teacher, would be proud.