Are there writing techniques that can be used to lessen the amount of grammar required?

Question

Are there writing techniques that can be used to lessen the amount of grammar required?

I.e. that by using some techniques one needs to consult fewer grammar rules. And also do less checking on them.

Answer 1

Write short sentences. Make the sentences simple. The grammar you need is limited.

If, for contrast, you were to use more complicated and longer sentences, then you are also far more likely to have to use more exotic grammatical structures.

But there is a general principle: read a lot. You will get a feel for the grammar of the language and, after a while, will get it fairly right even without checking things up all the time.

Answer 2

Writing for readability

One of your comments names readability as a target. If I understand correctly, you want to make sure that the text you write is easily understood, and fear that grammar mistakes make that impossible, and you're quite correct.

When writing a text that turns out to be useful for an "external" audience, stay within your comfort zone, use only vocabulary and grammar constructs that you are sure of, that you don't have to think about, that come naturally.

If you need to look up grammar rules, re-phrase the sentence to use a simpler grammar. If you use "book grammar", your text will most probably suffer from sounding artificial to a reader, with negative effect on readability. If you can't express your ideas without a grammar book at hand, then you need to practice more before targeting an external audience.

Improving grammar skills

When writing as an exercise for your language teacher, feel free to leave your comfort zone, to get feedback about your writing to gradually improve your skills.

I'd generally advise against learning grammar by looking up grammar rules in text books. The human mind is much better in learning from examples than from rules.

So, I'd suggest to read genuine texts with attention to the grammar used, like "Oh, that's a construct new to me - let's see if I find more examples like that". And maybe you want to collect example sentences for later rehearsal.

Personal readability experience:

As a native German, I've often seen technical manuals written by non-Germans that weren't readable at all, because of

• typos
• wrong usage of words
• grammar mistakes
• formally correct, but grossly convoluted grammar