Introduction to the English Language series

This is the third and concluding part of this three part introduction for Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English

We will begin at where else but at the beginning

We will begin our quest for a greater command of the English language with the basics of English grammar, punctuation, usage, etc. From there, we will proceed to delve deeper and deeper into our subject. Uh, don’t worry, deeper and deeper, in this case, does not necessarily mean harder and harder.

There will be concepts offered from time to time in this series that will cause you some consternation. You will get through those little trials though and before you know it, you will be a learned speaker of the English language.

Believe me, if I did it, so can you. All you have to do is apply yourself.

Now to the real beginning, the acknowledgements.

Acknowledgements:

Some free online resource for grammar, style, and usage are Daily Writing Tips and The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). The last named is a very robust website, the former is less so.

The best free online resources for anything having to do with English vocabulary are: Ask Oxford, which is the online version of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (COED) and much more. The next is the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD); and the next best is; Merriam-Webster Dictionary (MWD). It remains, however, my go-to resource online because it offers the best interface and it offers audible pronunciation of the words defined. When a little more in-depth knowledge of a word is wanted,Thesaurus.com (a COED based resource) is a good thesaurus and dictionary, and more is good for that. So is The Free Dictionary. And, finally the Online Etymology Dictionary (Online ED), is good for those who already speak English fairly well want more in-depth knowledge of a word. There is no better online tool for the heritage of English words.

All of these online resources can easily be found. Simply Google them; that is, search for them through Google. Google is clearly the king of online search.

Some of the most important sources I used for grammar, style, and usage are not available online. The first two of these are both inexpensive. They are the rightly acclaimed The Elements of Style (TES), the original and the third edition and Warriner’s English Composition and Grammar (WECG). This last one is available only as a used book. Used books can be inexpensive, especially when purchased online. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is in a class by itself as the arbiter of American style compositions.

No English dictionary is equal to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED). It is the arbiter of English words definition. Its 20 volume dictionary of the English language is astounding. Bartlett‘s Roget’s Thesaurus (BRT) is the best thesaurus I have found.

And now I wish to acknowledge the best and most important of them all

I wish to take my hat off and bow in praise of a very special group of people: all the elementary, junior high, and high school English teachers who taught me and survived to tell about it. I am sure those teachers won themselves a far greater reward in heaven for having putting up with the insults and the dirty tricks pulled on them by us meanies. We were sometimes unbelievably dumb and we seemingly always had an uncanny meanness about us. How those teachers survived and continued to love us is one of the great mysteries of my life.

Here’s a little anecdote about one of those dirty tricks

I remember one elderly teacher in high school who drove a Model T Ford to school It was a nice, neat black one; a coupe sedan: I never saw a Model T in any color other than black and all those were coupe sedans, as far as I recall. And, yes, that English teacher’s car was even then an old car.

One day some of my fellow students picked up her Model T and sat it back down so that it sat crosswise in the narrow driveway that fed into the school parking area.

Bless her heart; that dear ole soul may have been a little late getting home that night. That driveway was a tight squeeze when you drove on it in the usual manner. I was unhappy then that I missed out on that dirty trick on what we all agreed was a mean, but excellent old teacher. In hindsight, I’m glad I missed out on that particular dirty trick.  That dear old soul wasn’t really mean at all; she was simply a demanding teacher. Demanding because she knew that she had to be demanding if she was to have any hope of getting excellence out of any of us rowdies.

All I can say about those ole time school teachers is I pray to God they got a special reward for enduring us meanies. Their sickeningly paltry pay checks were certainly not much of a reward, so I would say, they had something coming for all the silent suffering they had to endure from us and from those in the educational power structure they work under.

Can you believe it?

Soon after my return home from military service one of my former teachers, Mr. Leigh, who was by then a grammar school principal, offered me a job as a teacher. I turned that offer down on the spot, even though I had no prospects of another job of consequence. To reason immediately came to mind. The job didn’t pay enough and, considering my lack of education, I would have felt like I was stealing had I taken the job.

And now, welcome to the Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English series. Now, dive in and learn English. I did it before you and you can do it now. Believe me; it will be worth the effort.

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1. Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English (Part II)
2. Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English (Part I)

Introduction to the English Language series

Part two of this three part series: Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English.

My journey

Fortunately, soon after I left high school it dawned on me what I had given up in leaving. That realization prompted me to start studying on my own to regain what I had lost in leaving school. I soon found myself wondering if I should enroll in college, once I completed the high school level subjects I had undertaken to study, or should I instead follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and other successful, self-taught men.

At first I studied tentatively, since I had almost no idea of how to study. Soon though; I began to come to grips with the mechanics of studying. That is when the thirst for knowledge really started to kick in.

Since then, I have hardly ever been without a book. Much like the lamb in the Mary Had a Little Lamb, nursery rhyme, no matter where; everywhere that [I] went, [my book] was sure to go.

I did eventually enroll in college, but my real education came from my studies on my own and through private tutoring by a very special and much learned man of letters.

After I had studied diligently for sometime under this man’s tutelage; some of my friends began to notice that I was changing, and becoming more articulate and well-rounded.

