------------------
>
>Bill McCleary answered my question:
>>
>> What are mechanics? I use the term as shorthand for everything that is not
>> contents--spelling, punctuation, syntax, usage, etc. Of course, I wouldn't
>> claim that it's always possible to separate mechanics from contents.
>>
>> How do YOU define mechanics?
>
>I don't ever use the word.  I talk about "the editing process" a
>good deal, and the various considerations involved.
>
>To judge by subsequent posts, nobody else seems to be troubled by what
>seems to me the inherently trivializing connotation of the word "mechanics,"
>so I will desist!  But the fact that we don't have a shared vocabulary
>to discuss written language development seems odd.
>
>Carolyn Kirkpatrick
>York College/CUNY
 
I'd say that we do have a shared vocabulary. Some people list the skills,
some people use "grammar and usage," and some say mechanics. Some, like me,
do all three depending on the mood of the moment. I think that the problem
is not the terminology but the vagueness of the concept we are trying to
represent. If I use an incorrect word in my composition, the problem can be
anything from having misheard others use the word (a problem of phonemics,
perhaps), up through a misunderstanding of what the word means, to a bad
rhetorical choice. Sometimes we can't even figure out why a person used the
wrong word.
 
When discussing this type of problem, what term should we use that covers
this type and similar ones as well? Whatever we say is bound to be a fuzzy
term.
 
Bill McCleary
 
William J. McCleary                     Editor: Composition Chronicle
Associate Prof. of English              Viceroy Publications
Coordinator of Secondary English        3247 Bronson Hill Road
SUNY at Cortland                        Livonia, NY 14487
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