WHAT YOUR ENGLISH

TEACHER DIDN’T TELL YOU

Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

I’ve had a long and varied career as an English teacher, editor, consultant, and writer.

Colleagues, clients, professors, and publishers have taught me a lot—and so have my students.

A few years ago I started reflecting on all the things I wished my teachers had told me…

…and the many things I wished I’d told my own students.

SHOWCASE YOURSELF THROUGH

YOUR WRITING

1. Writing is all about showcasing yourself.

2. English usage was invented by fallible human beings.

3. We need to apply critical thinking to English usage.

Today I’m going to focus on three ideas:

1. Writing is all about showcasing yourself: Your experiences, knowledge, and ideas.

Instead of thinking about using words to fill a piece of paper or a computer screen…

…think about putting yourself, your ideas, and your experiences onstage.

Never tell readers what they already know.

Telling stories is an effective way to get your readers involved.

Here’s a useful question to ask yourself: “How long will it take my readers to reach my first interesting word?”

Here are things I’ve learned during my professional writing career about…

…research

Showcase your research process by mentioning by mentioning recent publications about your topic and notable authorities in the field.

…emphasisPut your strongest example in the last sentence in a paragraph, and your strongest supporting idea in the penultimate paragraph.

…word choicesProfessional writers never use last, last but not least, or finally.Choose climactic words and expressions like best, most important, most seriously.

2. Although many people like to believe in the near-divine origin of English usage rules…

…much of it was invented by fallible human beings operating under false assumptions.

The most important figure in the history of English usage was an 18th-century attorney named Lindley Murray.

Murray was a self-appointed expert who had no background in linguistics.

He wrote a grammar book based on rules he often invented himself.His book became an international bestseller.

Some language experts say we’re stuck with the mess that Murray left for us.

Other experts favor discarding some of the rules he made up.

Many people mistakenly believe that punctuation was invented by teachers and writers to make sentences easier to read and understand.

Actually punctuation was invented by printers…

…as an aid to elocution.

Schoolchildren were taught to punctuate according to the pauses in a sentence, not the syntax.

a comma = 1 counta semicolon = 2 countsa colon = 3 countsa period = 4 counts

Punctuation practices varied widely over the centuries.

Here’s page 1 from the first edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.Notice the commas and the space behind the quotation marks.

Some of the “unchangeable truths” we’ve been taught don’t stand up to close scrutiny.

You may remember learning that it’s incorrect to say “It’s me” because the verb to be takes the nominative case.

So how come nobody told the French about this?

C’est moi!

And you may have been taught that double negatives are wrong because two negatives make a positive.

But people who speak Spanish, Russian, Persian, Italian, and Portuguese often use double negatives in formal writing.

Would you say that people from those countries are poor mathematicians?

Old English also used double negatives for emphasis in formal writing.

3. We need to apply critical thinking to English usage.

Solving a usage problem isn’t enough: We also need to be aware of the process that led us to the answer.

I’m very aware of usage issues – and the importance of critical-thinking skills – because I serve on the editorial board for a scholarly journal.

How do you make decisions about English usage?

“A rule is a rule, damn it.”“My third-grade teacher said so.”“My high school English teacher said so.”“I look at what my resources have to say about it.”“I trust Strunk and White.”“I use Google to see what other writers are doing.”“I go with the flow.”

If you were an editor, how would you resolve a usage issue?

“A rule is a rule, damn it.”“My third-grade teacher said so.”“My high school English teacher said so.”✓✓ “I look at what my resources have to say about it.”✓“I trust Strunk and White.”✓“I use Google to see what other writers are doing.”✓“I go with the flow.”

Now let’s turn to the usage quiz I handed out earlier.What approach did you use for dealing with the usage issues in these sentences?

1. The teen pregnancy rate is likely to escalate in the next five years.

Question: Should we allow new words into the English language?

The teen pregnancy rate is likely to escalate in the next five years.

In the 1960s, the American Heritage Dictionary rejected escalate and many other made-up words that were just coming into English.

Other rejected terms in 1960 included downsize, senior citizen, multi-tasking, and outsource.

2. We’re delighted that ten people volunteered to help with our upcoming Halloween program.

Question: Should experts make usage rules for the rest of us?

2. We’re delighted that ten people persons volunteered to help with our upcoming Halloween program.

We’re delighted that ten people persons volunteered to help with our Halloween program.

Question: Is it ok for punctuation to change over time?

We’re delighted that ten people volunteered to help with our upcoming Halloween program.

When I went to school in the 1950s, Hallowe’en still had an apostrophe…

…and so did the plural form of decades: 1950’s.

And let’s not forget that in the 1960s, upcoming was banned as a sloppy made-up word.

2. We’re delighted that ten people volunteered to help with our upcoming approaching Halloween program.

3. The news spread quickly about John winning the golf tournament.

Question: Is it still an error if many educated people don’t notice it?

The news spread quickly about John’s winning the golf tournament.

How many people know (and care!) that gerundives require possessives?

4. Lying beneath the star-filled sky with Joe, it seemed that our love would last forever.

Question: What about indefinite pronoun references?

4. Lying beneath the star-filled sky with Joe, it seemed that our love would last forever.

It wasn’t lying beneath the sky with Joe— I was.

Lying beneath the star-filled sky with Joe, it seemed that our love would last forever.

Lying beneath the star-filled sky with Joe, I thought our love would last forever.

5. A low-maintenance shrub that’s ideal for our climate, crape myrtle’s blossoms beautify many local gardens.

Blossoms aren’t the same as a shrub. 5. A low-maintenance shrub that’s ideal for our climate, crape myrtle’s blossoms beautify many local gardens.

A low-maintenance shrub that’s ideal for our climate, crape myrtle has blossoms that beautify many local gardens.

6. Neon tetras, blue gouramis, and other fish are thriving in my new aquarium.

Question: Do you have to employ scientific language rules in everyday writing?

6. Neon tetras, blue gouramis, and other fish fishes are thriving in my new aquarium.

 7. The interfaith committee is comprised of a minister, a rabbi, a priest, and an imam.

If you’re strict about English usage, you can’t combine comprise with of. (Comprises means “includes.”)

7. The interfaith committee is comprised of comprises a minister, a rabbi, a priest, and an imam.

8. Personal testimony: I graduated from a Catholic college in 1967. We weren’t allowed to use dashes.

Question: What’s more important – correct use of antecedents, or lively writing?

8. Personal testimony: I graduated from a Catholic college in 1967. We weren’t allowed to use dashes.

8. Personal testimony: I graduated from a Catholic college in 1967. We students weren’t allowed to use dashes.

What about urban legends? Suppose your next-door neighbor believes that I is always more correct than me.

“Grandma loved the picture of you and I from our trip.”

What’s your position?“A rule is a rule, damn it!”Or do you think critically when someone tries to push a usage rule on you?

“Grandma loved the picture of you and I me from our trip.”

What if that same neighbor insists that you can’t start a sentence with and or but—even though no such rule has ever been found in any grammar book?

Again: Is a rule a rule just because someone believes it?

“It is altogether fitting and proper that we

should do this. But in a larger sense, we

cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we

cannot hallow this ground.”

If you were an editor, what would you do?

“A rule is a rule, damn it.”“My third-grade teacher said so.”“My high school English teacher said so.”“I look at what my resources have to say about it.”“I trust Strunk and White.”“I use Google to see what other writers are doing.”“I go with the flow.”