Happy National Grammar Day!

Today is National Grammar Day in the United States of America.

I’m taking this opportunity to comment on the relationship between grammar and clarity.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of grammar errors: (1) those that probably will reduce the clarity of your writing or speech and (2) those that probably will not. Let me demonstrate the difference by means of examples.

1. Ungrammatical and probably unclear

If you gratuitously switch grammatical person while referring to the same entity, you are using incorrect grammar and you will probably be unclear.

For example, a book publisher, referring to a bestseller his house had published, said:

“It was not a book where a whole house runs out and pushes like crazy, and you have to have success right away, because you spent all this money.”

Unless the listeners guessed that the third-person “house” and the second-person “you” referred to the same entity, the listeners were probably confused by this ungrammatical sentence. (For more detail on this example, go here.)

2. Ungrammatical but probably clear

If you say “he don't” instead of “he doesn't,” you are using incorrect grammar. But your meaning is clear; that is to say, any fluent speaker of English probably would recognize your meaning immediately.

If you use fun as an adjective (as in “a fun day”), you are using informal Standard English. It would be incorrect in a keynote address, but correct in a conversation with your family. In either situation, your meaning probably would be clear.

The Takeaway: On this blog, we generally discuss only those grammar errors that reduce clarity. However, even grammar errors that don’t reduce clarity can have other unwanted effects; for example, they may lead your readers to wonder if you are ill-educated or irresponsible. Unfortunately, people often judge us (sometimes unfairly) by our grammar; fortunately, there are hundreds of websites and blogs to help you improve your grammar. Just Google “grammar” or “grammatically correct” and select one that suits you.

"The Elements of Style" turns 50

If you ask writers about early influences in their careers, a great many will mention The Elements of Style, the brief style guide authored by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the famous guide, which is often referred to affectionately as “Strunk and White” and “the little book.”

Here is a review that ran last Friday in The Wall Street Journal.

Chrissie Maher and the Plain English Campaign

Today The Wall Street Journal published a delightful and inspiring article about Chrissie Maher (71), founder of the Plain English Campaign (UK). Ms. Maher (pictured) has made millions of people aware of inexcusably bad English.

The late Rudolf Flesch achieved similar results in the USA.

As we have discussed on this blog many times, consciousness of bad English is the first step toward writing good English.

Thank you, Ms. Maher!

Welcoming your suggestions

I welcome your suggestions for future blog posts. If you spot a good example of unclear or not-so-clear writing, and you would like to see me critique it, please make a comment to this post, identifying the writing sample and specifying its URL.

Please be aware that I may not be able to use every suggestion, for one or more of the reasons explained below.

Exceptions

On this blog, I do not critique anything written by a young child or by a non-native English speaker who has not yet achieved high fluency. Obviously, we should not hold these people to the clarity standards of adult, native English speakers.

And believe me, I do empathize. Once, while traveling alone in France, I had to write a one-page letter in French. It took me three hours. The recipients later told me that they had laughed until their stomachs ached.

Generally I do not critique legal documents, newspaper headlines, PowerPoint bullets, telegrams (do people still send those?), or Twitter tweets -- even if I have permission. Strictly speaking, none of these is prose, or is intended to be, and therefore none of these is subject to the rules for prose.

Etiquette

As I have explained in several posts, the purpose of this blog is educational, not sensational. I select samples of prose that enable me to explain specific concepts and techniques of clear writing. Occasionally I state my opinion that a certain type of error is typical of a group (e.g., politicians, university professors, or business journalists), but I never intend to single out a person for criticism.

The Takeaway: Comment on this post. Indicate a writing sample(s) that you would like to see critiqued. Include the URL. Thank you. Here's to clear writing!

"striving for a kind of Euclidean clarity"

Eleanor Gould Packard (photo) was Grammarian for The New Yorker magazine from 1945 to 1999. Miss Gould, as her colleagues called her, set extraordinarily high standards for clarity and logic, and demonstrated amazing attentiveness and stamina. When she died, in 2005, David Remnick, Editor, wrote a beautiful tribute.

An excerpt: “She shaped the language of the magazine, always striving for a kind of Euclidean clarity – transparent, precise, muscular. It was an ideal that seemed to have not only syntactical but moral dimensions.”

From time to time, I print out the tribute and re-read it, just for the inspiration.

What a woman!

Welcome

The goal of this blog is to help you produce clear writing every time you write. In some posts, we will also discuss speaking as well as writing.

Here is the method I will normally use: each post will cover one specific technique for clear writing. I will show you some real-world text that is not a good example of clear writing. Then I will show you how the writer could have made the text clearer.

In effect, you can look over my shoulder as I edit someone’s copy. You won’t have to feel awkward or defensive, because it won’t be your copy. (I have hired and trained more than 275 technical and business writers. This method is the best one I’ve found.)

If appropriate, I will explain any relevant principles of clear writing, grammar, logic, composition or diction. So, you’ll get not only the “what to do” and “how to do it” of clear writing but also the “why” – but without a heavy payload of grammar technicalities or other academic content.

At the end of the post, I’ll include a brief “takeaway” that will help you remember and use the technique covered in the post.

In this way, I can show you a great many easy and practical techniques for clear writing, without boring you with hypothetical examples or a rigid compliance to a grammar syllabus. You may even find the posts enjoyable.

Please feel free to post questions, comments or requests.

Best to you,

Joseph Armagnac Roy, “Mr. Clarity”