Physics educators and others might be interested
in the contribution of former Physical Review
Letters editor George Trigg (1979) to the rules
of grammar.
In his essay "Grammar" Trigg wrote [quoted from
Richoux (undated); bracketed by lines "TTTTTT. .
. . ."]
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
It is said that back in the 1940's, the following
message was prominently displayed at the front of
the main chemistry lecture hall at a major
university:
"The English language is your most versatile
scientific instrument. Learn to use it with
precision."
In the intervening years, the teaching of proper
grammar in the public elementary and high schools
fell into disfavor. The inevitable result is that
manuscripts submitted to us are often full of
grammatical errors, which their authors probably
do not even recognize (and often would not care
about if they did).
We regard this state of affairs as deplorable,
and we want to do something about it. For many
years we have tried to correct the grammar of
papers that we publish. This is toilsome at best,
and sometimes entails rather substantial
rephrasing. It would obviously be preferable to
have authors use correct grammar in the first
place. The problem is how to get them to do it.
One fairly effective way is to provide examples
of what not to do; it is particularly helpful if
the examples are humorous. We have recently seen
several lists of grammatical examples of this
type. A few weeks ago we found taped to a
colleague's office door the most complete one we
have seen. (He tells us it was passed out in a
class of Dartmouth - not in English - at the time
a term paper was assigned). We reproduce it here
in the hope that it will have some effect.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
1. Make sure each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
2. Just between you and I, the case of pronoun is important.
3. Watch out for irregular verbs which have crope into English.
4. Verbs has to agree in number with their subjects.
5. Don't use no double negatives.
6. Being bad grammar, a writer should not use dangling modifiers.
7. Join clauses good like a conjunction should.
8. A writer must not shift your point of view.
9. About sentence fragments.
10. Don't use run-on sentences you got to punctuate them.
11. In letters essays and reports use commas to separate items in series.
12. Don't use commas, which are not necessary.
13. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
14. Its important to use apostrophes right in everybodys writing.
15. Don't abbrev.
16. Check to see if you any words out.
17. In the case of a report, check to see that jargonwise, it's A-OK.
18. As far as incomplete constructions, they are wrong.
19. About repetition, the repetition of a word
might be real effective repetition - take, for
instance the repetition of Abraham Lincoln.
20. In my opinion, I think that an author when he
is writing should definitely not get into the
habit of making use of too many unnecessary words
that he does not really need in order to put his
message across.
21. Use parallel construction not only to be concise but also clarify.
22. It behooves us all to avoid archaic expressions.
23. Mixed metaphors are a pain in the neck and ought to be weeded out.
24. Consult the dictionery to avoid mispelings.
25. To ignorantly split an infinitive is a practice to religiously avoid.
26. Last but not least, lay off clichés.
I dare against all odds to fervently hope, that
the above repeat - that is, reiteration;
repetiton, recapitulation; reproduction,
restatement, or duplication; of Triggs utterly
you know fantastic!!! Rules of Grammer; will
premote a much-neded re-formation, that is
improovment (in the eye of the be-holder) or
ameloration; or elevation, or much-needed
enhancemint in Engl. usage in what might be
called if one is trying to be polight
"Discussion-List Postings." Otherwise drival.
Safire, W. 1979. "On Language," New York Times, 7
October. See also Safire (1991). According to
Richoux's quote of Safire, Safire like Trigg,
credits anonymous others with having contributed
to his list of "Fumblerules," reproduced at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fumblerules>.
Safire wrote: "Not long ago, I advertised for
perverse rules of grammar, along the lines of
'Remember to never split an infinitive' and 'The
passive voice should never be used.' The notion
of making a mistake while laying down rules
('Thimk,' 'We Never Make Misteaks') is highly
unoriginal, and it turns out that English
teachers have been circulating lists of
fumblerules for years. As owner of the world's
largest collection, and with thanks to scores of
readers, let me pass along a bunch of these
never-say-neverisms."
Safire, W. 1991. "Fumblerules (The Intrepid
Linguist Library), Laurel. Amazon.com information
at <http://tinyurl.com/2d89jx>.
Trigg, G.L. 1979. "Grammar," Physical Review
Letters 42(12): 747-748, 19 March; online to
subscribers at
<http://prola.aps.org/toc/PRL/v42/i12>. For a
similar list see, e.g. Safire (1979, 1991).