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Stumped By Grammar

My grammar has always been lacking and I have yet to make any effort to correct this gap in my education. I never knew that there were en dashes and em dashes let alone that they were to be used for different reasons. I did know of a blog named Emdashes but the significance of the name never registered with me until now. There are some lapses in our education that we learn to work around and live with - grammar is one of them for me.

I am surviving for sure but the quality of my life is definitely lacking for not being able to string together a paragraph with no grammatical errors - that makes me a pseudo-literate almost. Depending on the standards a piece of writing is held to, I would make closer to failing than passing grade with my poorly structured language. In my defense, I would say where I went to high school, grammar was not considered awfully important. They believed that if you read and wrote enough, it would come to you naturally.

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Vikas Gupta said…
You are not the only odd (wo)man out! I too belong to the tribe!

I had probably heard of en dashes and em dashes but did not keep them in mind. The WordPress visual editor has these dashes in the custom characters option.

By a rule of thumb, one can say that 7 out of 10 people are not aware of it! That grammar stifles creativity is a common allegation; I do not subscribe to this view, however.

I want to improve my English (both grammar and vocabulary included) but to date it has only remained a noble intention with little execution.

Last but not the least, to use the popular Indian phrase, you are being harsh on yourself! Self analysis and criticism is a good thing, just the same!

The editors wielding the blue pencils will be rendered unemployed if writers achieve grammatical perfection! ;)
7:34 AM
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