Is it grammatically correct?

Status
Not open for further replies.

kid009

Registered
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Hello Everyone:

Can you please tell me if the following passage (written in third-person omniscient PAST) is correct or not:

"They were all built at the same time, of same color, layout and design. They were five white giant cubes capped with grey rooftops. Standing equally spaced from each other they formed an arc enclosing a lawn. Theirs was the house on the summit, the only occupied house. The remaining houses were two on each limb of the arc, facing each other with their balconies and brown wooded doors and windows. The arc was surrounded by a giant garden except the north where the lawn becomes continuous with a vast arid ground."

Thanks
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
10,049
Reaction score
7,496
Location
Virginia
Hello Everyone:

Can you please tell me if the following passage (written in third-person omniscient PAST) is correct or not:

"They were all built at the same time, of same color, layout and design. They were five white giant cubes capped with grey rooftops. Standing equally spaced from each other they formed an arc enclosing a lawn. Theirs was the house on the summit, the only occupied house. The remaining houses were two on each limb of the arc, facing each other with their balconies and brown wooded doors and windows. The arc was surrounded by a giant garden except the north where the lawn becomes continuous with a vast arid ground."

Thanks

Pretty dry stuff, but grammatically it seems correct except for the final phrase ("becomes continuous etc."), which wobbles suddenly into present tense.
 

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
12,861
Reaction score
3,071
Location
Not where you last saw me.
Welcome to AW, kid009.

I'll preface my comment by saying I'm quite nitpicky with regard to language use. The passage is made clunky by the use of "they" to refer to the houses, then "theirs" to refer to people (I assume); I'd define and describe the houses better and reserve the "theirs" for the people in your story. "Becomes continuous" would be fine were it truly continuous—both then and now—but the lawn in fact breaks at "a vast arid ground" and is not continuous. Put your readers there and describe what they would see: what are the small details that would catch someone's eye?
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
1. "Grammatically correct" isn't by itself a virtue.

2. You can write all kinds of grammatically correct sentences that are horrendously bad writing in terms of style.

3. Think in terms of clarity and style before you think in terms of grammatical "correctness".

4. Most grammar guides are intended for academic writing, not creative narrative. They are still useful, but don't think of them as THE LAW.

caw
 

Lone Wolf

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Messages
209
Reaction score
14
Location
Australia
I second the issue with saying "Theirs was the house..." After using "they" for the buildings.
 

kid009

Registered
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Thanks a lot. I have made some changes and will greatly appreciate your feedback. I understand grammar alone is not going to do much so please feel free to give feedback about the style as well.

" This part of the city which eventually came to be known as Gulshan in fact had no name. Gulshan, a town of around thousand homes, finished at the end of the road with a boys and girls school standing at its opposing ends. From there going south, starts the dirt road punctuated with neem tress on both sides. After two miles where it ends, on its left side laid the arc of five houses.

They were all built at the same time, of same color, layout and design. Five, white, three story giant cubes capped with grey rooftops. Standing equally spaced from each other they encircled a shared lawn. The house on the summit, the only occupied house belonged to Mr. Intizar. The remaining houses were two on each limb of the arc, facing each other. Each had its own patio made of white and grey marble. The arc was circled by a brief green patch which had made its way between the houses. Beyond the patch, the houses were surrounded by a huge garden for almost a mile in all directions except the north. When crossing over to the other side it obliterated the dirt road completely".
 

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
12,861
Reaction score
3,071
Location
Not where you last saw me.
Careful, all. This is not SYW. Asking a quick grammar question is one thing, but a crit is another.

kid009, once you've reached the required 50 substantive posts for opening a thread in our Share Your Work forum for crit you'll be able to get more detailed answers to your questions there.
 

AW Admin

Administrator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
18,772
Reaction score
6,287
Ari is absolutely correct—and we're done here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.