Vol. 70, No. 12, December
1997
In Plain English
Pet Peeves of Improper English Usage
Father's English usage pet peeves rub off on author,
who's developed a few of her own.
By Mary Barnard Ray
- Yes, it is me.
- The author infers that the five previous cases were incorrectly
reasoned.
- I am nauseous at the thought of rewriting.
- This total is different than the total I calculated.
- He made a verbal promise, but put nothing in writing.
- The training of new employees routinely covered the importance of washing
off hands before returning to work.
If I used any of these phrases in my father's house, I always received
either a barked-out correction or a patient lecture. My father was an English
teacher of the Old School. In the ranking of transgressions against family
honor, grammar and usage errors fell somewhere below stealing but above
insolence. So naturally I was the only child in my first grade class who
could use who and whom properly. Just as naturally, I was
naive enough to explain this to my new classmates. Once.
At that time, I learned that being aware of your audience is more important
to communication than grammatical correctness. I subsequently tried to convince
my father of this point. Twice. This provided me with a reinforcing experience
related to the importance of being aware of your audience.
Thus I became an English teacher with pet peeves that I am too polite
to mention - except to my students, my children and the safely anonymous
readers of this column.
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Mary Barnard Ray is a legal writing lecturer and director of the Legal
Writing Individualized Instruction Services at the U.W. Law School. She
has taught writing workshops and offered individual sessions for law students;
she also taught advanced writing and commenting and conferencing techniques
in the training course for the legal writing teaching assistants. She has
taught and spoken nationally at many seminars and conferences of legal and
college writing instructors. Her publications include two coauthored legal
writing books, Getting It Right and Getting It Written and Beyond
the Basics, published by West Publishing Co.
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Technically, use I after any form of the verb to be in the
sentence. The reasoning behind this is that to be is a linking verb,
the verbal equivalent of an equal sign (=). Thus a linking verb makes the
object of the verb equivalent to the subject, and thus I is the appropriate
form. Use me when you are the recipient of an action (direct object)
or the recipient of an object that receives the action (indirect object).
- Yes, it is I. You may give me that confidential message
over the telephone.
Some grammarians have given up on teaching this distinction, but they
still remember it. So you will earn grammar status points with any of them
when you get it right.
Use imply when referring to the writer, document or other entity
that makes the indirect suggestion or expression. Use infer when
referring to the reader or entity that interprets that indirect suggestion
or expression from the communication.
- I inferred that you were implying a failure on her part.
Use nauseated when you mean that something makes you feel sick.
Saying you are nauseous would mean that you make others feel sick.
- I was nauseated because the smell of cooking milk is nauseous
to me.
The clearest choice with different is to use different from.
Although some sources allow different than when it is used elliptically
to replace a longer phrase, like than that in which it is ..., none
of the examples I have seen make sense or seem like necessary constructions.
In contrast, all sources say different from is a correct choice.
- Minnesota law on this point is different than Wisconsin law.
Misuse of verbal is rampant and could create serious ambiguities
in some legal situations. For that reason, this error rises above the usual
level of concern. Verbal means using words, in contrast to nonverbal.
Oral is the word that contrasts with written. Thus the correct
wording would be as follows.
- He made an oral promise, but put nothing in writing. She responded
nonverbally, nodding her head but saying nothing.
Finally, as my father used to say, "If you wash off your
hands, what will you use to hold your fork?" (I really do not recommend
saying this to your children, although you will be tempted.)
- I am going to wash my hands so I can wash off the germs.
Do you have some pet peeves of your own? If so, here's your chance to
have your say. Send your top pet peeves to: Ms. Ray, c/o Wisconsin Lawyer,
P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158. We'll include a selection of your
peeves in a future column.
If you have a writing problem that you can't resolve,
send your question to Ms. Ray, c/o Wisconsin Lawyer, State Bar of
Wisconsin, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158. Or, email
your question. Your question and Ms. Ray's response will be published
in this column. Readers who object to their names being mentioned should
state so in their letters.
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