@marillo Globe-News: Books: Questions from Amarillo College students 4/26/98

Posted: Sunday, April 26, 1998

Web posted Sunday, April 26, 1998 9:25 a.m. CT

Questions from Amarillo College students





AC prof TOM HODGES suggested (is that the right word?) that his students read, and write a letter to, Word for Word. Here in brief are questions and answers: from KAREN LOMAX, who has been out of school for 10 ten years: Q: "Why is proper usage so easy to forget." A: I never use the term "proper" for grammar or usage; I prefer "conventional," though the difference is slight.

BRIAN ROSKELLY, Q: Are women making too much of sexism in English? A: The question is too big for a short answer, but . . . no, probably not. ROSALYN FRAZIER, Q: I have gone 21 years without the flu or a flu shot, and - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." A: Better to rely on your good sense than on slogans or bumper-sticker philosophy. If I can have the flu, no one is safe.

BRAD SNYDER, Q: Why does English have so many different words that sound the same and sometimes are even spelled the same, such as "their" and "there," "weather" and "whether"? A. Poor planning. The ship of English has no captain; it is steered by a rowdy crew. NICOLE BORN, Q: "What is the appropriate spelling of "you all"? A: That depends: "You all understand the quadratic equation." but, "Where y'all been anyhow?"

TERRI MOWERY, Q: "What did you think of the movie 'Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet'?" A: I missed it - and almost every other movie since 1951. Reviews suggest that the makers strayed too far from the original.

NOLAN LANHAM, Q: A comment rather than a question: "Amarillo can be a pretty tough town if it has to be." MICHELLE LINDSEY, Q: "Why should commas be such a big deal?" A: Even the least of these has its purpose. If we lose the comma, can the colon be far behind? AMARI HUTCHERSON: She says she misunderstood a line from Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. How could that have happened? She thought "I get knocked down" was "I get no time."

MICHAEL PARMLEY, Q: "Does it destroy literature to make it gender neutral?" A: No. We strive for equality, fairness; but we cannot reshape the past to accommodate our present standards. NATHAN ROSSON, in reading W for W, wonders "if you get carried away on occasion." As he sees it, "The only people who speak perfect in this world are English professors and teachers."

A: Yes, NATHAN, every writer, sitting down to the task, hopes to be carried away, not by the fellows in white coats, but by the power of an idea, unfolding from its mysterious source onto the screen. If a writer never slips "overboard," as you put it, she's staying too far from the edge.

Thanks, students. Your questions deserve fuller answers than I can give here.

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Barbara Botello wonders whether there's justification for using "should" in place of "if" as a subordinator: Example: "Should it rain, we'll move inside." She believes the "should" sounds pompous. Probably so.

I'm not sure "pompous" is the right word, but the "should" does sound unnatural - formal, archaic, legalistic, British, perhaps, rather than American. I would avoid it, as I would any expression that calls attention to itself at the expense of meaning.

In her column in a law firm publication, Barbara also reviews a book by Padraic Spense. Spense writes that "muddled writing is often the product of trying to think, write, and edit at the same time."

Each should be a separate step, he writes. Yes, I agree that editing should be a separate operation, but thinking and writing have a reciprocating effect that often generates the best of writing. - Barbara's thinking tells her she's ready for camping season.

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Joe McWilliams, Plainview, sent a headline from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal - "Lady Westerners topple Landy Sandies." The intent was to say "Lady Sandies," but, writes Joe, on such a windy, dusty, sandy day, both teams would be "'landy' - ha, ha!"

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Our fruit trees, especially the cherry, and lilac bush have never bloomed more profusely. Thank El Nino?



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