Some would say that the 2012\u00a0election year\u2019s political dialogue divided the country into the obscenely ultra-rich one percent and the ninety-nine percent who comprise the poor, the shrinking middle class and the, I guess you could say, tastefully affluent.<\/p>\n
Compare that with the literary one-percenters, a mulish minority of nitpickers who believe \u201cproper\u201d speaking and writing preserve English\u2019s power and beauty. Most other people by contrast are unapologetically indifferent, and tend to dismiss these sticklers as socially challenged nerds and snobs.<\/p>\n
When government policies seem to court and coddle the wealthiest one percent, populists call it a violation and betrayal of American principles.<\/p>\n
Not so in the world of letters, where the best writers write for the one-percenters \u2014 and why not? Who better to appreciate your writing than those who study and cherish English? Besides, it\u2019s not a class thing. Language aficionados come from all walks of life.<\/p>\n
America has always been enamored of its rebels and mavericks \u2014 and ambivalent toward those who follow the rules. But rules and laws are the distillation of hard lessons learned by our forebears. Rules wouldn\u2019t exist if this flawed species didn\u2019t need them.<\/p>\n
When grammarians say a sentence is \u201cright\u201d or \u201cwrong\u201d they mean it adheres to or defies rules that have endured through the years and proved time and again to be the straightest path to the truth.<\/p>\n
The following is a list of bad choices that you see and hear all the time. They\u2019re not major blunders, but they\u2019re misguided in a way that can compromise serious discourse.<\/p>\n
Utilize<\/strong>\u00a0 All the way back in the 1940s George Orwell blew the whistle on this pretentious word. Orwell advised writers to get over themselves and go with \u201cuse.\u201d But\u00a0use<\/em>\u00a0is so humble, so mundane, whereas\u00a0utilize<\/em>\u00a0really sounds like something. Bureaucrats in particular love to use \u201cutilize.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulsome<\/strong>\u00a0 Many people take\u00a0fulsome<\/em>\u00a0to mean \u201cabundant\u201d or \u201clavish.\u201d But be wary of writing the likes of \u201cHe received a fulsome tribute\u201d or \u201cPlease accept my fulsome apology.\u201d The word actually means something darker: \u201cexcessive,\u201d \u201cfawning,\u201d even \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n Youth<\/strong>\u00a0 There aren\u2019t many synonyms for\u00a0children<\/em>. After\u00a0kids<\/em>,\u00a0young people<\/em>, and\u00a0youngsters<\/em>, the pickings get slim, especially if you eschew cutesy-poo. So, rejecting non-options like\u00a0little ones<\/em>,\u00a0tykes<\/em>, and\u00a0tots<\/em>, many writers eventually come around to\u00a0youth<\/em>. Trouble is,\u00a0youth<\/em>\u00a0is singular; it\u2019s cheesy to say, \u201cYouth today are facing new challenges.\u201d The obvious fix is \u201cyouths today,\u201d even though a lot of scribes think \u201cyouths\u201d is clunky.<\/p>\n Clich\u00e9<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s a noun, not an adjective. Yet more and more you hear things like, \u201cI know it sounds clich\u00e9, but \u2026\u201d There\u2019s an easy remedy: just add \u201clike a\u201d: \u201cI know it sounds like a clich\u00e9.\u201d What\u2019s so hard about adding two painless syllables? You\u2019ll make a word nerd\u2019s day.<\/p>\n This grammar tip classic by Tom Stern was first published on November 24, 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pop Quiz<\/strong> 1A. We enjoyed a fulsome feast at Aunt Rose\u2019s house for Thanksgiving. 2A. I don\u2019t know how to use even half of the functions available on my smart phone. 3A. Sorry, Joe, this may sound clich\u00e9, but right now two\u2019s company and three\u2019s a crowd. 4A. Do you think today\u2019s youth read less than their counterparts of twenty years ago? <\/p>\n Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n 1B. We enjoyed a lavish feast at Aunt Rose\u2019s house for Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some would say that the 2012\u00a0election year\u2019s political dialogue divided the country into the obscenely ultra-rich one percent and the ninety-nine percent who comprise the poor, the shrinking middle class and the, I guess you could say, tastefully affluent. Compare that with the literary one-percenters, a mulish minority of nitpickers who believe \u201cproper\u201d speaking and […]<\/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":[10,12,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-vocabulary"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519"}],"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=2519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nChoose the correct or preferred sentence.<\/p>\n
\n1B. We enjoyed a lavish feast at Aunt Rose\u2019s house for Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
\n2B. I don\u2019t know how to utilize even half of the functions available on my smart phone.<\/p>\n
\n3B. Sorry, Joe, this may sound like a clich\u00e9, but right now two\u2019s company and three\u2019s a crowd.<\/p>\n
\n4B. Do you think today\u2019s youths read less than their counterparts of twenty years ago?<\/p>\n
\n2A. I don\u2019t know how to use even half of the functions available on my smart phone.
\n3B. Sorry, Joe, this may sound like a clich\u00e9, but right now two\u2019s company and three\u2019s a crowd.
\n4B. Do you think today\u2019s youths read less than their counterparts of twenty years ago?<\/p>\n