I really was reticent to write this article. There are, after all, many more important topics. Indeed, it could be argued that most topics are more important.
I confess: I am a grammar cop.
On too many occasions, I find myself cringing when I read something where the grammar is obviously bad.
Certainly, I could offer an article of greater import. Like something on soteriology. Or ecclesiology. Even eschatology.
What kind of nerd writes about grammar?
I do. I am indeed a grammar cop.
The Concern
My concern, I guess, is one of trajectory. From my experiential perspective, writing skills are diminishing. Is it possible that we are directionally headed toward unintelligible written communication? I have read papers, manuscripts, emails, and memos where I had great difficulty understanding the author’s intent. I have seen PowerPoint and other presentations that left me more confused than not.
On a more important note, are we not told to do all things for the glory of God? (1 Corinthians 10:31). Or am I stretching the text a bit for my own argument?
The Specific Issues
Okay, I’ve made enough prefatory comments. You are either with me or not by this point. What, then, are some of the more common grammatical errors I’ve noticed in written documents? My list is not exhaustive, but allow me to note a few.
· Random capitalization. I have an email that I’ve saved for a few weeks. It illustrates my concern: “The Meeting will be held in the Sanctuary at 7:00 PM on Saturday. All Concerned people are encouraged to attend.” So why is “Meeting” capitalized? Or “Sanctuary”? Or “Concerned”? There are no rules of capitalization that apply to those words. The upper case letter was applied just because someone thought it looked right.
· It’s and Its. It’s is a contraction. It means “it is” or “it has.” Its is a possessive pronoun meaning “of it” or “belonging to it.” Too many times I see both of those words used incorrectly. And there is absolutely, positively, no such word as its’.
· The reflexive pronoun. Those pronouns that have the suffix “self” are meant to reflect off another pronoun and not stand alone. You do not say: “The team included Judy, Mike, and myself.” Instead say, “The team included Judy, Mike, and me." It is correct to say “I will go to the game myself” since “myself” reflects off the pronoun “I.”
· Your and you’re. Your is a possessive pronoun. You’re is a contraction that means “you are.”
· There and their. There has many usages. The more common usages include a reference to a place (We need to go there), or as a pronoun (There is no hope in this situation). Their is a possessive pronoun (I lifted their luggage).
· Dangling participle. This error seems to be one of the more egregious writing errors. Here is an example: “After rotting in the basement for several weeks, my brother threw away the apples.” According to the sentence structure, my brother has been rotting in the basement for several weeks. Pretty gross. “My brother” is incorrectly connected to the participle phrase, so the intended subject (apples) is not clear.
· Incorrect word. Sometimes we simply use the wrong word because it sounds like it belongs in the sentence, or because it sounds similar to the correct word. I recently received an email that included the following sentence: “We are dealing with a reputed company.” The author of the email was obviously referring to a “reputable company.”
The Importance of Communication
Clear communication is important. Clear written communication is important. How we speak and write says much about us.
The trend in clear written communication seems to be deteriorating.
Be careful about how you speak. Be careful about how you write.
You never know when a grammar cop may be following your words.
You scare me sometimes Dr. Rainer
Because of the explosion of online communication, formality in writing is on the decline. People try in their written communication to mimic the shortcuts that they take in verbal communication. In what seems like some sort of literary corollary to Gresham’s Law, bad writing drives good writing out of circulation.
For example, consider the string of sentence fragments in this very post. “Like something on soteriology. Or ecclesiology. Even eschatology.” The grammar cop in you must cringe to have to write such non-standard English. This, however, is the way that we speak, pausing long enough at those should-be-commas that in writing we wind up communicating the tone of our speech by replacing them with periods.
I find myself embracing that kind of informality in blogging frequently. I acknowledge that my own grammatical sins are contributing to the long slide of the language into chaos. It is nevertheless difficult to ignore the siren song of the vernacular. In this linguistic angst, regardless of how much we may corrupt the English language, I find one bit of consolation:
At least we don’t speak German.
I’m with you all the way and it is an Important Issue. Well, except I’m a fan of random capitalization. It’s really not Random after all, its just a form of emphasis. British writers do it more often than American.
