Sunday February 6, 2011

Clearer sentences

Exploring English by Keith Wright

Communication can be significantly improved with punctuation and the use of words as different parts of speech.

THE 4S- Accelerated English Program’s (4S-AEP) Art of the Alternative is all about techniques to improve speaking and writing skills by using alternative words and sentence construction.

By mastering the 10 techniques, the quality of one’s day-to-day verbal communications can significantly and noticeably improve — making what is said far more interesting, enlightening and worth listening to.

At the same time, correspondence – be it personal letters or business e-mails – can achieve a higher level of reception and attract more positive responses.

This week, we continue the list of 10 techniques advocated by the Art of the Alternative to enhance one’s English pronunciation and writing skills.

(iv) Using alternative forms of punctuation:

When writing, it is usual for most people to limit their use of full stops by writing very long sentences, and also to rarely use commas to indicate pauses. Compare these two texts:

Hiking in the national park Joseph Greta Guy and Joanna became separated in the thick forest and it took the park rangers Mike and his partner Trevor more than five hours to locate them because each hiker had decided to try to find their own way back to their camp by going in four different directions and soon became completely lost as the longer they walked the farther they ventured away from safety.

Hiking in the national park, Joseph, Greta, Guy and Joanna became separated in the thick forest. It took the park rangers, Mike and his partner, Trevor, more than five hours to locate them. This was because each hiker had decided to try to find their own way back to their camp by going in four different directions. They soon became completely lost as the longer they walked, the farther they ventured away from safety.

The second paragraph is far easier to follow because it is broken down into several shorter sentences.

Text can be made easier to understand and a passage can be even more interesting when shorter sentences are intermittently used. Commas can greatly add to the clarity of a sentence.

An alternative approach that also can make text more interesting – and often much clearer – is to use dashes and semi-colons instead of commas, and by applying the ellipsis when listing a series of words.

For example, compare these two texts:

Catherine Mendosa, the dux of her college, is keen to study physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer technology and geometry at university but cannot decide whether she wants to be a secondary school teacher, an environmental scientist, a mathematics lecturer, a dental technician or an orthodontist, a general medical practitioner or a physiotherapist or something else.

Catherine Mendosa - the dux of her college - is keen to study physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer technology and geometry at university but cannot decide whether she wants to be a secondary school teacher; an environmental scientist; a mathematics lecturer; a dental technician; or an orthodontist; a general medical practitioner; a physiotherapist or ...

Different shaped parenthesis and brackets can also be used for effect and variation. Compare these two sentences:

Every member of the squad, as well as the coach, Brian Hayes, and the club’s board members, believe that their training facilities are the best in the competition.

Every member of the squad (as well as the coach [Brian Hayes] and the club’s board members) believe that their training facilities are the best in the competition.

(v) Using words as alternative parts of speech:

An important characteristic of English to understand is that most words can be used as different parts of speech and have more than one meaning.

Learners need to develop knowledge of the alternative, grammatical uses of words. Knowing the various meanings of words is a pre-requisite to using them as superior alternatives to other words.

It is worth noting that some words are single lexical units or lexemes such as pneumonia and penicillin. These words have only one meaning each that never changes, regardless of the context in which they are used.

However, hundreds of thousands of words represent at least two or more lexemes. Many can be used as different parts of speech – with different meanings – depending on their function in a sentence.

Take for example the word “case”. As a verb, “case” can mean to “carefully survey” or “look over” some particular thing, as in this sentence: Professional thieves always case a place before they attempt to rob it.

“Case” can also be used as an adjective to mean “a record”, for example: My doctor keeps a case history on every patient.

And metallically, its meaning changes again, as in: That steel lid was case-hardened.

As a noun, “case” has as many as 10 different meanings! It could mean:

·“a container”

The miser hid his money in a metal case under his bed.

·“a statement of facts”

The prosecution had a strong case against the dishonest manager.

>“an instance of a disease”

He died after suffering from a serious case of blood poisoning.

That is the sixth case of pneumonia in the village in the last week.

>“an event or circumstance”

His failure to pass the test was another case of not studying.

>“an actual situation”

What the witness said happened was not the case.

>“a peculiar or unusual person”

My neighbour is a real case when it comes to politics.

>“case” is a grammatical category for nouns and pronouns that defines their relationship with other words in a sentence, e.g. Nominative Case and Objective Case.

>“a problem” (colloquially)

Don’t worry, I am on your case too and I will resolve it.

>It is also the term used to define how Alphabetical symbols are written as Upper or Lower Case.

>Colloquially, “case” can also have the broader meaning of “personal life” or “private situation”, e.g. Please get off my case. I can look after myself.

Now it’s time to test yourself. Consider the words chair, farm, fish, light, lunch, mouth, school, table, target, test, and walk. Each word has various meanings and can be used as different parts of speech.

> Keith Wright is the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S) — a modern, innovative and proven method of accelerating the learning of English.

The 4S methodology and the associated Accelerated English Program (AEP) mentioned in this fortnightly column are now being used internationally to enhance the English language proficiency of people from a diverse range of cultures and with different competency levels.

E-mail contact@4Sliteracy.com.au for your free PDF file on 150 Wrongly Pronounced Words.