Advice to Hubbers old and new – English as she is spoke or wrote

This is going to be my rant on the way English is so frequently mangled by people. It's not aimed at any one person – let's get that straight from the start. It's aimed at the education system and the fact that so many people don't read.

This is also not going to be a grammar lesson per se, nor will it deal with issues that also should be known by writers, like syntax and punctuation.

It is occasioned by my Grade 2 daughter coming home recently with the following sentence in her homework book: “Everybody has 10 fingers, but I cut off 3 fingers with a scissor when I tried to cut paper on my own.” This is written by my daughter's teacher. If you can't see what's wrong with it then this Hub is for you! If you can see what's wrong with maybe you could carry on reading anyway – it might be fun.

Now I know that this sort of rant is usually made by pedantic old fuddy-duddies, and I don't count myself among them. I just have the feeling that we allow our written language to be debased at the risk of mutual misunderstanding and a loss of quality of communication.

I also realise that language is far from static – it grows and changes daily. New experiences, new discoveries, make it necessary that language should change.

What I am ranting about here is not the changes in language that are inevitable, but the sloppy use of language, especially the written language, which I suspect indicates a certain sloppiness of thought.

Not everyone can write with the eloquence and clarity of a Mark Twain or a George Bernard Shaw, and we would be very wrong to expect that of anyone.

I'm not even addressing the vexed subject of spelling, which, as we all know, is seen very differently depending on which side of the Atlantic you happen to live.

What I am going on about is the misuse of words, a misuse which is quite unnecessary in most cases, and would not happen if the writer would take the trouble to do two things – firstly, to really think about what he or she is wanting to get across to the reader, and secondly, to use the very valuable spelling and grammar checkers that are available. If you really want to do it well, there are also helps like Fowler's and various Thesauruses.

As I write this I am also very conscious of those the psycho-linguist Steven Pinker calls “language mavens” and I don't particularly want to be one. In his fascinating book The Language Instinct (Penguin, 1995) he wrote: “Many prescriptive rules of grammar are just plain dumb and should be deleted from the usage handbooks.”

Pinker is very disdainful of the “language mavens” who try to correct the spoken language of other people and sit in judgement over them.

It is true that English is very flexible and many of the “rules” are there to be broken by anyone with a little creativity. This is especially true in the spoken language, but as Pinker also acknowledges, “The aspect of language use that is most worth changing is the clarity and style of written prose.”

“Expository writing requires language to express far more complex trains of thought than it was biologically designed to do.” he continues. “Inconsistencies caused by limitations of short-term memory and planning, unnoticed in conversation, are not as tolerable when preserved on a page that is to be perused more leisurely.”

Pinker explains why writing needs to be more carefully planned and executed than spoken conversations: “..unlike a conversational partner, a reader will rarely share enough background assumptions to interpolate all the missing premises that make language comprehensible.”

He continues: “Over coming one's natural egocentrism and trying to anticipate the knowledge state of a generic reader at every stage of the exposition is one of the most important tasks in writing well.”

Pinker then explains some of the things needed to write well like practice, instruction and feedback. But, he says, the most important thing is “intensive exposure to good examples.” In other words, reading, and lots of it, is essential if one wants to improve as a writer.

Pinker also recommends two manuals that are helpful to writer – Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and Joseph M./ Williams's Style: Toward Clarity and Grace . Anyone who wants to consider themselves a writer (and why else would you write on HubPages?) really needs to have one of these books, or something similar, at their side all the time.

Pinker then admits to one of his prejudices (one which I definitely share) in written English, the misuse of the word “disinterested ” to mean apathetic or uninterested. As he says, “Disinterested (I suppose I must explain that it means 'unbiased'), is such a lovely word: it is ever-so-subtly different from impartial or unbiased in implying that the person has no stake in the matter, not that he is merely committed to being even-handed out of personal principle.” This is a lovely example of how a writer should be sensitive to words and their meanings and not just assume the meaning.

Another word which Pinker mentions and which drives me figuratively up the wall is the word “fortuitous .” This does not mean “fortunate ”, which is what so many people would use it to mean. It means, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, “happening by chance rather than intention.” There is a way in which “fortuitous ” can be seen to be “fortunate ” in the sense of happening by luck, but why not use the words lucky or fortunate for that? Fortuitous used well and in the right place, can then convey so much more. Which reminds me, a good dictionary is also an essential tool for a writer. Without one used frequently the writer is liable to make silly and avoidable mistakes.

Finally, writing needs practice – I have a rule of writing at least 500 words every day. I don't mean publishing 500 words every day, but writing them. They don't have to be of the highest quality – the quality can come later. But write them every day. Then read them over, think about them, see if they make sense, try to write the same ideas or thoughts in a differently.

Finally a writer needs to get into the habit of revising. When you have written something and you want to publish it, read it over a few times, including, if your spouse won't think you crazy, aloud. Reading aloud often enables one to hear something that you can not see in the written words. As Pinker wrote: “... if it's clear writing that we want, this is the kind of homely remedy that is called for.”

A final note on some common mistakes that have a negative effect on the impression you create of yourself as a writer in the mind of those who read your words:

The apostrophe “s” for example, should never be used to indicate a plural, as in snake's. Written like that it is the possessive form of the word, and would naturally be followed by something like the word “skin”. If you are indicating more than one snake, the word is snakes, without the 's.

Then there are the obvious mistakes like writing “weather” for “whether”, “your” for “you're”, and many more. When using words don't assume you know that the way you are using them is “right” - check in a reference book or ask someone who knows. There is no such thing as a stupid question, but you could look very stupid if you don't ask.

The following is an example of what happens when a person struggles to write. I am not in any way disrespecting the person who wrote this. He or she is evidently does not speak English as a first language. This example is real. It comes from a large organisation and was an instruction to managers in that organisation from its finance department.

Budget managers at this point are facing with a challenge to procure due non availability of funds on item requested from 2009/10 financial year budget. Budget section has realise that budget managers already overspend to some of the item while other item under spending. expenditure report will be sent to all budget managers with projections on compensation of employees, column for available funds and Virement as we are already have column for shifts so that we can shifts funds to all item where funds is required. Budget managers must verify and also provide changes where necessary in order for budget section to shifts on [the financial management package - I have deleted the name of it for privacy purposes]. Shifting of funds can be done per component, per division or sub programme.

So now the managers know exactly what to do! The memo ends with this paragraph:

To request budget managers to re-submit inputs in two days after report has been received from budget section, supply chain management to approve all request based on the availability of funds of the component and Creditors payment unit to process payment based on the availability of fund of the component.

So there we have some of the things a writer should do: plan what you want to write, write it, revise it, check it. It does no harm to ask someone else to read it and give you feedback and could indeed prevent a lot of embarrassment.

Finally – writing is to be enjoyed. It is like a challenge, a stretching and invigorating challenge. If you don't feel that way about writing, then maybe think about whether or not you really want to be a writer.

As Stephen King has written: “Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

And as Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith said, “There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

The text and all images on this page, unless otherwise indicated, are by Tony McGregor who hereby asserts his copyright on the material. Should you wish to use any of the text or images feel free to do so with proper attribution and, if possible, a link back to this page. Thank you.

© Tony McGregor 2010