Getting Your Point Across
Good Grammar+Clarity=Effective Communication
Thomas Brown
Issue date: 12/10/09 Section: Opinion
We like to mix and match adverbs and adjectives, but English isn't a card game. We ask people to speak louder; but speak is a verb and louder an adjective, and they shouldn't get too close. We ought to ask others to speak "loudly." Loudly, like quickly and hardly, is an adverb (notice the -ly) and should be used to describe verbs ("I hardly noticed"). We misuse adverbs as well. Consider the adverb "hopefully," as in, "Hopefully I get an A in Organic Chemistry." This is like saying "Happily I get an A in Organic Chemistry." Saying "Hopefully I get an A" is the same as saying "I get an A in a hopeful manner." We're describing the way in which we "get" the A, because adverbs describe verbs. What we mean to say is, "I hope to get an A in Organic Chemistry."
Also, 95% of us say "I feel like…" when what we mean is "I think," "I believe," or "It seems like." I wonder if this isn't evidence that postmodernity has infiltrated every nook of American society.
When discussing this article with a fellow editor, she mentioned the "like" problem, noting that people who use the word indiscriminately "won't get a job!" Be conscious of the fillers you use in everyday speech and when talking to a group. Others include "stuff like that," "ya know," and "um," although the latter is sometimes necessary to hold one's place in conversation.
Related to this is something else Zinsser teaches: "To write clean English you must examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose." As I mentioned earlier, to write well you must be aware of each word you use and why you use it. Don't say something the reader could easily figure out on his own or something you already say in the previous sentence. Consider this specimen:
Going to church is similar to going to a play: we watch people perform an act and we are barely involved. But going to church should not be just like going to a play. Church is supposed to be a place where we worship God in Spirit and in truth, fellowship with other believers, pray for one another, and do all the things that it means to be a Christian. It is sad that this is what the American church has come to, and we need a generation that is willing to rise up and make the appropriate changes.
Also, 95% of us say "I feel like…" when what we mean is "I think," "I believe," or "It seems like." I wonder if this isn't evidence that postmodernity has infiltrated every nook of American society.
When discussing this article with a fellow editor, she mentioned the "like" problem, noting that people who use the word indiscriminately "won't get a job!" Be conscious of the fillers you use in everyday speech and when talking to a group. Others include "stuff like that," "ya know," and "um," although the latter is sometimes necessary to hold one's place in conversation.
Related to this is something else Zinsser teaches: "To write clean English you must examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose." As I mentioned earlier, to write well you must be aware of each word you use and why you use it. Don't say something the reader could easily figure out on his own or something you already say in the previous sentence. Consider this specimen:
Going to church is similar to going to a play: we watch people perform an act and we are barely involved. But going to church should not be just like going to a play. Church is supposed to be a place where we worship God in Spirit and in truth, fellowship with other believers, pray for one another, and do all the things that it means to be a Christian. It is sad that this is what the American church has come to, and we need a generation that is willing to rise up and make the appropriate changes.
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