I really don’t like screwing up. When I notice my screw-ups later, it freaks me out and I think about my mistake for days. Probably not the best use of my time and energy, and I’m working on that part of my personality, but there it is. It bothers me that I was put on the gifted kid reading and writing track all through school, where I was encouraged to read and write beyond what was considered “standard” for my age, but was never taught of the rules of grammar or punctuation past about the fourth-grade level.
I’m still not sure why there has to be a separation between being given the space and time to be creative, and being given the basic tools to do the creative stuff correctly. Maybe it’s that teachers only have so much time to teach students everything, and sometimes it has to be either/or.
What is comes down to is that I, along my “gifted and talented” cohort, will probably spend too much time in our adult lives vacillating between two emotions: feeling super awesome and amazing one moment (whenever we recall our childhood memories of all the adults around us oohing and aaahing about our above-average brains), and then feeling utter lameness and shame (whenever we make horrible grammar and punctuation errors and the so-called average kids, who got to learn the rules, laugh their heads off at our giftedly dumb asses).
It’s entirely possible that I’m the only smarty-pants who ended up slightly neurotic due to my elementary school career. But for anyone else (neurotic or not) who could use a little basic grammar and punctuation knowledge, here’s a list of helpful sites to visit in the privacy of your own home or cubicle. No one will ever have to know that you aren’t as smart as your test scores might show.
Grammar and Punctuation Resources:
GrammarBook.com
Grammar Girl
Univ. of Chicago Grammar Resources
Most Common Grammar, Usage, and Style Errors
Purdue University: Online Writing Lab
Common Errors in English
Guide to Grammar and Style
Univ. of Illinois Intensive English Institute
Writing Resource Center
Posted by Alexa Harrington
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