Proper English? I Don’t Think So

Noah Webster wrote a dictionary published in 1826 incorporating the words Americans used. Notice I wrote “Americans” not “English speaking people.” During the Revolutionary War, he felt strongly that the geographical area of what soon became the United Sates of America make a total break from England. No more aristocratic rule, no taxation without representation, no ruling from afar, no more class system and no more aristocratically separating speech. In working toward this goal, Webster expounded every chance he had that there should be a new country with its own rules and its own language. 

Webster went about changing British language to American language. He heard new words being used like moccasin, skunk, tipi and raccoon. He saw that many words in British English did not make sense so why spell them that way? Gaol was pronounced ja-il so why not spell it similarly? We say theater but it was spelled theatre, center but spelled it centre and judgment not judgement. Besides wanting to change language to be more logical, he wanted to unify a group of states that spoke different dialects and native languages brought from Europe that made it hard to understand one another. Standardization of language and writing brought unification that was needed to build a united country after the Revolutionary War.

What happened to our language in 239 years? English speakers today are governed by Strunk and White and other rulers of grammar and punctuation. They and grammarian gurus dictated what
proper English was well into the 20^th century. All other uses of the language are wrong, wrong, wrong I say to you! But, the Internet has changed what English is and how it is used. Yes, we have to have some cohesive standards so we can understand other English speakers and writers but why do we say we cannot end a sentence with a proposition or split an infinitive? The (ironic) definition of a preposition is "A word you mustn't end a sentence with". Winston Churchill once used a preposition at the end of a sentence and was called to task for it. “Do you know who you are dealing with?” As the story goes, Churchill replied, "That's the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put."

Why are we so worried about the correctness of our writing and speaking when so many rules no longer make sense? It now sounds awkward to say “Firstly, I want to…” versus “First I want to…, second ….” Either way is correct in today’s American language but to grammaticians “Firstly” is formal usage.  Creeping into common use is “they” as a single pronoun. “Somebody left their umbrella on the table.” To some “She will blame you and I” sounds correct so why not use it? 

A rule written in the 1800’s states writers are supposed to learn not to split infinitives. Infinitives are “to” followed by a verb. “To diligently follow “ or “To graphically illustrate his point” are examples of split infinitives. “To boldly go where no man has gone before” sounds perfectly normal. “She urged me to casually walk up and to quietly introduce myself ” sounds normal. It sets in the reader’s mind the picture more quickly than “She urged me to walk up casually and introduce myself quietly.” The newest Merriam-Webster dictionary, a many times updated version of Noah Webster’s first dictionary, lists hundreds of words and phrases that do not meet the stuffy rules of a former era of grammar but instead reflect how Americans speak, write and spell today.

If it is general use, then that is what the preferred language is. Pedantic rules insistently enforced are becoming old fashioned. In society today, people want quick, fast, immediate. The emphasis is on being understood rather than being grammatically correct. Of course, in some writing such as formal, literary, scientific papers and for your dissertation, following the rules is wise. In a lot of other venues, to go boldly where no man has gone sounds good and it is accepted by your reader.

Know When to Use A Hyphen in Compound Words

by JENNIFER ROVA

There are  several types of compound words:

1    1. Single word, no hyphens

           hindsight, babysit, baseball, kindercare, background, antebellum, carpetbagger

2. Do not use a hyphen unless it serves a purpose. If a compound adjective cannot be misread  
    and its meaning is recognized, do not use a hyphen:

            high school curriculum

            health care reform

            day treatment program

            play date

            grade point average

     

3. Hyphenated words acting as adjectives before a noun they modify if the term can be 
    misunderstood or if the term expresses a single thought:

            well-baby exam

            able-bodied man

            three-legged race

            well-intended plan

            triangle-shaped house

                 

4.  Compounds in which the base word is a proper noun or is                             

           a number: post-2001

           an abbreviation: pre-NALP trial

           capitalized: pro-British, German-speaking Austrians

           more than one word: non-qualifying-senior students

5. All "self-" compounds whether they are adjectives or nouns:

            self-report

            self-esteem

            the test was self-paced

            self-centered actor

6. Words that could be misunderstood:

            re-pair [pair again]

            re-form [form again]

            re-construction plans

            re-enact the murder

            re-carpet

7. Words in which the prefix ends and the base word begins with the same vowel:

           meta-analysis

           anti-intellectual

           co-occur

        

