Teaching grammar is an integral part of tutoring at the Literacy Center. If I’m working with GED students, I have to be able to help them with grammar. If I’m helping a student who is working toward citizenship, helping the student write and otherwise communicate in English is an important part of the process. If I’m teaching my Current Events class, defining new vocabulary and explaining idioms calls on knowledge of grammar as well.
I am a self-confessed (and proud) grammar nerd. I am always on the lookout for misplaced apostrophes. I am a staunch advocate for the Oxford Comma. In the 1980s, I decided to focus on improving my writing. I bought Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and a bunch of other books about writing.
The two most influential books I bought were both written in 1977 by Theodore M. Bernstein – The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage) and Dos, Don’ts, & Maybes of English Usage. Bernstein, an assistant managing editor of The New York Times for 25 years and a professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, died in 1979, but his books live on. In addition to covering basic good grammar, Bernstein’s books address the idiosyncrasies of English usage. The writing is witty and interesting. I read his books while I was eating lunch.
Bernstein’s most important idea is that writers need to seek clarity. Reading his books taught me to examine my writing closely to make sure that I didn’t make my readers hiccup – stop and reread what I had just written. Bernstein believed that complex ideas are best explained simply, and that writers have to work hard to make that happen. The harder the writer works, the less the reader has to work.
Here are some of the things I learned from Bernstein:
In his discussion of the uses of the indefinite articles “a” and “an” before nouns, he says the following: “There is a lingering tendency on the part of some American writers [and speakers, I add] to use ‘an historic document,’ even though they wouldn’t be caught . . . saying “an hotel” [or ‘an history book’ I add]. But the preferred form these days . . . is ‘a historic document.’”
To this I add, I am ‘a historian’ not ‘an historian.’ I don’t correct people when they say “an historian” but it annoys me.
His 3-page discussion of Active vs. Passive voice provides many examples of when each voice is preferred. In his list of situations when it is okay to use passive voice, this phrase captures the flavor of Bernstein’s writing: ‘When the intention is deliberately to avoid strong language, to play it pianissimo.’ He goes on to say that “science and diplomacy, two fields in which equanimity is the advisable attitude, particularly favor the restrained statement” of passive voice. He then says “Since the restrained statement with its abundance of passive voices possesses status because of its relationship to such high forms of human activity as science, philosophy, and statesmanship, it is natural that some lower forms make use of the device in quest of gilt by association [a pun, not a typo].
He adds “More on this subject appears under WINDYFOGGERY – which can be found on page 480 (the entries are alphabetical). This is part of what he says on page 480: “Windyfoggery embraces gobbledygook . . . But it also includes the self-important circumlocution of ordinary orators, the pretentious pseudoscientific jargon of the pseudosciences, and the monumental unintelligibility of some criticism of those arts that do not readily accept the bridle of plain words.”
His 12-page discussion of “Rhetorical Figures and Faults,” describes what he calls “the writer’s bag of tricks” containing “an assortment of devices that help him to make his points effectively and to lift his prose from the stodgy level of a mere succession of words.” In these pages you can learn the definition of “chiasmus,” the “pathetic fallacy,” and “dysphemism,” if you are so inclined.
His discussion of punctuation extends over 18 pages.
One review of the book says that it is “to be enjoyed as well as consulted.” These books are still in publication, and I couldn’t find them in usable digital form on the internet. In GoogleBooks you can search the content but you can’t browse the books.
I write a lot these days, although I always think of my brother Ken as “the writer in the family.” He earned a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University, and he wrote poetry, plays, and essays throughout his adult life. He faced the constant challenge of manuscript submission and rejection. I’m not as brave as he was – I self-publish what I write. Writing has been a major source of distraction and comfort for me throughout the COVID pandemic. My desire to put words on paper has led me to write this Substack newsletter.
I still have my high school copy of Elements of Style. Hooray for the Oxford Comma! You've probably noticed that, if you use autocorrect for on-line writing, the Oxford Comma is not liked.