I just finished reading Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction, a new book about writing by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd. You need to read this book! Although the topic is nonfiction, fiction writers will find many useful ideas here too.

But today I’m not going to talk about all the great stuff in this book. What I’m going to recount instead is an “aha!” moment I had while I was reading it.

I dislike formal grammar. I think it’s a waste of time and – worse – it discourages people who, with a little effort, could easily sharpen their writing skills.

Something I came across in Good Prose reinforced that long-standing belief. Reminiscing about an editor who impressed him, Richard Todd wrote:

His comments often concerned subtle grammatical violations, and after noting one, such as “a possessive can’t be an antecedent,” he might add, “See Fowler.”

(I should explain that “Fowler” is shorthand for H. W. Fowler’s classic book Modern English Usage. I am a longtime fan. Big time.)

So what was the “aha!” moment? Here it is: I didn’t have the faintest idea what Todd was talking about. And I was aghast. A grammar rule I didn’t know? How did it get past me?

It took a couple of minutes for me to calm down and figure out what “a possessive can’t be an antecedent” might mean. And then I realized that it’s a rule I DO know. In fact I had a clash with my husband over this very construction just a week ago. (You’ll be happy to know that I won the argument. Well, I’m happy that I won it.)

Take a look at this sentence. There’s a mistake in it. Can you figure out what it is?

After buying a pair of tickets for a hit Broadway show, Jane’s preparations for the New York trip were complete.

It’s a dangling modifier! “Jane’s preparations” didn’t buy the tickets – Jane did.

Still confused? (My husband was. It’s a hard concept to explain.) When you read the corrected version of the sentence, the problem becomes clear:

After she bought a pair of tickets for a hit Broadway show, Jane’s preparations for the New York trip were complete.  CORRECT

I’m sure there are great minds who immediately translate “possessives” and “antecedents” into simple concepts. Unfortunately my mind doesn’t work that way. And my bet is that many people are saddled with my kind of brain. (My sympathies go out to all of you!)

So let’s ditch the fancy grammar terminology, ok?