Are You Annoyingly Redundant?

The grammar tip o'the week comes courtesy of "Grammar Girl," who asks an apt question: Are you annoyingly redundant? If you say (or write) later this year or earlier this week, future plans or past history, or "please RSVP" you just might be.

How about these?

In the Process of

One such phrase to excise from your writing is “in the process of,” as in, “My kids are in the process of driving me crazy.” Delete it, and you have, “My kids are driving me crazy.” Anytime you see “in the process of,” take it out and check to see whether any meaning is lost. You’ll save your fingers thousands of superfluous keystrokes over a few decades. (Notice we didn’t need to say “a period of a few decades.”)

Whether or not

Another quick way to trim a couple of words at a time from your writing (and your speech) is to keep an eye on the “whether” – the “whether or not,” that is. I can’t decide whether or not to bring my umbrella. Lose the “or not”in that instance, and you’re fine. Just don’t lose your umbrella.

check out more tips (and be sure to read the comments)

Clarisse McClellan Remade

Some movie adaptations of novels (called "palimpsests") are better than others. In 1966, French director Francois Truffaut adapted Fahrenheit 451 to the silver screen. You can judge for yourself, but many would call the adaptation "abysmal." During the 20th century, directors unfortunately took grave liberties with the original novels -- not only failing to capture the essence of the novel, but actually distorting it. That's exactly what Truffaut does with Bradbury's classic story. Most notably, Clarisse McClellan, the "inciting force" in Fahrenheit 451, is transformed into Guy Montag's "mistress," thereby gutting the virtue and attraction of her character. The "trailer" for the 1966 movie is worth watching if only for its sheer corniness. Note how the "Hapiness Boys" are dressed (see above).

N.B. If you would like to arrange an extra credit writing assignment that contrasts the movie with the novel, please see me!

Addendum: A new adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 is planned for release in 2012. It promises to be more faithful to the novel.

A Retrieved Reformation

For your edification, I have posted an exemplary short-story analysis of O. Henry's "A Retrieved Reformation." This should give you an idea of the level and thoroughness of work I expect on this type of assignment.

In PDF format: Analysis -- "A Retrieved Reformation"

Word of the Decade Nominations Open

At the American Dialect Society annual meeting in Baltimore next January, not only will the Society choose Words of the Year just past (2009), but members and friends will also have the solemn responsibility of choosing a Word of the Decade 2000–2009.

Nominations may be sent to the chair of the ADS New Words Committee, Grant Barrett, at woty@americandialect.org. The committee will hold an open meeting to consider nominations on Thursday, January 7, 2010, with the final vote the next day.

Candidates will include the ADS Word of the Year for each year, though the choice for Word of the Decade need not be limited to them. Some of them pervaded the whole decade, but others characterized only their particular year. These were the Words of the Year, many of which now require explanation:

2000 chad, a small scrap of paper punched from a voting card.

2001 9/11, terrorist attacks on September 11.

2002 weapons of mass destruction or WMD, sought for (without success) in Iraq.

2003 metrosexual, fashion-conscious heterosexual male.

2004 red/blue/purple states, red favoring conservative Republicans and blue favoring liberal Democrats, as well as the undecided purple states in the political map of the United States.

2005 truthiness, what one wishes to be the truth regardless of the facts. (From the Colbert Report on television.)

2006 to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued, as was the former planet Pluto.

2007 subprime, a risky or less than ideal loan or investment.

2008 bailout, rescue by government of companies on the brink of failure.

The American Dialect Society was established in 1889 to study the English language in North America. It has been choosing Words of the Year since 1990, and Words of the Decade since 2000. In 2000 the Word of the Decade was web. (That year the Society also chose Word of the Century, jazz, and Word of the Millennium, she.)

More information on Words of the Year is available at the American Dialect Society website, http://www.americandialect.org/woty/

Background on Ray Bradbury

Here are a couple of resources you may find helpful in completing your data sheets for you summer reading of Fahrenheit 451. The first is an introduction to the novel and the author that I put together for the Middle School class last Spring.

Fahrenheit 451 - An Introduction (PDF)

The second is Ray Bradbury's official website: RAY

By way of trivia, Bradbury is the only living author we'll be studying this year. (Arthur Miller died four years ago.) If you liked F451, you might want to read Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, and Dandelion Wine.

The 'Third Man' Phenomenon

Some of you have seen the excellent movie The Third Man (1950). Well, here's a "third man" of a different sort: Today's Wall Street Journal carries a review of an interesting new book called The Third Man Factor:

In 1953, Austrian mountaineer Herman Buhl became the first person to climb Nanga Parbat in the ­Himalayas—at 26,660 feet, the ninth tallest peak in the world. He climbed by himself and not far from the summit was forced to spend the night out in the open without a sleeping bag or tent. It was an agonizing ­bivouac, but Buhl survived—in part, he later wrote, ­because he sensed that he shared the ordeal with a ­companion. "I had an extraordinary feeling," he wrote, "that I was not alone."

Accounts of experiencing a supportive presence in extreme situations—sometimes called the "third-man phenomenon"—are common in mountaineering ­literature. In 1933, Frank Smythe made it to within a 1,000 feet of the summit of Mount Everest before ­turning around. On the way down, he stopped to eat a mint cake, cutting it in half to share with . . . someone who wasn't there but who had seemed to be his ­partner all day. Again on Nanga Parbat, on a 1970 climb during which his brother died, Reinhold Messner ­recalled being accompanied by a companion who ­offered ­wordless comfort and encouragement.

In "The Third Man Factor," John Geiger, a fellow at the University of Toronto, presents many accounts of such experiences, and not only from climbers. Among those who have felt a ghostly companionship he cites Charles Lindbergh on his solo flight across the ­Atlantic in 1927 and the last man to walk out of the South Tower of the World Trade ­Center before it ­collapsed on 9/11.

read on at WSJ...

Blackjack Country

We noted today that Elmore, Arkansas, is -- according to O. Henry -- located in "blackjack country." From the context of "A Retrieved Reformation" we understand that the phrase connotes a backwoods, out-of-the-way place. With a little research I found that 18th century farmers

recognized the poorer soils in the blackjack country of the eastern uplands, so called because of the predominance of blackjack oak, a small, scrubby, thick-barked tree especially suited to poor soils.

The upshot: observant farmers would not settle in blackjack country because the soil was poor; thus "blackjack country" is typically a sparsely populated region -- or, at least it was in the early 1900's.

The Apostrophe Protection Society

The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.

When I inquired into becoming a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society, Chairman Richards informed me there is no "membership" as such; however, he did send along a form letter that he sends out to businesses when he receives a complaint that they've misused or have failed to use an apostrophe appropriately. The good chairman says we may send out this form letter (under your own name, of course) with the APS letterhead.

I'm making the form letter on APS letterhead available in Microsoft Word (.doc):
Click here

N.B. -- Extra Credit Opportunity: If you happen to notice a public sign (say, in a shop window or in front of a restaurant) that misuses the apostrophe -- or simply doesn't include it, send the business the form letter, describing the offense. Copy me on the letter and you'll receive up to 10 points extra credit per letter (with a maximum of 5 letters per quarter).