Below you\u2019ll find ten New Year\u2019s resolutions for self-appointed guardians of the English language. We are a group that needs its own code of ethics to protect us from ourselves and shield others from our self-righteousness. So let\u2019s get right to \u2026<\/p>\n
The Stickler\u2019s Ten Commandments<\/strong><\/p>\n 1)<\/strong>\u00a0No using big words to intimidate<\/strong>. You can\u2019t beat a polysyllabic onslaught for sounding authoritative. But laying big words on someone who may not be as educated as you are is just shabby.<\/p>\n 2)<\/strong>\u00a0No correcting someone\u2019s English in an argument<\/strong>. It\u2019s the wrong time to do it. When someone makes a valid point, picking on that person\u2019s language is a cop-out, and a contemptible way of gaining the upper hand.<\/p>\n 3)<\/strong>\u00a0Do it in private<\/strong>. If a person you care about says \u201cirregardless,\u201d it can be a thoughtful gesture to gently advise that there is no such word\u2014but don\u2019t do this when others are within earshot.<\/p>\n 4)<\/strong>\u00a0No condescending preambles<\/strong>. If you have some wisdom to impart, don\u2019t start with \u201cDidn\u2019t you know,\u201d or \u201cI can\u2019t believe you just said,\u201d or \u201cHow can someone from your background \u2026\u201d Such statements sound uncomfortably close to \u201cI\u2019m smart and you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n 5)<\/strong>\u00a0Casual conversation gets a lot of leeway<\/strong>. Public figures are rightly under scrutiny when they\u2019re speaking or writing on the record. Even private citizens may be held accountable, not just for what they say but for how they say it, in a meeting or serious discussion. However, the language police ought to back way off in settings where people are just relaxing and making small talk. At such times, perfect grammar is probably the last thing anyone should worry about. No one ever mistook a Super Bowl party for a summit conference.<\/p>\n 6)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0And no correcting playful correspondence, either<\/strong>. If you get an email that says, \u201cI didn\u2019t mean nuttin\u2019 by it,\u201d your correspondent is kidding around. What is friendship without informality and levity? And what kind of a sourpuss would point out that \u201cnothing\u201dwas misspelled and that double negatives are bad grammar?<\/p>\n 7)<\/strong>\u00a0Know what you\u2019re talking about<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>Before you correct someone, how do you know you\u2019re right? There are many myths about \u201cproper\u201d English floating around. Here are three discredited rules that a lot of people think are true: Never end a sentence with a preposition. (Yes you can.) It\u2019s wrong to split an infinitive. (No it\u2019s not.) The relative pronoun\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>cannot refer to a human, so always say \u201cthe person\u00a0who\u00a0<\/em>called,\u201d never \u201cthe person\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0called.\u201d (Utter nonsense.) If you believe even one of these superstitions, you see the problem.<\/p>\n 8) Look it up<\/strong>. Good writers choose their words with utmost care. So you can\u2019t go wrong with a dictionary nearby. Many people believe they needn\u2019t look up a strange word. They are deluding themselves. Suppose a critic you respect refers to a book\u2019s \u201cmeretricious manifestation of sophism.\u201d The word\u00a0meretricious\u00a0<\/em>sounds a lot like\u00a0meritorious<\/em>; and\u00a0sophism<\/em>\u00a0brings to mind\u00a0sophisticated<\/em>. Having seen the review, you are eager to purchase and read this admirable, stylish work\u2014not realizing that the critic has denounced the book as lurid and devious rubbish.<\/p>\n 9)<\/strong>\u00a0No excuses when you slip<\/strong>. Two can play this game, professor. We all make mistakes. If someone busts you, don\u2019t try to wiggle out of it.<\/p>\n 10)<\/strong>\u00a0No correcting strangers<\/strong>. Keep it to yourself; it\u2019s the Wild West out there.<\/p>\n \u2014Tom Stern<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Below you\u2019ll find ten New Year\u2019s resolutions for self-appointed guardians of the English language. We are a group that needs its own code of ethics to protect us from ourselves and shield others from our self-righteousness. So let\u2019s get right to \u2026 The Stickler\u2019s Ten Commandments 1)\u00a0No using big words to intimidate. You can\u2019t beat […]<\/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":[10,12,25,33,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-humor","category-prepositions","category-pronouns"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748"}],"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=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}