What does it mean: cite, religion, fad? And correct grammar?

As we saw in class this morning, for a discussion to continue, it is often necessary to clarify the meaning of a term, whether a word or a phrase. When June asked for a definition of the verb cite and the related noun citation, the following discussion not only helped us better understand those important words, but also why they play such an important role in academic writing and discussion. Similarly, in order to resolve the disagreement between Dig and Fai over her BlackBerry example, it was necessary to look closely at the exact meaning of the word fad, both what it does mean and what it does not. Finally, as the quick vote on whether Buddhism is even a religion showed, there is also a need to clarify the definition of the word religion - a debate I did not want to get into this morning because unlike cite and fad, both of which are relatively easy to define, the far more common word religion is also far more difficult to define clearly and convincingly. Don't worry - the whole of chapter 1 of Quest, "Cultural Anthropology", bears on this question of the definition of religion, and if you are really keen, you can write an essay on it later. For now, I think we can muddle by with our vague and less than perfect ideas about what religion might and might not mean, although a question you might like to comment on is: Why is it so easy to define words such as cite and fad, but so very difficult to define words like religion?

What I really wanted you to think about, and comment on below, is something that Golf and others mentioned in our discussion yesterday, especially when we were working on a definition of the word sentence. The idea of grammatical correctness came up several times in that discussion, and in a couple of others. Grammar obviously matters - and especially so in academic work. But what is grammatical correctness? What makes a sentence or something else grammatically correct? What is incorrect grammar? How does grammar become correct or incorrect? How do we know what is correct and incorrect grammar? How do you decide these sort of questions?

The following is a quotation from page 97 of Fight Club, a novel that one of my classes read last term (long quotations - 40 words or more - are indented rather than being put in quotation marks):

What would I do?
The hole in my cheek, the blue-black swelling around my eyes, and the swollen red scar of Tyler’s kiss on the back of my hand, a copy of a copy of a copy.
Speculation.
Why does Tyler want ten copies of the fight club rules?
Hindu cow. (Palahniuk, 2003).

This short passage from Chuck Palahniuk's novel, which has since been made into a fun movie starring Brad Pitt, did cause some difficulty for most students. What do you think? is it difficult?

• How many sentences are here? 
• How many verbs are in the longest sentence? 
• And, the important question, is Palahniuk's grammar correct?
  Would you mark it wrong if you were proofreading this text? Why or why not? 
• What are other important issues in this example? 

Since grammar is something we should worry about in our academic writing (and in non-academic writing?), please feel welcome to share your ideas below on any of the questions raised here or in our discussion in class yesterday. 

And much as I enjoy Fight Club, and would be happy to read this modern classic again, it's not on my list of potential novels for this term; AUA does, however, have copies if you would like to borrow one - let me know. 

__________

References

Palahniuk, C. (2003). Fight Club. London: Vintage.