A few thoughts on Grammar and Life

 Hi dear friends :) 

I'm not gonna lie, I tried to write a blog post on grammar for my writing class about three different times. Despite the pressure of the time crunch, and my sudden memory of the fantastic 7th grade musical film my friends and I made turning punctuation marks into the characters from Dr. Suess's Are You My Mother? (complete with costumes and original music for each character to sing about their grammar function)...despite these things...each attempt turned into an uninspired sentence or two before I resolved to go to bed. 

But then, at the most inconvenient time, of course, I had a striking moment of inspiration.

In true Sophi fashion, my thoughts on grammar have less to do with grammar, and more to do with life. 

As many of you may know, I am in the musical Oliver! put on by George Fox University Theatre. I had a brief moment where I was waiting backstage during a scene, and I started thinking about the show and people's responses and interpretations of the show. 

As a rule, I try not to over consider what the audience is receiving from the work. I put a lot of intention into the story I am telling, especially in the rehearsal process, but when it comes to performances, I trust that the audience will receive whatever they need to receive. 

However, I found myself thinking about how being educated in theatre might impact your interpretation of a theatrical performance. 

I realized that having knowledge of the terms and practices of theatre does not necessarily mean a better interpretation of a show. However, it does provide a set of tools...a vocabulary to define various elements of theatre, that might give someone a more expansive understanding of a work of theatre. 

Someone who has never seen a show before can come watch a musical without any knowledge of music theory or an actor's objectives and be moved by the story. They can enjoy the effects of the lighting without knowing what a gobo, source 4, or cyc light is. They may even be moved more by the story or experience something in a deeper way than someone with that technical knowledge. 

But, someone with that knowledge will notice more. They will likely have a deeper understanding of the work put into the show. Of certain elements and tools used to tell the story. 

I think grammar is the same way.

Having formal grammar instruction can open up an extra set of tools and a new lens with which to analyze literature. Understanding sentence structure, punctuation, and the vocabulary used to describe various grammar functions might allow for a deeper understanding of a text and offers more tools when writing. 

Just like in theatre, someone without formal grammar instruction can have a deeply meaningful response to a piece of writing. Sometimes even more so than someone well educated in grammar. 

In my directing class, my professor told us that sometimes beginning actors can actually generate more honest work than someone caught up in the jargon of professional theatre training. 

In the same way, writer's without formal grammar training may write and discover stories more honestly. 

Grammar does not necessitate better writing. A lack of grammar does not necessitate poor-er writing. 

Grammar is merely one contributing factor to the storytelling process. It can create more tools to enhance writing, but it is not the deciding factor in what makes for good writing. 

And that my friends, is encouraging. 

We can learn about grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, and use them to enhance our writing. But we don't have to get caught up in understanding it perfectly to be readers and writers. 

Well...I think that's all I have to say about grammar. 

I'm sure I made several mistakes in this post itself, but hopefully, my point still came across. 

May you go in peace this week. 

Sincerely,

Sophi