Thread: How Good Are You?

How good are you with your grammar?

From the scale of 1 - 5 (5 being tops in English grammar), tell us your number. Be honest now.

I am a 3.

__

4 or 5

I'm currently sitting on first-class honours in both English and history in my college. Two completely disparate subjects which have different demands. English asks of a person the ability to analyse works. History requires concision in answering questions.

From what my tutors and professors have told me, I'm inclined to say -- at the risk of sounding conceited -- that my grammar is a five.

Sam - You are being taught history the wrong way. I was too. I can remember trying in every history course to steer class discussion toward an analysis of why, not just what. I can remember only one teacher, a junior instructor, who followed that line and, interestingly enough, always included references to the literature of whatever time we were studying. The old tenured professors taught history the way you are talking about, so I had to do a lot of studying on my own to find out why the difference in French and English cultures allowed Henry to come away winner after doing so many things wrong against a superior force. He should never have reached the field at Agincourt, much less won a battle there. You have to dig a lot deeper than the concise answers you mention to understand what happened.

As for grammar, I would never rate myself higher than a 3, moderately competent. This is why I keep Fowler at my elbow at all times, and a 2nd edition Hewings (from the younger university) as well.

I pursued a strange course. Instead of a double major, English and History, I was enrolled as a history major and separately as an English major. I was granted a BA in English and one semester later a BA in history. That also meant I had two minors, philosophy and economics.

I think I'm a 4.5 to a 5. I usually ignore the rules of grammar, though. But I know them! ha.

A 6. I should have been an English teacher.

I'm going to go with a four. I'm an English major, but my handle on grammar is mostly instinctive. Most likely as a result of copious amounts of reading.

Originally Posted by Fox80

A 6. I should have been an English teacher.

Hehe, your grammar might be good, but your counting skills need some work.

Either his counting skills or his modesty.

All right, all right. I am actually very self-conscious and modest, even deprecating toward myself and my abilities. But I do utilize grammar properly. And I used to be an accountant; believe it or not, 1-5 can include 6.

My, such modesty we should appreciate. Which are we to 'believe it or not', that you used to be an accountant, or that 1-5 can include 6? The misuse of qualifying parenthetical expressions is a common error. Don't feel bad about it.

I understood what he meant well enough. How should he have phrased it, if you don't mind my asking?

I won't. And try not to feel bad about your error regarding the codicil.

One way would be, 'I used to be an accountant, and, believe it or not, 1-5 can include 6. Expressing it this way would remove any doubt as to the meaning. A more emphatic way of expressing it would be, 'Believe it or not, 1-5 can include 6. I know because I used to be an accountant.'

This is one reason I tell students in my workshops never to use parenthetical expressions in broadcast stories and to use them with caution in newspaper accounts. Such expressions are grammatically isolated from the principal structure of the sentence and often can be seen as pointing in either direction. For broadcast, of course, the primary problem with such expressions is that they interrupt the flow of the sentence and can cause the listener, often distracted by what's going on around him, to lose the sense of the story.

No error in the codicil. My grandsons understand why it must be as it is.

I'm double majoring in journalism and English, so you'd think I'd say five, but I'll give myself a four. Even though I work as a copy editor, I don't have a full grasp of the finer points of grammar. When it comes to the names of things, though, I'm completely hopeless. I watched "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" the other day, hoping to boost my self esteem, but I couldn't answer the second-grade grammar question because I didn't know what a possessive noun was. I can use the hell out of them though, and that's all that matters, right?