8. Use a hyphen to join a word to a past participle to create single objective preceding the noun 
     it modifies. If a compound adjective follows the term, do not use a hyphen, because 
     relationships are sufficiently clear without one:

well-intended plan; the plan was well intended

            hand-iron-shaped mark; the mark was in the shape of an hand iron

            same-sex children; children of the same sex

9. Write most words formed with prefixes as one word:

            aftereffect

            extracurricular

            multiphase

            socioeconomic

10. When two or more compound modifiers act together, the hyphens are retained in all    
       except the last modifier:

            long- and short-term memory

            2-, 3-, and 10-min trials

            pre- and post-war crimes
            red-, yellow- and green-tinged hues appear

11. Do not hyphenate compound words that end in “-ly” even if they precede a noun:

          fully developed plan

          heavily fortified troops

          stringently enforced rules

          accurately reported data word

12. When splitting a multiple syllable word at the end of a sentence. Split the word after a 
       syllable:

         I wrote the illustrated, minia-

         ture book in six months.

         He fished until his sun-     

         burned head hurt too much.

         Mary hurried through her college appli-

         cations.

(adapted from the sixth edition of the APA Publication Manual, 2010)

(english.com/grammar/00000048.htm)

Friday Fun with The Word UP

Jennifer Rova

I received this in an email today and smiled. The author is unknown but he seemed to be up for writing something funny. The word UP in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word.  It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv],  [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. To  be knowledgeable about the proper uses of  UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with UP to a hundred uses or more.

 It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, 

 but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake  UP?

At  a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why 

are the officers UP for  election; if there is  a tie, it is a toss UP.  Why is it UP

to the secretary to write UP a  report?  We call UP our friends, brighten UP a 

room, polish UP the  silver, warm UP the  leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.  

We lock UP the house and fix UP the  old car.

At other  times, this little word has real a special meaning. People stir UP trouble, 

line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To  be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And  this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because  it is  blocked  UP.

We  open UP a  store in the morning but we close it  UP at  night. We seem to be

 pretty mixed UP about  UP!

When  it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding  UP. When the sun comes out, 

we say it is clearing UP.  When it rains, it soaks UP the  earth.  When it does not 

rain for awhile,  things dry UP. 

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now . 

 My time is UP!

The Preposition

This past weekend I attended Winter Camp with  a group of women I became friends with last Fall while we paddled  the shores of Lake Coeur d Alene in classic war canoes - the 104 mile adventure was a fund raiser for Camp Sweyolakan on Mica Bay. It's an achievement we're all proud of.

Winter Camp was somewhat of a reunion , not only to reminisce about our paddling adventure , but make new memories, too. We played  marathon games of Progressive Rummy and  Mexican Train ( a Domino game) , cooked and shared meals together, and laughed a lot.  The conversation was never dull,  we covered many topics , including the proper use of prepositions when writing a sentence.

Prior to their retirement, some of the women had been educators. I listened with interest as they lamented the fact so many young people  today don't know how to construct a sentence. I thought how  easy for any of us today to  fall into lazy habits, especially when using email and text, so  I decided to review what a preposition is, and how  and when it  should be used.

Referencing one of my old textbooks, Voyages in English from grade school ,  a preposition is a word or group of words that shows the relationship between a substantive and some other word in the sentence.

    The paddlers  relish song at camp.

The most commonly used prepositions are : about, above, across , after, against , amount, around, at, before, behind, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during except, for, from ,in, into, near, of , off, on, over, past, through, throughout, to toward, under, until, up, with.

The preposition may be a single word or a group of words used as one preposition

     Laughter came from the houseboat.
     The canoe stayed in spite of the schedule.

Groups of words that are considered one preposition when used with a substantive include the following: on account of, instead of, in addition to, in regard to, in spite of, in front of, because of, by means of , for the sake of.

The object of a preposition is a noun, a pronoun, or a group of words used as a noun. A noun or any word that takes place of a noun is called a substantive.

      We cannot paddle without Huck's help . (Noun)
       Scottie gave the recipe to her. (Pronoun)
       From across the lake came the paddlers. (Prepositional phrase)

Sometimes there can be confusion as to the correct use of a preposition. For example, 'different from'  and 'different with'. Differ with denotes disagreement of opinion. Differ from denotes differences between persons or things.

        I differ with you about the scoring of the game.
        The banners differ from each other in width.

After the adjective different use from, not than.

         The writing is different from hers.

Or 'angry with and 'angry at'. Use angry with a person; angry at a thing.

