A Word About English

Unlike the ‘romantic’ languages (French, Spanish, and Italian), English is not based, for the most part, on Latin. English, therefore, has many vagaries in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all the rest. There are rules for English, but they mainly seem to be in the form ‘i before e (except after c)’, and even those vague rules can often be broken with impunity. To a fluent English speaker (who is also reasonably well read) the flow of English is instinctive. However, trying to formulate what is ‘good’ English from what is ‘bad’ is a complicated journey. I will be dealing with specific instances ‒ the split infinitive, the definite and indefinite article, and the Oxford comma ‒ in later blogs. However, due to the significant influence of literary and poetic language on all forms of English (including ‘academic English’), finding a fluent and well-read English speaker to review your work is, in my opinion, paramount.

The purpose of grammar ‒ and it does have a purpose ‒ is to reduce the ambiguity of what you are trying to say. This is especially true with academic English where precision of meaning overrides precision in following arbitrary rules. If, as the result of a close reading of a text, one asks: ‘What exactly is the meaning of this?’, then the writer of academic English has failed. Good English means transmitting to the mind of the reader ‒ as close as possible ‒ the exact meaning that one intends to express. No more, and no less.