A writer's views on grammar

I interviewed a teacher in the Writing department. She said that the way a person writes absolutely affects his or her influence and impact. The quality of writing specifically affects whether people take the writer seriously or not. Proper grammar and sentence structure provides a lot of automatic credibility. For students and other writers, correctness in writing is important because the reader must be able to read the piece in the way that the author meant it. Without knowing the rules of grammar, the writer cannot selectively and thoughtfully bend or break those rules in order to get the desired affect or reader reaction. The most desirable writing style for the field of fiction writing is one in which creativity plays a strong role. However, the diversity of writing styles in literature is such that there is no one preferred style of writing. I found Ms. B’s attitude toward students’ written grammar very interesting. She said that even though she understands that students receive very limited and inadequate grammar instruction and even though she sympathizes with the students, she still instinctively views bad grammar in a paper as a sign of lack of commitment or focus on the work. She added that although she can become very frustrated with the students who use bad grammar, she tries to be receptive and helpful to those that seek to improve.