When beginning this blog, my intention was to explore the language that peppers social activism discussions these days. Terms such as virtue signaling, manufacturing consent, false flags, being woke and right to protect were mostly new to me. Instead, the writing was sidetracked and I learned an important lesson along the way.
FAIR WARNING – RANT ADVISORY!
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It’s time for a little spring cleaning in the writing department; a bit of a re-boot with the goal of improving clarity, succinctness and impact in what I write. Along with some answers to the proper use of seemingly similar words such as though and although, I’ve discovered a few, new-to-me, rules of the English language.
Recently I came across “The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase” by Mark Forsyth. He explains that adjectives in English ABSOLUTELY have to be in this order: opinion – size – age – shape – colour – origin – material – purpose, noun. So, you can have a lovely, little, old, rectangular, green, French, silver, whittling knife. He warns that if you mess with that word order in the slightest, you’ll sound like a maniac. The order seems somewhat instinctual but I haven’t put it to the test with my own writing yet. I do know that ‘brown, lazy, dog’ doesn’t sound right and that, as size comes before colour, a green, great, dragon can’t exist. Read more
Would Shakespeare approve of the world’s new digital communication?
I’m a wordie who, curiously, has never used the word before now. It’s a recent addition to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary along with sub-tweet, life-hack and casual approximations of speech such as hmm, ooh, and mm-hmm. All nods to our ever-evolving lexicon.
Deciphering Shakespeare’s early English vernacular in high school helped me see communication in a new way. He was a wordie as well, creating hundreds of words and often shortening others to suit his poetic writings. ‘Tis, oft and o’er are familiar shortened words while ope and gi may require a google check but the spelling is correct. Read more