by
LILA FRAIZER
Editing submissions: How many times do we go through our writing before we submit? How many times do we read right past something we should not use? We know the rules; don't use LY words, don't use SO, or VERY, or REALLY. The way I do it is to write and then go back to examine what I've written. Only sometimes I get caught up in the story and forget to watch for style. Thank heaven we have good critique persons to catch these things before we publish. My latest discovery about my own writing was the repitition of "one day," "one night," transitions, like the old "Meanwhile back at the ranch" cliché. I've also decided that it might be a good idea to reread Strunk and White's Elements of Style every six months or so.
Things change, however. It used to be considered wrong to use MAD to mean angry, or DUMB to mean stupid, is it still wrong? Here's one I didn't know about until Andy Rooney brought it up in a column on English language usage. TRANSPIRE doesn't mean "happen," it means "become known." My American Heritage Dictionary says the meaning "to happen" or "to take place" has come into usage recently, and though widespread is unacceptable. But English is a living language, I suspect one of these days it will be acceptable to use "transpire" to mean "to happen."
One error of usage which bothers me is using GOOD as an adverb instead of an adjective. Remember a character in a TV series who used to say, "you done good?" It may help to define his character but it sounds terrible. WELL and GOOD, CAN and MAY, these are problems for all children as they learn to use the language. Do you think they are problems for people coming to this country who are learning English as a second language?
Another bothersome usage to me is the use of WHICH when referring to people. Is this just my own quirk? I think when referring to people we should use WHO. (I know, this could make the Lord's Prayer awkward for me except that I memorized "which" long before I thought about language usage.) My dictionary makes a big case for usage relative to WHICH or THAT, not WHICH or WHO. If you want to study this whole thing more deeply, look up WHO, WHICH, THIS, THAT. Maybe it will come clear for you, it didn't for me.
Here are some phrases we don't want to use: "in order to," "the fact that," "as to whether," "as good or better than," "different than," "due to," and another, new for me, "those folks" is considered racist, meaning black people who are different or separate.
Whatever words we use, let's pray that are the words God wants us to use.