An interesting point was brought up in a discussion that I read on face book. One individual seemed to think that English was all about grammar and vocabulary and nothing else. He basically said that it's ok to read books that are not grammatically correct as long as it's not for an English class. What?... Ok slow down and back up. Who says that literature that doesn't have perfect grammar and big words is not worth anything in the English classroom? What about the style of writing? Since when did English become all about structure? What happened to expressing yourself and learning to see the way others express themselves? In my English class, my senior year of high school we focused primarily on reading different pieces of literature and then analyzing those works. We did occasionally focus on expanding the vocabulary and learning the correct grammar because that part is just as important, but it is not all of it.
My favorite part about English is being able to write and express myself. Part of that love came from reading and seeing how other people expressed themselves. I know that writing is not for everyone but at least for me, it sparked something that made me want to be a writer. I had a voice and I wanted to share it. I am sharing it right now and nothing gives me greater pleasure.
I am not saying that grammar is useless and should be thrown at the window. I don't think it should. Grammar is essential to making a writer sound credible. However I don't feel that English should be all about grammar. If the only reason we read in English is to better our grammatical skills and anything else is out, then I think there is a slight problem. You can accomplish just as much for an English class with reading and analyzing a person's voice and opinion as you can memorizing rules and structure.
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