Gary -
You make me smile.
Bart -
You nailed me. I am the master of the sentence fragment, not only in blogs but in books as well. Though I don’t speak German, I do speak Alabamian, a much more challenging dialect.
I confess, Dr. Rainer, that I am a grammar cop, too. As I was reading your post, I was cheering you on in agreement!
Allow me to add a grammar issue that drives me crazy that may be unique to Michiganders: adding “s” to the end of words — especially names of businesses — that do not end in “s” and are not being pluralized. I regularly hear people make comments like, “I didn’t see it at Krogers, but Walmarts probably has it.” (Of course, the company names are “Kroger” and “Walmart,” respectively.)
Kyle -
I agree wholeheartedly. How we make numbers plural is another issue. If you are writing about the decade of the sixties, for example, you write it as the 1960s, not the 1960′s. The random apostrophe incorrectly turns the decade into the possessive.
Whew! I’m not alone!
Myself, I think it’s no big deal. Their are huge issues needing addressed. To strongly address this seems like a misunderestimation of other problems.
Ed Stetzer
I, too, am a grammar cop, and many times, the police chief. I feel your pain, Thom.
Irregardless, its worth a post.
(Ouch. It actually hurt typing that, but I couldn’t let your comment go without a reply. It made me laugh out loud.)
Ed,
.
Your comment made me laugh out loud!
Dr. Rainer,
After the beating I took in seminary over the use of a naked “this,” I am surprised that mistake was not included in your post
For those who have not been persecuted in this manner, a naked “this” is the use of the word “this” when it is not followed directly by a noun. Incorrect: “This is a well-written blog, sentence fragments excepted.” Correct, “This blog is well-written…”
Chris -
You are providing me some great memories of the “naked this.” Here are some of my notes that may give you some great pain:
In the English language, an instance of the word “this” which lacks a referent, i.e. some other word which explains to what the “this” in question refers. Lacking a referent, the “this” is thus “naked” and may prove confusing to the reader or listener, since they do not know precisely to what the writer or speaker is referring.
Example: I really hate this.
Don’t you just love the clarity of the explanation?
Punctuation is tricky sometimes as well. Consider the following example:
“Let’s eat Grandma!” or
“Let’s eat, Grandma!”
A simple comma changes the meaning (and, for that matter, the course of Grandma’s life).
Dr. Rainer,
I think the clarity of an occasional “naked this” far surpasses the clarity of the author’s explantion of why we shouldn’t use it.
Ed, you ain’t right!
Chris, since you were a grader for Dr Jumper and saw a few papers, it humors me to know you were raked over the coals for a “this” error.
Dr Rainer, guys like you scare me when I’m in the pulpit. I have certainly improved over the years, but I have had a few “grammar cops” correct me after a sermon. My typical response is, “Thank you for your concern, but did you know what I meant?”. The classic moment happened after a message about fault-finding.
Thanks for keeping us on our toes!
Hey, Dr. Rainer, you would be welcome anytime you’d like to join us in the Publishing Style Team meetings. We’re working on the new edition of the _LifeWay Church Resources Style Manual_. You should have heard some of our wrangling over capitalization, a discussion which has continued from 2002. Yes, 2002.
Chris,
Actually, the correct sentence would be this one: “This blog is well written.”
The hyphen is not needed for a phrase functioning as the predicate adjective.
Amy T.,
Preach it, sister. Preach it with handbells, white hankies, PowerPoint®, and palm fronds.
~ from a copy editor (well, production editor) and resident Grammar Queen (yes, I have the tiara)
AndreaE,
Thanks for the correction. I would love to see the style manual when it is completed. I find grammar books and style manuals to be fascinating reading.
How can I get a copy when it is completed?
Chris,
If you work for LifeWay, you can have it, but I don’t believe we distribute it outside the organization. We use it in-house.
If you’re a coworker, let me know — you can drop me a line at my blog (see link in my screen name). Otherwise, sorry!
Which style manuals and grammar books have you discovered? Favorites? Disses?
I actually bought a book on diagramming sentences. Seriously. Yes. Diagramming sentences. Grammar nerd, I am. (And evidently, related to Yoda as well.)