Welcome once again to the Hugoversity library!
Each month, our prefects review a book on the theme of PR and marketing to help our students expand their knowledge. This month, Captain Grammar had a recap with Troublesome Words, by Bill Bryson.
What’s it all about?
The English language is, as the title says, full of troublesome words; weird spellings and double meanings abound, and don’t even get us started on pronouncing ‘ough’.
Bryson’s book, originally meant as a guide for journalists, offers a thorough yet humorous take on some of the common mistakes everyone makes, with examples from national newspapers, grammar guides and recognised authorities.
But what does this have to do with PR and marketing, you may be thinking? Well, lots. If you want to communicate, you need to make it easy for your audience.
As Bryson notes, in a lesson that should be applied to all written content, “No reader should ever be required to retrace his steps, however short the journey”.
Order, order
The overarching theme to the whole book is to accept that the English language and its attendant rules are complicated, meaning that the vast majority of people will not have “a familiarity with the intricacies of grammar”.
Bryson has little time for pedants and purists, arguing instead that “too often… the notion of good English has less to do with expressing ideas clearly than with making words conform to some arbitrary pattern”.
That’s not to say he doesn’t care about correct usage, conceding that “anything that helps to bring order to the engaging unruliness that is our language is, almost by definition, a good thing”.
As such, while Bryson argues against the prevailing notion that split infinitives are always bad (they’re not), he’s all in favour of retaining some rules, such as “preserving the distinction between… ‘imply’ and ‘infer’, ‘forego’ and ‘forgo’, ‘flout’ and ‘flaunt’”.
Dictionary corner
The bulk of the book is made up of a compendium of troublesome words, in alphabetical order, but it’s so much more than that.
Instead, it’s an entertaining ride through some of the most common myths and mistakes made in the English language, with no blushes spared; The Times, The Observer and The Independent are all singled out for their errors.
The book also puts to bed some of the most enduring myths from our school days, such as never splitting an infinitive and never starting a sentence with and…
Indeed, “The belief that and should not be used to begin a sentence is without foundation. And that’s all there is to it,” Bryson writes.
The book finishes with a glossary, prefaced by the admission that grammatical terms are “largely notional and often extremely vague”.
However, it does serve to clarify some of the terms used throughout the book – it’s there if you need it.
So, what did we think?
Bryson may be best known for his travel writing, but started his career as a sub-editor, the grammar goblin responsible for making sure newspaper copy is clear and easy to read.
His passion for words shines through, and, while no stickler for arbitrary rules, he makes a compelling case for those words where some sort of order is needed – the difference between will and would, for example, or who and whom.
For anyone whose business is communication, it’s a humorous, informative read, although be prepared – no matter how good your grammar or savvy your spelling, you’re almost certain to find you’ve been doing something ‘wrong’!
