Competent Writing Skills (was Re: teacher rants)

[Paul Mackin]

Joe Varo wrote:

> 
> "Summer afternoons when the tar bubbles bloom in the road wild daisies
> beckon girls to seek petal fortunes and weave chains of fragrant dreams."
> 
> This isn't even a complete sentence, ferchrissakes.  It also needs a couple
> of commas.

And I reply: It seems COMPLETE to me. Subject and predicate. 'Wild
daisies beckon' is all completeness requires. Commas around the
dependent clause would be optional, but could detract from the
elegance of the sentence. Or pseudo-elegance. But my real quibble
is, what's so sacrosanct about complete sentences? Pretty boring
all the time! Pynch doesn't always write complete sentences.

Where is the Moms of recent p-list popularity? Her
dicipline was prescriptive, or was it proscriptive,
grammar?

Fussily (or just silly),

				P.