sic • ’sik adverb [Latin] (circa 1859): intentionally so written — used after a printed word or passage to indicate that it is exactly as printed or to indicate that it exactly reproduces an original (Ex. Tom said he seed [sic] it all).
As far back as I can remember my mother instilled in me a sense that one day I would grow up and be a preachers wife. I’m sure she envisioned that I’d have a few kids, live in a parish, and play piano every Sunday morning leading the church choir – Boring! What a disappointment I turned out to be.
I often say “I was never ‘Taught’ anything in school” My teachers and home school leaders would tell you that is inaccurate – but they don’t understand the meaning behind the sentence.
My entire life I was either home school or went to small Christian schools, where we would sit at a desk, which was enclosed on 3 sides, open our books, read several paragraphs then answer several questions.
In Christian schools and home schools, at least at the time, learning was done by oneself: read, answer questions, move ahead, read, answer questions, move ahead. We rolled through the information not taking a lot of it with us.
Which brings me to the title of my post.
I love to write …. and talk. I was never much of a reader, but putting my thoughts down on paper has always been something I’ve loved, but having someone else read it scared the heck out of me.
I was never ‘taught’ grammar and a spelling list wasn’t something you’d find in the “Phonics” world – so my grammar, punctuation, spelling and just simple sentence structure are atrocious!
Recently I found Grammar Girl! I love her! Simple memory tricks to help me remember what to do and when. The only problem – I have no idea what a ‘possessive clause’ is nor can I identify any of the parts of a sentence other than a noun and that’s shoty at best.
Then the other day I read something about blogging (sorry I forget where) that read most people will not notice spelling or grammar errors and even if the reader does notice these errors, who are you writing for? Them or you? The more you write the better you’ll get. Plus if you try to reword and rewrite every sentence to meet grammar rules then you are not really saying what you mean, you’re in actuality lying to your readers.
Well, yes and no. If you don’t use grammar rules you could be saying what you don’t’ mean, BUT I’m a blogger, not a writer! I can learn the rules as I blog, but I can never go back and start writing after I learn all the rules. Times a waste’n – I’ll blog now and edit once I’ve finally figured it all out!
