Grammar help

[trinityvixen]

I know, right? Moi!? Needing of the grammar help? But I totally do.

For my news and feature writing class, I got marked down on an assignment for mixing tenses (SHOCKING!). I want to be sure that he doesn't try to mark me down again for something I feel that I navigate pretty well in my academic writing, so I have to ask:

In an essay where you are writing in past tense but need to describe things that are a perennial thing, you can switch to present, right? My example:

A competitive cheerleading routine lasts two and a half minutes, divided into three segments. There is gymnastic tumbling; group stunting work where some girl, the flyers, are lifted and tossed; dancing; and, of course, cheering for the local team. She summarized routines thusly: “It’s like holding your breath for two and a half minutes, running a marathon, doing sprints, and smiling all at once. And making it look like nothing.”

Describing the events, I used past tense. But describing the rules of the thing--which are not linked to the past, and are immutable givens at any time--it is right to switch to present tense, correct? It was in French...

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Looks right to me--except that it should be "some girls" to match with "are lifted and tossed." :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a good thing I posted that particular section since it has a typo. Now I can correct that. Cheers.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The only thing I noticed was verb-tense agreement: "some girl, the flyers, are lifted..." Looks like you're missing an "s." You want to borrow my style guide? I can't be arsed to look it up for you. :)

Online resources for all things reference can be found at bartleby.com.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Online resources for all things reference can be found at bartleby.com.

Yes, but I'd prefer not to go there.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

You have a strange aversion to bartleby?

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

It's not funny when I have to explain it:

The narrator makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby and learn about him, but Bartleby always responds the same way when asked to do a task or give out information about himself: "I would prefer not to."

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

...?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You're obviously behind on your Melville.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

You've seriously never read "Bartleby the Scrivener"? It's the only really readable thing Melville wrote. Mostly 'cause it's too short for him to waste time on erroneous information on sea life.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The only Melville I've read is "Moby Dick." I never had to study him in school.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Then my joke was totally lost on you. I apologize.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

OMFG this made me choke with laughter.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

That was the best!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

No no, I have my answer: "The simple present is used to express general truths such as scientific fact." I don't know that the rules, regulations, wheres, and whyfores of cheerleading qualify as scientific facts, but they are general, unchanging truths, so I'm keeping such descriptions in present tense.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Maybe your teacher is confusing "mixing tenses" with "subject-verb (dis-)agreement"? Cuz like everyone else, only problem I saw was with "some girls..."

Then again, I don't speak no English good.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I believe my former infraction was, as with this one, a simple mistake. This one I've caught thanks to LJ posting it and now I've verified the answer to my actual question, I feel better about the work as a whole.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Looks right to me, but what do I know of grammar? I think my Chicago Manual of Style is in feiran's room if you wanna go check.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess you wouldn't have to worry about grammar too much when writing fiction. So much of it is told in simple past-tense sentences, unless you're getting really avant-garde. ("Why is this story told entirely in the future tense, with second-person plural pronouns?" "To reflect the increasing collectivization of capitalist relations you idiot!" "Oh of course, so sorry...")

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess you wouldn't have to worry about grammar too much when writing fiction.

You'd be surprised.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Actually, grammar is as essential to fiction as nonfiction writing. The point of rules regarding language use is to communicate clearly. When you're writing fiction, you want to engage a reader and communicate the story to them such that they understand it at a base, literate level and are free to consider the higher, more metaphysical/literary things you do with the story. If you stymie them at your sentence construction, you lose your audience and it doesn't matter how talented you are. I believe I've made this point to a mutual friend of ours a few times...

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know it's important, but ... for the most part, when you aren't writing dialogue, you're just writing simple declarative sentences in the past-tense. Most difficulty in fiction writing, I suspect, is in vocabulary rather than grammar per se. Obviously I'm simplifying here, and it would be silly to say that grammar is irrelevant to a fiction writer's work, but I still suspect it's slightly less of an issue than for someone writing on an abstract topic.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that was meant as a reply to the comment you replied to. I know that you know all about good grammar :)

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

I read a book written entirely in the second person, actually. It was quite good!