National Newspaper Week: Why grammar is important

I don't remember exactly when Grammar Moses was born, but I do recall administering regular quizzes to the small group of people with whom I worked when I adopted my first editing job at the Daily Herald 24 years ago.

I was working with people who were new to journalism, and they needed a little coaching on the finer points of grammar, sentence structure, homonyms, spelling. Well, the whole ball of wax.

But they didn't groan too much. In fact, they seemed to enjoy them.

The earliest “Grammar Moses” memos that I can find date back 11 or 12 years. They had small audiences at first — those I oversaw directly — and then larger ones as my responsibilities here grew.

Grammar Moses, if you haven't already surmised, is my play on the name of famous American folk artist Grandma Moses. I shouldn't have been shocked to learn a few years ago that other self-styled grammarians have come up with that moniker independent of me*.

Before I go further (not farther), I should point out that I've always been fascinated with the etymology of words. I learned to read a year or more before my kindergarten brethren, largely by looking at Cheerios boxes and newspapers.

And I appreciate order. I found my four years of class in the regimented German language under Dolores Hudson at Prospect High School to be a blast.

But I was not a genius at grammar. And I still have miles to go.

In high school I was lousy at parsing sentences; my score on the English portion of the ACT was my lowest.

But I was born curious. I'm as intrigued about language as much as most journalists are curious about the world around them.

So I study it. I reinforce and learn as much about the English language each day as most of the people who read Grammar Moses. That's because I need to get it right.

So, why spend time almost every single work day coming up with a Grammar Moses memo?

First, because I hate it when we get things wrong — either factually or grammatically.

News today is much faster paced than when I started. We write for several different platforms. Instead of one or two print deadlines, right now is the deadline. And a minute from now. All day long. Not every word we write goes past the eyes of three or four editors as it did decades ago. Not when readers expect it now.

So everyone needs to be adept at conveying his or her thoughts accurately and concisely.

If readers are to trust us — and we certainly hope that you do — then we need to get it right. One can infer (not imply) that if we use sloppy language our facts are sloppy, too.

Newspapers should provide clarity and understanding in your life. One reason reporters tend to be such smarty-pants (or is it smarty-pantses?) is that they learn to take the specialized language of any field of endeavor and distill it into easily understandable English. We slay jargon like dragons when we do our jobs well.

A cop should be able to understand, at least in basic terms, what a veterinarian does. And vice versa.

A misplaced modifier can change completely the meaning of a sentence. Weak verbs can rob a narrative of its drama. Poor word choice can peel away the nuance of a writer's efforts.

I can go on for days. And I will — with our staff.

In an age when most day-to-day communication is composed with thumbs and abbreviations of abbreviations and emoticons are the accepted norm, it is comforting to know we all still strive to get it right, to communicate with clarity and nuance.

Because you never know when a curious young child or someone for whom English is something new will pick up the paper and try to sound out the words and use that as the bedrock for his life's endeavors.

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National Newspaper Week

A variety of Daily Herald editors and writers discussed their views on the role of the newspaper in their lives, especially as it relates to the futherance of literacy and education. All of their stories and many others can be found in a special section published Oct .5 and in PDF format at <a href="http://dhnichepublishing.uberflip.com/i/393988">dailyherald.com</a>.