Reading Recommendations

It’s not very funny or glamorous, but at the age of 15 or 16, I got hold of the book Gone with the Wind, and I felt as wilful as Scarlett O’Hara. Today I wouldn’t change places with her, but I often use her saying “Tomorrow is another day”, meaning self-encouragement, I can, and I will.

Tiiu Vitsut works as Public Engagement Specialist at the US Embassy in Tallinn. She was interviewed by EATE Committee members.

DEMYSTIFYING THE COMPLEX SPELLING OF ENGLISH

Kärt Roomäe MA student, University of Tartu

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style is an informal reference book written by Benjamin Dreyer, the copy chief of Random House USA Inc. The book was published in 2019 and it is meant for all language fans, including teachers and students. Thanks to its conversational style, clear of complex grammar terms, the book will spark students’ interest about topics typically considered boring, such as spelling.

The main title, Dreyer’s English, is a testament to the book’s subjective approach, where an experienced copy editor shares his practical knowledge rather than referencing theory. For example, in Ch. 6, Dryer admits that he has a dislike for grammar jargon and mentions the implicit knowledge of native speakers that is based on intuition, rather than on reciting rules.

The book is divided into two parts. The first is more philosophical, while the second includes lists of observations that could be used as a basis for home assignments and even dictations, and his honest opinion about the validity of common mistakes and interesting features of language. Dreyer admits that he too is unsure about some rules, such as comma usage when the word ‘too’ is ending a sentence. After giving two example sentences, he simply says, “I haven’t the foggiest. So to blazes with it.” (p. 32) He does not claim to know all the rules, making his statements trustworthy and his writing more approachable.

Dreyer’s use of second-person narrative is personal, engaging the reader (“you, dear reader” on p. xvi), and the style is not too formal; for example, he uses contracted forms. On pages xvii-xviii, he even writes, “Let’s get started.” The tone is thus conversational and resembles a dialogue. Dreyer is opinionated at times: his comment concerning the usage of apostrophes as plural markers deserves the following quote: “Step back, I’m about to hit the CAPS LOCK key.” (p. 36) Readers can identify references to three participants in the text: the narrator, the reader, and the editor (whose suggestions are named in some of the footnotes).

Chapter titles in Dreyer’s English are very literal, such as Ch. 3, “67 Assorted Things to Do (and Not to Do) with Punctuation”, where Dryer admits that punctuation marks are scary but necessary – the main problems will be discussed, but no comprehensive overview is provided, as some punctuation marks are rarely used. What is especially useful in terms of using this book for learning purposes is that correct and incorrect variants are set side-by-side with explanations. Numerous footnotes are easy to follow as they are provided at the bottom of the page, even though the symbols indicating them are easy to overlook at times. Issues that may come up when writing in English are listed, so that areas can be bookmarked for easy reference depending on the aspects your students are struggling with the most.

To give a few examples of the recommendations made by Dreyer, reading aloud may help to notice the strengths and weaknesses of your writing; ideally, we should not have to reread anything. We should also be critical about the rules instead of simply accepting them. Dreyer compares different ones, naming them the Four C’s and the Great Nonrules of English (p. 7). A useful parallel for students on the topic of colons is given: “Think of colons as little trumpet blasts, attention-getting and ear-catching. Also loud.” (p. 35) He emphasizes that people understand our writing differently, “[o]ne person’s clarity is another person’s ‘Huh?’” (p. 26) He also suggests typing a paragraph manually rather than copying and pasting from the Internet to better feel the text (p. 45). Furthermore, Dryer makes a generalization that the most important thing about our writing is to be “logical and consistent” (p. 103). I agree in the sense that even in the case of some grammatical mistakes and misspelled words, if our writing is coherent and cohesive, the reader will understand the message.

In Ch. 7, the basics of good storytelling are described, and while some of the comments are perhaps too technical for non-native speakers, it offers a good chance to think about the commonly used expressions, such as ‘nodding your head’ and ‘shrugging shoulders’, wherein redundant parts are in italics. Fiction can be deceiving too: as it turns out, murmuring and hoarse whispering are not as common as it seems from fiction. Dreyer moreover introduces some interesting observances about the changes happening in the English language. For instance, fewer punctuation marks are used (p. 21). Did you also know that in the case of ‘website’, the original term was ‘Web site’ with the intermediate hyphenated ‘Web-site’, a change in spelling reflecting the importance of the frequency of use? The author points out how conventions have changed regarding inner monologue, and whether it requires quotation marks (p. 119).

The second part starts by naming some of the most often misspelled words, even though the author has left out their definitions. Dreyer says that while “no one expects you to memorize the spelling of every word in the notoriously irregular, unmemorizable English language,” (p. 130) being able to spell is “a commendable skill” (ibid.). It should be noted here that non-native English speakers have likely less trouble with words like dilemma, memento, and weird, as we are taught with a specific focus on linguistic structures that may receive little attention at schools in the case of native speakers of English. Some attention is also paid to suffixes, such as classic/classical on p. 177, a feature especially relevant in the context of exam preparation, just like words lay/lie (p. 192-194). Ch. 12 has an appropriate title, ‘The Trimmables,’ indicating words that can be omitted, e.g., ‘absolutely certain’, similarly to ‘fall down’ on p. 245.

Ch. 10 shows that sometimes the word we use is wrong in that specific context, a play on phonetics, e.g. allude/elude on p. 169. Some points are more advanced than others, such as the difference between appraise/apprise, and do not necessarily deserve attention in our context. The explanations are sometimes funny, but hopefully this will help students remember the differences. What classifies this book as a rewarding read is the multitude of examples from different books such as The Great Gatsby, Bleak House, and The Hobbit. However, some comments are focused on American context, and might be unfamiliar to an Estonian reader: for example, there is a discussion about US state abbreviations on envelopes and Dreyer calls himself a “patriotic American” who favors series comma (to find out why not Oxford or serial, turn to p. 24).