Who said that Good Writing Can't have Bad Grammar?

A primary goal for most writers is to make a unique voice shine through the writing. An author like Ray Bradbury may use an abundance of imagery to set and express their own individual voice. Others, like Hemingway, may use a terse, minimalist style to get across their point, and in doing so establish a recognizable writing personality. Aside from different uses of rhetorical appeals, authors also look to grammatical constructions to create an individual tone to their work. For example, by writing in a stream of consciousness style and forgoing many conventional grammatical constructions, James Joyce has earned himself recognition as a unique and discrete writer.

 While the majority of Charles Dickens' writing is distinct to himself in that it follows a detailed and verbose method, for one paragraph in the 2nd book of A Tale of Two Cities he switches to a very different, stream of consciousness style.

"Silence in the Court! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing him for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on diverse occasions, and by diverse means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene illustrious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by coming and going, between the dominions of our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French Lewis, and..."

This paragraph goes on for another 7 lines, continuing with the omission of any periods and repeating the same adjectives over and over. Charles Dickens chose to write this enjambment paragraph in order to show that the words, though not a real life quote, are nevertheless the words of a character- a lawyer - in the book. I approve of the brief transition Charles Dickens makes with this paragraph. Not only does it provide a brief respite from the style of the rest of the writing, but it also effectively separates the voice of a character in the book from the thoughts of Dickens in the rest of his writing. By omitting periods and using lots of commas instead, Dickens is also able to give the impression of a stream of consciousness- meaning that these words could either be those that were actually said out loud or just those thought by the character, the distinction which Dickens does not give us - and gives a personality to the character from whom they come. This paragraph shows me that not only does Dickens know how to establish a unique writing style of his own, but he also realizes the importance of creating distinctive personalities in his story.