          She is angry with Barbara.
          We were angry at the result

 I'm grateful for my weekend at Winter Camp and  camaraderie of  these women who taught me  how to paddle, play Progressive Rummy, and make the best ever blueberry waffles,  and yesterday  reminded me  of the importance of a preposition.

***  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/prepositions

Critical Understanding of How Language Works Leads to Good Writing

In The Atlantic, October 2012 issue, there is a fascinating article by Peg Tyre titled "The Writing Revolution." [www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archives, 2012] She tells of a downtrodden public school on Staten Island. It's students performed poorly on standardized tests and over 70% dropped out before earning a diploma. The principal decided to figure out why. The teachers hostilely defended their teaching methods and almost accusing her of saying they were not smart enough to teach well. Some speculated that the students were lazy or dumb. None of those scenarios turned out to be the truth.

The short answer was that the students could not write. They could make the letters and form a simple sentence but their knowledge ended there. The words on the written page were just that: words. They could look up the meaning of the words but that did not help in the comprehension of the material or how to apply the knowledge they just read.

 For several decades, teachers were told that the best way to teach writing was to let children express themselves however they wanted on the written page. Full sentences, correct spelling and correct grammar were not important. Self-expression and emotions were paramount. As a result, diagramming sentences fell by the wayside and forgotten, parts of speech never saw the light of day and punctuation was a dirty word. What resulted as shown by this Staten Island school was that children could not write anything but a simple sentence with the most important word coming first because nobody had taught them how to do so. They could not build on that single thought they had just written. They were missing the crucial understanding of how language works.

In the beginning teachers were skeptical that teaching students how to write essays was the answer to their students’ inability to learn. "They can do it (write properly) if they wanted to. They just don't want to." One put his class to the test. They were studying The Grapes of Wrath.  He asked each student to write a sentence beginning with "Although." A typical answer was "Although Jim and John were friends."

The teachers in all subjects began showing students how to use coordinating conjunctions like for, not, but or yet. The students were taught explicitly how to turn ideas into simple sentences then construct complex sentences from the simple ones by supplying the answers to three writing prompts: but, because and so. The chemistry teacher supplied the students with a main sentence and they were assigned to write a paragraph using those words. "Sodium and chlorine are volatile but.... Sodium and salt combined make salt because... Sodium and chlorine alone may not be used for..." They taught the students how think analytically. A history assignment went from "Write a post card telling what it was like in the trenches during WWI" to "Describe the reasons for the start of WWI.

The students were taught by all the teachers how to use appositive clauses, recognize sentence fragments, how to find the main idea of a sentence and how to form a main idea of their own. They learned various parts of speech and why it mattered to use them correctly. The teaching did not end with just writing. The students were taught to communicate verbally also. Posters in classrooms showed talking responses like "I disagree with your answer because" "Could you talk more about the idea you mentioned?" "How did you reach that conclusion?" "My opinion is..."

The program began in 2009 after extensive research and help from another private school in New York. Test results have been slow to rise in some areas and have skyrocketed in others. Math and reading comprehension scores benefited from the increased knowledge the children displayed because they were learning to write. Confidence among the staff and students grew. Students who started the program as freshman are now applying for colleges, an incomprehensible thought two years ago.

Our American society is reaping the woes of not teaching our children how to write properly. Business leaders are lamenting the inability of interviewees to write a paragraph about their chosen field. They have learned through bitter trials that their companies have to teach their employees how to compose paragraphs with a main theme, topic sentences, analytical thinking and a valid conclusion.  Teachers took it for granted that their students knew how to write but they did not write correctly because they were lazy. It is we, as a people, who have lowered our standards, have let the language and brevity of text messaging creep into our every day lives. We have weakened our position in the business world because we cannot compete on the same levels as some other countries. It is our job to educate our children. We do not expect them to know math so why do we expect them to know how to write?

Good Books for Those Pesky Grammar Questions

Mignon Fogarty is a popular, no nonsense grammarian who has written numerous books, audio podcasts and a weekly post on various aspects of American grammar and tips for better writing. She is quoted as saying, "Usage not grammar confuse people." I bought her book (at left) with prize money from a writing contest and it was money well spent.

Fogarty is a favorite of mine and especially this book Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, St. Martin's Press 2008. It provides marvelous answers to my grammatical questions (and don't we all have them.) She takes a more relaxed approach to "correct" grammar. She advocates knowing your reading audience and if there are two ways of writing a sentence, choose the one that fits the majority of  your readers unless the writing is for a business, academic or for a general audience. If you are writing for localized geographic area of readers, some leniency may be granted to write in a way that it is perceived as correct even if it seems incorrect in other parts of the America.

