English without grammar is like a body without soul. It is difficult to use English without grammar. Many people, who want to improve English speaking, start with first learning grammar. Since grammar is known as the back bone of the English language, it is important to know the basics and the rules.But not every time the rules stick to the point. Rules are meant to be broken and when it comes to grammar, you must not be afraid of breaking the rules that are redundant.

Break these five rules for a better writing:

As a writer, with every restriction that comes in your writing, it becomes a barrier to your thoughts and these thoughts affect your writing.

1) A paragraph should be long:

It was a rule followed till a few years back that the sentences and paragraphs should be long. A paragraph should contain at least 3-5 sentences. But today, the case is different . People are very busy and are always in a hurry. They hardly get time to read a full article or document. Even many newspaper publishers have started promoting their writers to write short paragraphs and sentences with punchy lines. When you avoid this rule and write short paragraphs, your readers are more likely to continue reading instead of quitting halfway. 

2) Restrict comma use:

Generally, in schools you are taught to use commas occasionally or to separate lists. Writers nowadays use commas to maintain the flow in a sentence or to indicate emphasis. When you use commas frequently, it gives a clear picture of your story to your readers.  Otherwise, the meaning of the sentence can be interpretative. Comma placement forces the brain to pause in certain areas, and hence, the use of a comma has become more flexible.

3) Starting a sentence with a conjunction:

In good olden times, starting a sentence with a conjunction was reduced since people feared that its overuse might make it outdated. So, using “And, but, or” was limited. But, today starting a sentence with a conjunction is very common.

4) Always use the Oxford comma:

It is impossible to write without commas. Rarely does a paragraph goes by in which you don’t discover a comma. An oxford comma is the last comma in a series, the comma before the final 'and' or 'or'.

Example:

She has 4 tops, 2 shirts and 3 pairs of shoes.
She has 4 tops, 2 shirts, and 3 pairs of shoes.

The highlighted comma after 2 shirts is called as an oxford comma. But this isn’t necessary for every sentence.

5) Spell out small numbers:

General rules for number is to spell it until 10 and write others greater than 10 in numeric format.

Example:

She has five notes of 1000 and eight notes of 100 rupees.
She has 5 notes of 1000 and 8 notes of 100 rupees.

Grammatically, first example is right but it causes difficultly in processing numbers in mind whereas, the second example is easy to scan and identify. So it is not necessary to always follow this rule.

Some rules can be broken when you are writing in English to better your communication. But, don’t ignore the rules completely. It does help you to speak English fluently.

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-By Chander Madan


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