It’s
been unfortunately, a well-documented sport to point out how society’s mastery
of the English language is weakening and on course for total destruction. But if you’re trying to find your way through
uncapitalized email exchanges, incorrectly spelled words, or just plain abuses
in how we communicate, look no further than a handy book by Benjamin Dreyer,
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide
to Clarity and Style.
Dreyer,
in case you’re wondering who he is, serves as the copy chief for Random House.
So how
does he figure out how our language should be written? He says it needs to literally sound better.
“One
of the best ways to determine whether your prose is well-constructed is to read
it aloud,” he writes. “A sentence that can’t be readily voiced is a sentence
that likely needs to be rewritten.
“A
good sentence, I find myself saying frequently, is one that the reader can
follow from beginning to end, no matter how long it is, without having to
double back in confusion because the writer misused or omitted a key piece of punctuation, chose a vague or misleading pronoun, or in some
other way engaged in inadvertent misdirection.”
He
has some very useful sections, each identifying rules that need to be followed,
though sometimes approving of some rule violations.
Here are his “big three” rules:
·
Never
begin a sentence with “and” or “but.”
·
Never
split an infinitive.
·
Never end a sentence with a preposition.
His other seven pet peeves:
·
No
contractions in formal writing.
·
Avoid
the passive voice.
·
Sentence
fragments are bad.
·
A
person must be a “who.”
·
“None”
is singular.
·
“Whether”
must never be accompanied by “or not.”
·
Never
introduce a list with “like.”
He
writes extensively of 67 things to do or avoid when it comes to punctuation,
noting:
“If
words are the flesh, muscle, and bone of prose, punctuation is the breath. In support of the words you’ve carefully
selected, punctuation is your best means of conveying to the reader how you
mean your writing to be read, how you mean for it to sound. A comma, sounds
different than a semi-colon; parenthesis make a different noise than dashes.”
His section on misspelled words includes
ones we often screw up, including:
·
Dumbbell
·
Fascist
·
Minuscule
·
Inoculate
·
Pharaoh
·
Pejorative
·
Sacrilegious
·
Restaurateur
·
Surpersede
·
Taillight
·
Unwieldy
·
Y’all
His
chapter on misused or misunderstood words was excellent. People need to know the difference between
disinterested and uninterested, as well as fewer than and less than. Some are nonplussed by that word, while others
don’t properly use the word penultimate.
There’s always confusion with affect/effect, a lot and allot, any more
and anymore, conscience and conscious, eminent and imminent, and so on. Even
now you’re wondering if you know the difference between flack and flak, farther
and further, or hanged and hung.
In
addition to covering proper things such as capitalization, how stupider is
actually a word, and why clichés should be avoided like the plague. Dreyer does
a nice job of showing us how to trim unneeded words. We can certainly follow this advice:
·
close
proximity (close is not needed)
·
ATM
machine (machine is not needed)
·
advance
planning (ditch advance)
·
end
result (end is not needed)
·
fall
down (get rid of down)
·
lift
up (eliminate up)
· future
plans (future can be dismissed)
· overexaggerate
(over is unnecessary)
·
undergraduate
student (student is not needed)
Some of the resources Dreyer follows and
recommends include these:
Any
book on language, especially one that tries to teach us how to speak properly,
can be dry or feel like a lecture but this book was punchy and personable. We all make silly mistakes. A good reading of this book – and repeated
references to it – could serve each of us well.
“If you’re not
failing, you’re not trying hard enough.”
--Gretchen
Rubin
“The greatest danger
for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is
too low and we reach it.”
--Michelangelo
“I’d rather regret
the things I have done than the things that I haven’t.”
--Lucille
Ball
“I hate reality but
it’s still the best place to get a good steak.”
--Woody
Allen
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Brian Feinblum’s
insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this
terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You
can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at
brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and
raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often
featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the
best book marketing blogs by Book Baby
http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized
by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by
WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on
book publicity for Book Expo America.
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