> The fact is, you don't *have* to be a grammar Nazi or a walking dictionary to be a good writer or communicator. But you have to have an essential toolkit. And that toolkit has to contain parts of speech and punctuation and the essential rules of grammar [...]
>
> I, personally, am not a grammar Nazi. I can't tell you what a gerund is or diagram a sentence properly.
>
> But you'll never know how to FIX it without knowing at least the basics of grammar. (Or, in my case, knowing someone who *does*. I send almost all of the stories I write off to Sam for proofreading. This serves two purposes: One, Sam can tell me if the story sucks or not. Two, Sam *is* sort of a grammar Nazi, and he can tell me when I've dangled my participles or split my infinitives. I try my best to learn the rules when he reminds me of them, but some of them continue to elude me--I'm sure if Sam were to go over this post, he'd point out tons of the little mistakes I constantly make in my writing. But the point is, I *care* enough about "the little things" and the occasional BIG THING to want someone like Sam to check over the things that I write.)
>

Ouch! Here's another thing -- one of my deepest, darkest insecurities about writing. I think Dave is perfectly correct in saying that a good writer needs an "essential toolkit" of knowledge concerning Grammar and Parts of the Sentence. One needs such knowledge in order to wield syntax and structure seamlessly whilst writing.

Writing properly is a mark of highest respect to the reader; your ideas are communicated much more effectively when your words are free of the distraction of poor spelling or sloppy syntax.

Unfortunately for me, I have never learned ANY of this stuff formally. I wish I had, because often I'm aware of difficulty in some of my phrase constructions. I am crippled in not truly knowing how to fix syntax. Problematic phrasing is all fairly mysterious: what is an "Intransitive gerund"? What is a "superlatively transitive verbally plural abstract noun in present tense"? I learned grammatical syntax in French, of course, but since this is English, those rules are inapplicable. So where do professional grammar Nazis like Sam and Darien learn their professional schtick?

Wolf "never needs a spell checker" spirit