[Magdalen] "Formal Speech"

[Marion Thompson]

Use One is correct.  So is Use Two, but colloquial (not slang, mind you).

Marion, a pilgrim

On 3/7/2015 9:11 PM, Grace Cangialosi wrote:
> I have a question about the use of the word "fraught." I always thought it
> was part of a phrase such as "The situation was fraught with danger."  Now,
> however, it seems to be used simply as a stand alone adjective:  "The
> situation was fraught."
>
> On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 9:08 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Then there's "Me and him went to the store."  Like fingernails on
>> chalkboard!  (Now, there's an expression that won't mean a thing to anyone
>> in a few years...)
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 7:59 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> And I just made one of my own, thanks to this keyboard....obviously.
>>>
>>> On Saturday, March 7, 2015, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't care too awfully much about split infinitives or ending a
>>> sentence
>>>> with a preposition, but there are some things that drive me absolutely
>>>> nuts. "Between you and I" will just about make me scream out loud, and
>>>> "between she and I" makes me want to hit someone or something.
>>>> "Irregardless" is merely irritating, but "flaunt" instead of "flout" is
>>> a
>>>> teeth-grinder. And don't get me started on spelling errors, especially
>>>> online ones....obiously proofreading is a lost art.
>>>>
>>>> On Saturday, March 7, 2015, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','scottknitter at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> A lot of this depends on what genre of communication one is doing, of
>>>>> course. There are "house styles" for various publications that do
>>>>> employ various selections of rules that are no longer universally
>>>>> applicable: some may have a conservative style that would use "whom"
>>>>> (which I think is still a rule, if one is writing something formal
>>>>> like a dissertation or a documentary piece in The New Yorker).
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm on the editorial board at Hewlett-Packard; our main job is to
>>>>> update the HP Writing Style Guide every summer. We argue about things
>>>>> like our standing rule against using "over" when you really mean "more
>>>>> than." The chairman doesn't even care about this rule anymore, but
>>>>> it's been kept mainly to facilitate translation (aka "localization");
>>>>> more precise English helps translators translate more quickly and
>>>>> correctly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Other things that have often been thought illegal, like split
>>>>> infinitives, aren't forbidden in our style guide, but I do fix them if
>>>>> they sound bad and the fixed version would sound better. It's easy
>>>>> enough to change "The system helps users to more quickly create
>>>>> documents" to "The system helps users to create documents more
>>>>> quickly."
>>>>>
>>>>> More and more people are making case errors lately, like "Obama paid a
>>>>> visit to we who worked on his campaign," and that just sounds nuts to
>>>>> me. Case is much simpler in English than in many other languages, and
>>>>> that's one rule, or set of rules, worth keeping. Mainly I think that
>>>>> error comes from misjudging which part of the sentence is the main one
>>>>> and which is the relative clause. Diagramming still helps!
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> It must be that I'm in a different universe.  There are grammatical
>>>>> rules,
>>>>>> yes.  But it has been acceptable to end sentences with prepositions
>>> for
>>>>>> DECADES.  Where have some been during those decades?  Evidently not
>>>>> reading
>>>>>> nor writing, nor communicating with 20th and 21st Century
>>> grammarians.
>>>>>> Nobody uses "whom" anymore.  That's not about sloppiness, it's about
>>>>>> evolution (slower, but inevitable).  I am not an English class
>>> dropout,
>>>>> but
>>>>>> someone who keeps up on the (current, late 20th Century) formal
>>> rules of
>>>>>> usage.  Stay current, or accept one's status as a dinosaur!  Sorry,
>>> and
>>>>> no
>>>>>> disrespect meant to my (not so very, but also not very current)
>>> elders!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Scott R. Knitter
>>>>> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>>>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Grace Cangialosi
>> Ruckersville, VA
>>
>> It's a good thing Mary didn't have to wait for a Doctrine of the
>> Incarnation
>> before she said "Yes" to God.
>>
>
>