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Better English 101
Tips For Communicating Better
Vol. I, No. 15 ISSN 1939-5795
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In this issue
-- MISPRONOUNCED OR MISUSED
-- BE DASHING!
-- FREE--THE COMPLETE NEW YORKER

Let's start with a winning anecdote. For me, that's one that I can always count on. Everybody should have some dependable stories within his arsenal--the kind that never fail you. You may want to use a variation of the six-year-old Kevin story when you need a good one.

His parents were amazed at his turnaround since they transferred him to a Catholic school. Woke up on time, did his home work as soon as he got home, went to bed early, never complained about the teachers or other students.

After a week of this new, remarkably positive attitude about school, they decided that they should...well, see what was really going on. One night at dinner, they asked about his changed mood.

"Well," he explained, "I knew they weren't playing on the first day when I looked up on the wall and saw what they had done to that little guy on the plus sign."

MISPRONOUNCED OR MISUSED
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 If it's your grandmother, you don't want to correct her. In fact, you probably don't want to correct any adult. If you do, please use tact, and not a tack.

Here's my latest list of words either mispronounced or misused far too frequently.

Dais is the platform where the commencement speaker is sitting. Dias was a fifteenth century Portuguese navigator.

The gist (JIST) is the central idea, not jest, which is a prank.

Please ask; don't aks him.

Athlete is two (ATH-leet), not three syllables, despite their salaries.

It's really business, and not bidness--even if a monkey is involved.

In Vegas they are card sharps, not card sharks that probably require water.

The cavalry fight on horseback while Calvary is the hill outside of ancient Jerusalem.

It's a chest of drawers, not chester drawers.

The accent is on the second syllable (eh-LEC-toral), not the third syllable of electoral; same for mayoral and pastoral. It's also not electorial.

You would think it's the Klu Klux Klan, but it's really the Ku Klux Klan that won't go away.

"Often" really is pronounced "ofen." Pronouncing the "t" only makes you pompously wrong.

Now don't get persnickety when you should be pernickety!

BE DASHING!
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 Add some spice to your writing with the use of the dash. Have you noticed that only the most competent writers--and many advertising copywriters--use that flourishing horizontal symbol regularly? Doesn't it look good? Well you can look good too! Here's how:

First, understand that the dash has two meanings:

1. A break in thought

2. A symbol for the phrase, "that is"

Here are some examples used by our 85-year-old author, Emilie Betts in her memoir, "Shadows In My House of Sunshine." Heck, she's a kid around here; we've published memoirs by three men over the age of 95!

--A Break in thought:

"It was pure ecstasy--a full-skirted white taffeta gown set off with rhinestone shoulder straps."

"I'm grounded for the whole summer--recuperating before I go to college."

--Symbol for "that is":

"This was the big event of the season--a black tie Junior Assembly held at the Saucon Valley Country Club."

"This was the main event--my chance at recognition."

What a beautiful tool at your disposal! And imagine how neat it looks in hand-written letters and notes.

Here is the Amazon link to Emilie's memoir

There are some technical issues to be aware of. You should type two hyphens together to produce the dash, like this: word--word word 2.

This also illustrates the practice that most editors prefer--that the dash touches the word before it and the word after it.

In Word, if you hit the space key after "word" in the illustration above, the two hyphens will turn into one em dash straight line.

In other words, you would type "word hyphen hyphen word space." Hit the space bar after the "d" in "word."

An automated way in Word is to go to "Insert," then to "symbol," and insert the dash symbol.

FREE--THE COMPLETE NEW YORKER
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Since Sidney Offit and I have just released "Memoir Writing Secrets." I' m offering a prize for the first U.S. subscriber to this list who buys a memoir kit.

I'll send a brand new copy of "The Complete New Yorker" to the winner.

"The Complete New Yorker," with introduction by David Remnick, consists of eight DVD-ROMs, 4,109 issues, and half a million pages of the "New Yorker" from 1925 to 2005. A companion volume is included. The list price is $100. This is brand new with a tiny quarter- inch dent on the slipcase caused by an inattentive postal worker.

You will need Windows 2000 or XP or Mac OS X 10.3 and above.

This offers goes out at approximately 2 p.m on Thursday, November 15, 2007. If you are the first, I'll send you a notice by email in order to get your mailing address.

Click here for more on the memoir kit


Best wishes,
Barry Beckham


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