[HPFGU-OTChatter] Correct Grammar (was Open Email to Yahoo Feedback/Try Yahoo Investor Relations

[Kathryn]

K
 
> And as for JKR's usage I believe (but feel free to prove me wrong) that
she
> uses it in speech and it's generally accepted that making all your
> characters speak perfectly grammatical English isn't very realistic
 
Dina
You're right in that she used the phrase in dialogue but don't you
think it a bit of a double standard?  For example, what I'm typing up
now is a discussion and how I would 'talk'--it's my dialogue minus the
quotations.
 

K

It's not a double standard at all. Authors should be pretty grammatical when
they write, grammar is one of the ways that make your meaning clear (the
particular rule we're discussing is really tiny and nitpicky honestly but
grammar is there for a reason), so you should follow the rules (good writers
can occasionally ignore or bend the rules for stylistic reasons but you can
bet your ass they know what the rules *are* to start with). Uh sorry went
off my point - author's should be grammatical but it is unrealistic to
expect a fifteen year old to be any more than you would expect them not to
use slang - so for her to write Ron and Harry as perfectly grammatical would
stand out as sounding silly. In a 'perfect' world people would all talk
english in a way that sounded good, followed the important rules (at least)
and made sense, but in ours they don't.

K

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