 "An" versus "a" is one example. I was taught that "an" is proper before words that begin with a vowel and "a" is used before consonants. It usually works well until you get to words like "historic." In actuality, it is easier to remember that we should use "an" before  vowel sound and "a" before  consonant sound. Thus, according to Fogarty, page 6, "an hour" is correct because hour starts with a vowel sound. "A historic expedition" is correct while "an honorable fellow" is correct because honorable starts with a vowel sound. As you can tell, Fogarty's examples are clear and easy to remember.

There are pages of helpful appendices: conjunctive adverbs, subordination conjunctions, linking verbs, and common irregular verbs that are helpful to the student writer and a good refresher for the experienced one. The disjointed approach of the book is overcome by a helpful index in the back. I do not own  kindle but one reviewer said this book was a bit difficult to use because there was no table of contents in the Kindle version. The book does not seem to have much structure to it but the problems she solves are numerous and easily understood. read it enough to become familiar with it and it will be a resource you reach for often. The examples are clear. She gives easy to remember tips so rules become cemented in your mind.

Lynn Truss' book Eats Shoots and Leaves is about the correct use of punctuation. What I love most is how well the authored blends traditional "how to" with historical insights, quotes from famous authors, and humorous anecdotes. She writes with humor and a strong indignation about the amount of incorrect punctuation seen today. She blames emails and text messaging plus laziness for all of it, not ignorance. The book is written by a British author for a British audience and thus there are some phrases that we may ponder but with some thinking, they are understood. The book is well organized and easy to immediately find the "A' to your "Q." 

I keep Mignon Fogarty's book in the car for when I have a few minutes as I wait. You can pick it up, read a few pages or chapters and put it down knowing you spent your time well.
Lynn Truss' book I keep on my book shelf within easy reach. Both are good additions to your library and inexpensive.

Question Mark and Exclamation Points Together ?! Interabang Explained

JENNIFER ROVA

May we use ?! and !? or ???? or !!!! in writing? It is unacceptable to use the aforementioned in academic writing, in formal writing, in business writing and by good writers. Its use points to the writer as uneducated or too lazy to think of the proper words. In recent years and in more casual writing, ?! and alternatively !? became popular through comic strip cartoons. Often the cloud above a character’s head will contain  interrobongs or interabangs  (in-TER-a-bang) which is what [?!] and [!?] are called, the latter spelling being the preferred choice.

interabang

Punctuation at the end of a sentence is called terminal punctuation. There is the period [.], which ends most sentences. The question mark [?] ends an interrogative sentence and an exclamation point [!] is used after an interjection or exclamation.

An interabang is used to express some question, excitement, surprise or disbelief: I am adopted?!

You did what to the dog!? Please, will you help me?!

Is there a specific way to use the interabang? Yes, it turns out, there is. If you want to use an interabang, place the most important punctuation mark first. “You got into Harvard?!” denotes first surprise that you got accepted followed by the extra emphasis of the unbelievable. “You got into Harvard !?” is excitement for your acceptance followed by the lesser surprise that you got in.  The unwritten rule is that you put first the punctuation you would normally use without its companion.

“What are you doing?” is asking a simple question because I do not know the answer.

“What are you doing!” is disbelief, horror or worry regarding what you are doing that I see and I understand.

“What are you doing?!” is surprise and disbelief and “What are you doing!?” is disbelief followed by why would you do something like that?

There is a glyph (symbol) for an interabang but it is not found in most fonts. Apparently you can find it text editor or by using Americana font. I could not find it in fonts and I do not have text editor but it looks like this. It is combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Most people use "?!" or "!?"

interabang

There are several other uses of the word interabang in unrelated instances. One is a web site of an English design firm, interabangUK, another is a travel web site, Interabang travels with Trisha and Derrick, plus various others within a variety of unrelated subjects.

The question is it ever proper under any circumstances to use multiple exclamation points or question marks such as “I am so tired!!!!!” “Where are you?????” The answer is no, unless you want to look stupid and annoy your reader be it in an email, on Facebook or in your writing.

For more information see Nancy Owens Barnes' post on "Exclamanation Mark: Its Use and Abuse!"
http://writingnorthidaho.blogspot.com/2012/11/exclamation-mark-its-use-and-abuse.html

P.S. I agree with a reader's comment that to use "ect., etc." is also a no-no.