Monday, February 25, 2008

Words

I am a word guy. I don't have a vocabulary that reaches to the moon and back. I don't know the modern names for all grammatical constructs in English. But I like words and the way they hang together. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about them. And I respect them as the tools that they are.

When flagrant usage makes the little hairs on the back of my neck go stiff, I often bite my tongue lest I become too preachy. It is far better, in my opinion, to master a smallish repertoire of words and constructs than to continually misuse a wide variety of them. Unless your verbal misuse is purposeful, its effect can be only negative, either by causing misunderstanding or by making you sound far less educated than you probably are.

If you see bad usage in these posts, and you undoubtedly will, feel free to comment. I like getting educated!

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