Rude 11.11

Here is a paragraph from a blog post I wrote last semester. I will see what type of sentence I use most and whether my grammar is correct.

1The main idea I came out with as I wrote was the idea that Mormon literacy and the Mormon idea of salvation are inextricably linked (SIMPLE). 2The more literate a person is in the doctrines of the church, the closer they are to achieving joy in this life and the next (COMPOUND SENTENCE). 3But I want to modify or at least shape this notion better than I have up to this point (SIMPLE OR SENTENCE FRAGMENT DEPENDING HOW YOU TAKE IT). 4I don’t want to convey that by merely studying the scriptures, knowing myriad details about the history of the church, memorizing long passages or any other superficial study of the church doctrines is expected (FAULTY CONSTRUCTION/SIMPLE). 5Belief in, knowledge of, and even a surety in the doctrines of the church do not qualify a person for salvation and exaltation (SIMPLE). 6True belief, knowledge and surety is expected to become a performance of consistent actions as well as partaking in ordinances such as baptism in which a person enters into covenant relationships with God that they will behave a certain way, and in return God will grant blessings (BAD VERB AGREEMENT/RUN ON, COMPOUND). 7James in the new testament urges the saints, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.” (James 1.22)(SIMPLE). 8The true test of a Mormon’s literacy in the doctrines of the church is how closely their actions, words, and thoughts reflect the doctrines, not how well they know them (COMPLEX). 9An old cliche in the church goes like this, “what you do shows how you feel about what you know.”(SIMPLE) 10I hope no one reads this blog and thinks that all Mormons have to do to be saved is read the Book of Mormon (SIMPLE). 11Rather, the saving process happens as people more closely align themselves to the teachings in these sacred texts by acting in ways that reflect their understanding (BAD PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE/SIMPLE).

Out of 11 sentences, eight are simple, two are compound and one is complex. I mainly write in simple sentences (or at least I try to). I have a lot more mistakes in there than I thought I would; three sentences have a significant error. Some grammarians would see sentence three as a sentence fragment, but I made the stylistic choice to use but as a conjuctive adverb and not a subordinating conjunction. The error in sentence four would have been easily fixed if I had read back through the paragraph once. But the errors in 11 and six are trickier. Mainly I try to fit too much into one sentence. Maybe I should write more compound and complex sentences instead of trying to fit everything into my S-V-O default sentence structure.