Don't let grammar stop you

Grammar. I’m not a fan. Cue the sharp intake of breath and horrified looks. I’m an ex English teacher and professional copywriter so surely I should be some kind of grammar freak that spends her days correcting people who have dared to use a comma incorrectly? Right?

Strangely enough that really is not me and people who are like this drive me just a little bit crazy.

I went to primary school in the 1980s, which was a time when there was quite a laissez-faire attitude to teaching in grammar. I’d go as far as to say that I don’t think it was something that was even particularly ‘taught’. It was more a case of just picking things up as you went along as part of the curriculum and everyone seemed to eventually figure out where to put their capital letters and full stops, although arguably for some of us this was a quicker process than for others. The primary school curriculum back then was so much more creative than it is today and we seemed to while away the school year making topic books and embarking upon exciting art projects and learning creative skills.

Even whilst studying English Literature at university, grammar just seemed to never really ‘come up’ as something that was taught. I remember working with tutors who felt that, if anything, grammar was all just a bit of pain and a hinderance to the creative writing process.

Part of my animosity towards grammar does, in part at least, come from my time spent as a teacher. Nowadays 10-year-old children in primary schools throughout the UK are expected to know more about grammar than an undergraduate student at university taking an English degree. Unfortunately I’m really not kidding, I wish I was but I’m not.  We have Mr Gove to thank for that and that’s a whole other blog post.

If you want to find the quickest way to put a class of primary school children off writing for good, teaching them endless grammar lessons on semi colons, ellipsis, modal verbs and relative clauses to coach them through a series of SATs test at the end of Year 6 is a pretty sure fire way to go about it. I mean how many adults actually know what a relative clause is? Anyone? Hands up? No? I thought not.

Interestingly enough during my time spent as a professional copywriter I’ve come across many clients who tell me their fear of ‘getting it wrong’ when it comes to grammar is one of the reasons that they’re very reluctant to write their own copy. At the risk of putting myself out of business I honestly think that this is a huge shame. Thoughts like ‘But what if I make a mistake?’ tend to run through people’s heads.

When it comes to writing great copy elements that I value are tone of voice, great storytelling and creating a sense of engagement with your audience. They’re the key things that are going to make people connect with your brand and want to engage with you. If you’ve accidentally put a comma in the wrong place I can guarantee you that most readers are unlikely to even notice, and perhaps more importantly, even if they do notice they’ll forgive you if you’ve produced an engaging and creative piece of copy that they’ve actually enjoyed reading.

There are of course exceptions to this and I do remember recently reading a blog post that a business had shared on social media with the incorrect use of your/you’re in the title and it did cause me to emit an audible gasp of horror. It may sound harsh but that really is a simple detail and it would make me feel a little wary about said company’s potential for lack of attention to detail.  I know that makes me sound a little contrary given my previous statements, but there are limits to the gravitas of grammatical errors that even I am willing to accept.

I’m a huge advocate of allowing people a bit of creative licence when it comes to grammar. It’s hugely freeing for their writing and the creative process as a whole. I remember once telling a colleague that it’s fine to start a sentence with the word ‘And’ and they just wouldn’t believe me. That’s another one of the reasons that I’m not a big fan of grammar. People are scared of getting it wrong and that fear of getting it wrong can stop them even wanting to put pen to paper in the first place and that’s a huge shame.