It was an ordinary day. Wondering if Mrs. Eisenhart, my favorite high school English teacher, will be rolling over in her grave after finding out what I am about to share with you. I had Mrs. Eisenhart as my English teacher in 11th grade and still vividly remember the day I had to stand in front of my class and read something I had written as an exercise in writing and speaking. I wrote a story about playing football when I was in 9th grade and when I reached the part where one of my friends broke his leg, I was interrupted when Mrs. Eisenhart banged her hand on her desk and said, "That is not a proper word!" The class got silent except for a few of my friends who I could tell were laughing. What word did I add to my story that caused the outburst ... the word "busted." If you "Google" it today, you may find that it is listed as slang for smashed or broken, but back in 1960, it more than likely wasn't a word as of yet ... at least in Mrs. Eisenhart's class.
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This may be a Middle School book, but
it has helped me with basic English.
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Out of all the memories I have of being in high school, the memory of that fateful day in English class is probably on the top of my list of memories along with the memory of my homeroom classmates that would pay me to read the Bible verse for them in homeroom before the start of the day, as was the custom, and perhaps law, in mid-20th Century. Well, much has changed since the 60s and the English language, believe it or not, is one of them. Today I could use my "busted" and not be yelled for using it. A few of the many rules that have changed are: (1) Don't end sentences with stranded prepositions. You can now say things such as, "Where is this bus taking us to?" or "How long will we be going for?" Boy would I have heard it for doing that years ago, but not anymore. (2) Don't split infinitives. When Captain Kirk, of Star Trek fame, said, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", the adverb 'boldly' is said to split the infinitive 'to go.' And, that was a "NO-NO" in Mrs. Eisenhart's class, but acceptable today. (3) Never begin a sentence with a conjunction. Conjunctions such as "and, but, not, yet, so and nor" should not be used to start a sentence. But, it seems since writing is communication, clarity can only be a virtue. And, didn't the Bible use plenty of them, such as: And God said, 'Let there be light.' and there was light. But, I still would have been in trouble in my English class. (4) Another rule is never start a sentence with 'hopefully', such as: "Hopefully, the taxi will arrive soon."
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This is one of my favorite books when I
am writing. Even though it looks as if it
were written by a relative, Geraldine is
not a relative, just a help with my English. |
This is one adverb that my English teacher said should not be used to start a sentence. Not sure why, but it was verboten. (5) Clichés should be avoided like the plague. Even thought they can be an easy way to express yourself, they are for the lazy person when writing something. If you're not sure what a cliché may be, here are a few examples: Never a dull moment, Sands of time, Long arm of the law, Cool as a cucumber, Writing on the wall and Hook, line and sinker. I recently read the 5 easy ways to improve your grammar which I found to be easy in themselves. They were: (1) Learn the parts of speech, (2) Read all the time, (3) Listen to how others speak, (4) Play grammar and word games, and (5) Take a class. I'm sure Mrs. Eisenhart would be thrilled if I did. And, if you have been correcting my English grammar while reading this story, just keep it to yourself, since I know darn well there have been plenty of mistakes. But, (did you catch that mistake?) if Mrs. Eisenhart were still alive today she would be so proud of me for having written this blog for over 10 years now. Even though it is filled with grammatical as well as spelling mistakes, she would have been proud. But, I no longer have anyone to correct me when I make a mistake. And, may God bless your soul, Mrs. Eisenhart and I'm sorry for saying so many nasty things about you! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Yes, I do know my story title is incorrect!
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