How I came to meet my mentor

Once some of my friends were talking about a certain very learned gentleman of letters they knew of, and how he just might be willing to teach one of us, if he thought we were serious students.

I knew about him, but not very much. His reputation was that of a somewhat mysterious man and a demanding teacher. Few people I spoke with knew much about him other than that he was well-known—in some circles at least—and a well-respected teacher of a certain liberal arts discipline that required excellent speaking, thinking, and writing abilities.

The more I thought about him, the more I thought, why not.

From that point on, there was no stopping me. I went to his home a few days later, hoping to see him; and see him I did.

After being with him just a short while I could see that he positively radiated kindness, wisdom, and knowledge, as if he were filled to overflowing with it all.

The upshot of this meeting was that he agreed to take me on as a private student. God bless him; when he looked on me he saw, not the untutored fellow I was, but a student worthy of his attention.

Soon I came to look upon him more as a mentor than as simply a teacher.

He was demanding of himself and of me

The curriculum he put me through was comparable to similar curriculums offered in university honors programs across the United States. Add to this the fact that I was privately tutored by this highly regarded teacher and you have a program that was easily superior to any anyone I knew had ever heard of being offered anywhere else.

I have related this little story to show my store, but also to show you what can happen when you apply yourself. The simple act of learning to speak English well will cause people to start seeing you in a different light. It is amazing the good things that can seemingly fall out of the sky for anyone who applies themselves diligently to the study of the humanities and the other liberal arts.

As you will see later, I believe the humanities, as that term is usually understood in academia and by much of the public at large, comprises less than half of what is needed for a well-rounded, classic liberal arts education.

Change is gradual

Since the changes are gradual, you may not notice them in yourself at first, but, as you become more proficient in the English language, other people will begin to take notice of how you have changed, and how you have become more literate, and . . . well, smarter. Then, slowly you will begin to notice that, when you read, your comprehension has become so much better, and that concepts that before would have been beyond your capacity to understand have now become clear. You will also notice that you are now able to retain more of what you read.

This brings me back once again to one of the primary reasons for an English speaker to gain a greater command of English.

Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English is not just an empty slogan. The better you understand and speak English; the better able you will be to think lucid, precise thoughts and this will allow you to live a longer, fuller, happier life.

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1. Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English (Part I)

Introduction to the English Language series

Part one of a three parts of Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English.

This series is about improving the reader’s knowledge and understanding of the various aspects of this superlative wonder we call the English Language. Good English language skills are basic to an English speaker’s ability to formulate clear thought images in their mind and turn them into clearly laid out concise thought constructs in verbal or written form.

Fortunately, English is not as difficult to learn as that last sentence is to understand.

Did that last sentence sound a little deep to you? Did you find it difficult to understand or perhaps even incomprehensible? Maybe you had to read it twice in order to understand it. If your answer to any of these questions is yes; take heart.

It may be that you were so unsure of the validity of all or a part of the sentence that your mind decided not to believe it or to at least suspend judgment. All of that going on in your mind could have made the sentence sound like a first cousin to gibberish; like the writing in the cuneiform script image depicted here would appear to be to most people, and that could have caused you to find it difficult to understand. In any event, it is a difficult sentence.

English is truly not as difficult to learn as that last sentence is to understand. All of us should review the basics of clear English once in a while.

I was thinking of Vince Lombardi as I wrote that last sentence. Maybe you, too, recall the story of how one day, when, as the then new head football coach at Green Bay, Wisconsin, he became so frustrated with what was going on with his players on the playing field that he blew the whistle and said, “Everybody stop and gather around.”

Then, kneeling down, he picked up the pigskin, and said, “Let’s start at the beginning. This is a football. These are the yard markers. I’m the coach. You are the players.” He went on, in the most elementary way, explaining the basics of football.

Like Vince’s players, let’s gather around so we can review how to speak clear English and stop confusion.

I don’t claim to be an accomplished linguist or grammarian

I make linguistic and grammatical mistakes sometimes when I speak and when I write. Even the most learned among us make the occasional error. Ordinarily, however, I speak and write clearer English than most people. Knowing my English is not perfect does not keep me from trying to better my own English language skills, or offering those of you who may need it, the fruit of my research into the writings of those who have a superior knowledge of the rules, acceptable usages, styles, vocabulary, spelling, et cetera.

The English Language files will include posts devoted to: English grammar, usage, vocabulary, etymology, spelling, and literature. An abundance of hyperlinks will be offered here-some might say offered ad nauseam—for words in the English Language files that I think that some readers, may have only a hazy understand of-here—I have in mind ESL readers.

I have already admitted that I make grammar and usage mistakes all too often when speaking and when writing. However, I do not see myself totally lacking in linguistic abilities. In fact, I have no doubt that my English is far better than that of the average college graduate; even those with a PhD of some sort. It was not ever thus, however. To paraphrase a wag, whose identity has been lost in the mists of time, I have come a long way, baby. There was a time when I did not know a verb from a predicate, or an adjective from an adverb, and I wasn’t all that sure of what a semicolon was or how to use it either. You see, I was a high school dropout.

If you have stayed with me and read this far, then you, too, are  interested in how to Stop Confusion; Speak Clear English and, thus, have a better life. Part II is just a click away.

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