Rebecca worried about this passage of student writing, which
I'll break up into sections and number:
 
1] Now, location, a very important part of fishing because where you go
is half the success or failed of fishing.
 
2] The mountains are one of the best places to go because you have
different locations to choose from
 
3] such a lake which is used all more crowded.
 
        This kind of writing doesn't bother me. But before I explain
my view, let me point out that Rebecca ended her post with this
ungrammatical sentence, which I will simplify to reveal its overlapping
syntax:
 
"Anyone have any ideas on the interrelation of how X and Y mix?"
 
X = freeing yourself from usage nearsightedness
y = grading
 
We can say: "...the interrelation of X and Y" OR "how X and Y mix,"
but Rebecca overlapped the two structures, a common error in syntax
when one is writing complexly and quickly. Students do it often, as
do educated adults like Rebecca (and me and the rest of us).
 
If we can make syntactical errors and not notice them, we should not
be surprised that beginning writers, who are always under pressure
when they write, make a lot of these errors--and don't notice them
(they not only make more errors than we do, they are worse
proofreaders than we are).
 
The student passage seems so strange because the errors are proofreading
errors, not grammatical errors. When the brain takes amorphous
thought (ideas and the intention to express them) and converts that
thought to seriel order at lightening speed, it sometimes makes
mistakes. These are usually called "speech errors"; they have been
categorized by a number of psycholinguists, but always among the
categories are: word exchanges, substitutions, deletions, and
anticipations, as well as word-part exchanges, substitutions, deletions,
and anticipations.
 
Most speech errors also occur in writing.
 
Let's take #1 above, which I would classify as a stylistically
defensible fragment. The only problem is the substitution of -ed
for -ure during language processing, a common speech error.
 
#2 is flawless.
 
#3 begins with a word deletion error (intended: "such as a lake"). From
there on you would have to ask the student to do a re-aloud of his
text to find out what he intended (e.g. did he substitute "used" for
"usually"?). But the point is, he certainly did not intend to write
what appeared on the page, because what appeared on the page is not
human language.
 
This student needs training in proofreading, not a grammar lesson.
 
        --Bill Murdick