I'll rewrite and fix twenty articles in four days for a flat fee of $50. I am a professional freelance copyeditor who has worked for major New York publishing houses for the past ten years. My specialties are grammar, punctuation, style, and fixing typos.
Here's my snippet: I never thought I'd say this, but I'm thankful for grammar. You heard me right--I'm thankful for grammar. Maybe what’s really true is that I'm thankful I learned grammar. As an author, I quickly learned to be grateful for those years of elementary, junior high, and high school grammar classes.
Do you remember sitting through those dreadful grammar classes? I sure do. I remember being asked to memorize the function of a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, and adjective. And I remember learning the difference between the subject of the sentence and the predicate of that same sentence. I have no real memory of how the concepts of grammar made it off the pages and from the teachers' mouths into my head, but they did. I never intentionally paid attention during grammar class because I was years away from deciding to be a writer. I guess the grammar I needed to learn somehow came to me through osmosis.
Think about what our society would be like without the existence of grammar. Grammar is basically the thing that allows us to communicate in the same kind of English. Sure, you and I both know what a dog or a tomato is. But what if you thought that each sentence ending with a period was really a question? Wouldn't that be confusing? Or what if I decided to write my next novel using sentences like this: "Told Billy to Sarah loving a mother being a." Does that make sense to you? Of course not, because that sentence was not written with proper English grammar in mind. If we're lucky or just have a good imagination then we can determine that Sarah is telling Billy something about loving to be a mom. But without grammar, understanding even the most common English words just isn't easy.
Do you love to sit down and read a good book? Or perhaps relaxing in front of a movie is your cup of tea? Do you enjoy surfing the Internet for the latest facts and news? If you enjoy any of these things, then you better appreciate grammar. It is proper grammar that allows you to read a book or understand the script of a film or even make sense of the Internet.
If you still are not convinced about the importance of grammar in your life, trying having a conversation using mixed-up sentences like the one I wrote for you earlier. It is pretty hard to make it through a day when no one understands each other’s thoughts or questions.
Fortunately, because we have grammar, we never have to worry about miscommunication with people because of the way we arrange our words. So be thankful for grammar because I guarantee it has made your life a lot easier.