One should aim not at being possible to understand,
but at being impossible to misunderstand.
—QUINTILLIAN
DON’T FRET. I’LL MAKE THIS AS PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE. Remember, we all learned grammar when we were toddlers and we use it every time we open our mouths to speak. Well, almost every time!
First aid for the flummoxed
If you are worried about your grammar skills (or even if you aren’t), it is
useful to have one good grammar book you can refer to. There are many to
choose from, but my particular first choice is The Gregg Reference Manual,
edited by Sabin, Miller, Sine and Strashok. Make sure you buy a Canadian
edition, not a US one, as some practices vary between the two countries.
Gregg is easy to use, thorough, and friendly in tone.
So, why focus on grammar in a plain language manual?
There is a good reason to include a grammar chapter. Grammar is the foundation that makes your writing clear (and often more concise). Clear writing is always easier to read than unclear writing. And because it is easier to read, it becomes really important when you write for people who have difficulties with print or people who are reading in a hurry.
There are both rules and conventions in written English, although we have probably learned them all as rules. Rules are there to make sure our writing is understandable. Conventions are “rules” which have little or no effect upon the meaning of the sentence but have been upheld by tradition.
Certain rules are necessary to make our writing work. Like using turn signals when driving a car, language rules help show where our sentence is going. Periods, for example. Imagine what it would be like if we gave up using periods. Confusion would reign.
Dangling phrases
Dangling phrases are an example of where a rule is needed. These are
phrases, usually at the beginning of a sentence, which do not have a clear
subject or actor. They are often made up of a participle—a verb part which
ends in ing in the present tense or ed (in regular verbs) in the past tense—
combined with some further words. Here is an example: Going into the park,
we watched the children playing. The first part, Going into the park, describes the “we” of the sentence. But if we said Going into the park, rain began to fall, it
sounds as if it is the rain which went into the park. The sentence no longer
makes sense. The rule is that the phrase has to agree with the subject or actor
in the sentence.