<\/p>\n
A word nerd\u2019s burden: someone said to me, \u201cI guess I can\u2019t say anything around you<\/em>.\u201d It was a lighthearted remark \u2026 I hope.<\/p>\n Saying is far different from writing, and the spoken word deserves a lot more leniency. I don\u2019t want people to think I go around rating everyone\u2019s conversational acumen, waiting to pounce. That\u2019s not my style. Besides, I don\u2019t always speak standard English either. Sometimes it\u2019s more fun not to.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s different when someone misspeaks over the airwaves. Even if it\u2019s a talk show featuring casual chit-chat, lots of people are tuned in, and the participants must not forget Rule One of being on the air: Watch what you say and how you say it.<\/p>\n So when a great athlete\u2014I\u2019ll call him \u201cE.J.\u201d\u2014declares in front of a national audience: \u201cKenny and Charles is both right. They shoulda did it another way,\u201d civilized people rightly cringe. Other more-articulate athletes squirm. Parents scowl, aware that this man is a role model for their kids. Teachers worry that their students will follow in his grammatical missteps.<\/p>\n This is not to disparage E.J., one of ten kids who grew up in a working-class family in the Midwest. Matching his physical genius with a relentless work ethic, he became a winner who played on five championship teams. When E.J. retired, he became as brilliant in business as he\u2019d been in sports, and today he is one of the great rags-to-riches success stories in America.<\/p>\n Now why can\u2019t this bright, accomplished man speak decent English? Kenny and Charles is<\/em>? Shoulda did<\/em>? Awful\u2014and I don\u2019t mean the shoulda<\/em>, which I can live with when it\u2019s spoken.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve read that E.J. has someone on his payroll to monitor his verbal skills. If so, start earning your money, buster. On the other hand, some might say it really doesn\u2019t matter anymore. Would better language skills have made E.J. more successful? Doubtful\u2014you can\u2019t get<\/em> more successful.<\/p>\n Still, I keep thinking of that line from Citizen Kane<\/em>: \u201cIt\u2019s not difficult to make money \u2026 if all you want is to make money.\u201d Is it too old-fashioned to think that \u201chaving it made\u201d is about more than wealth and fame? There used to be something called class.<\/p>\n There is an annoying argument that good English is irrelevant if you get your point across. Sometimes it might be true, but there are other times when being articulate carries the day, and these may be some of the most significant times of your life: when you have to speak at a formal occasion, when you bare your soul to a friend or loved one, when you meet someone you\u2019ve always respected and admired, when you\u2019re interviewed for a dream job, when you have to make an important presentation, when you propose marriage \u2026<\/p>\n Or how about when you\u2019re in charge and it\u2019s vital to establish your authority. There\u2019s no harsher critic than a subordinate. Respect is never just given away; it must be earned. I was watching one of those inside-prison documentaries and a commotion broke out in the prison yard. A guard had to act fast to restore order. He barked out, \u201cGet on your backs\u2014face down!\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s anatomically impossible.<\/p>\n Such a remark can be costly after order is restored. I\u2019ve no doubt that for a long time afterward, that guard was a source of wicked glee for the inmates.<\/p>\n Some occasions are too solemn for foolish language lapses. At a memorial service, a well-meaning soul remembered a renowned artist with these ill-advised words: \u201cAlthough Michael achieved notoriety, he was a simplistic man.\u201d What he meant was, \u201cAlthough Michael achieved fame, he was a simple man.\u201d Trying to convey Michael\u2019s integrity and charm, the speaker instead called the dear departed notorious, and kind of a simpleton.<\/p>\n This person\u2019s ineptitude was an affront to both the mind and the heart. Vain and insecure, he dumped fame<\/em> for \u201cnotoriety,\u201d a five-syllable blunder, and swapped simple<\/em> for \u201csimplistic,\u201d another fancy-sounding but inappropriate word, which further undermined his entire tribute.<\/p>\n It can\u2019t be said enough: Simplify, simplify, simplify.<\/p>\n \u2014Tom Stern<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A word nerd\u2019s burden: someone said to me, \u201cI guess I can\u2019t say anything around you.\u201d It was a lighthearted remark \u2026 I hope. Saying is far different from writing, and the spoken word deserves a lot more leniency. I don\u2019t want people to think I go around rating everyone\u2019s conversational acumen, waiting to pounce. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-humor"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}