How to be Grammarian at a Speakers' meeting

A member of a club in London emailed me for advice as a mentor on doing the grammarian role at a meeting.
I suggested:

INTRODUCTION TO YOURSELF and WORD OF THE DAY

1 Say your name

It should be on the programme. Point that out to the audience  if it is. 

If not, write it up. You could hold up a sign ' (Your name…) your grammarian’

I suggest you spell your name or say which language it’s from and its meaning. Or a way to remember it. 

Tell Toastmasters of the day how to pronounce it.

Is the grammarian role instruction in your CL manual? You might refer to this and show the manual.

If so get somebody to evaluate your rule.

Type out the word and blow it up large. Twice.

Take along blu-tack to fix it.

Fix it up at the from of the hall so everybody can see it and at the back or sides so speakers can see it.

Say which part of speech - noun - 

give etymology (origin) 

give two or three examples of use

say why good grammar is important

give a new grammar rule -

and/ or pet hate - common mistake

Be cheerful and positive (don’t say, 'everybody hates grammar'; say something like, 'it’s so helpful'.)

mention a source of information.

GIVING FEEDBACK ON GRAMMAR

Write your notes during the evening 

NAME OF SPEAKER / THEIR ROLE (on agenda)

Their good use

Any recommendation for improvement

Try to praise everybody for something

Pick out something to praise for each person

correct use 

amusing phrases, 

alliteration, use of three,

grammatical terms and rhetorical devices such as simile and metaphor.

If nothing to say, count ums and ers.

But make your count funny.

Note any grammar problems you have. Find the solution and tell people.

Ask if anybody has any grammar problems.

Take with a book on grammar (or download a page on grammar from the internet

and offer to check grammar queries on your phone/ipad during the break

Keep your notes to write up an account in the newsletter including advice to others doing the role next week.

Prepare to advise next week’s grammarian - or do the role again, building on what you have learned 

Take your CL manual and get somebody to write up evaluation of your role.

Get your activity recorded on the President’s list of who has done what at each meeting.

I googled our forthcoming word of the day and got results for

dictionary

etymology

thesaurus

 ....................

Paramount | Define Paramount at Dictionary.com
dictionary.reference.com/browse/paramount



above others in rank or authority; superior in power or jurisdiction. noun. 3. a supreme ruler; overlord. Origin Expand. Anglo-French. 1525-1535. 1525-35 ...
Paramount - definition of Paramount by The Free Dictionary
www.thefreedictionary.com/Paramount



A city of southern California southeast of Los Angeles. Originally a dairy center, it became industrialized after the 1950s. Population: 56,400.
Definition of “paramount” | Collins English Dictionary
www.collinsdictionary.com › English Dictionary



Definition of “paramount” | The official Collins English Dictionary online. Comprehensive and authoritative, rely on Collins for up-to-date English with insights into ...
Paramount - Merriam-Webster Online
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paramount



Definition of paramount from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary with audio pronunciations, thesaurus, Word of the Day, and word games.
paramount - Oxford Dictionaries
www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/paramount



Definition of paramount in British and World English in Oxford dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation and example sentences. English to English reference content.
paramount - Cambridge Dictionary - Cambridge University ...
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/paramount



... synonyms and more. What is paramount? more important than anything else: : See more in British English Dictionary - Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
paramount - Macmillan English Dictionaries
www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/paramount



Define paramount. What is paramount? paramount meaning, pronunciation and more by Macmillan Dictionary.
Use paramount in a sentence | paramount sentence examples
sentence.yourdictionary.com/paramount



How to use paramount in a sentence. Example sentences with the word paramount. paramount example sentences. ... Words near paramount in the dictionary ...
paramount - Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/paramount



paramount - Clear definition, audio pronunciation, synonyms and related words, ... grammar, usage notes and more in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at ...
Paramount Synonyms, Paramount Antonyms | Thesaurus.com
www.thesaurus.com/browse/paramount



Synonyms for paramount at Thesaurus.com with free online thesaurus, antonyms , and definitions. Dictionary and Word of the Day.


If you are in doubt, ask the audience. 


Let me know how you get on. Good luck. Enjoy your evening.

PS Tell me about typos. I keep correcting but the spellchecker creators more. The plural of er with as s becomes era. Role becomes rule. 

Why does correct English matter?
by Angela Lansbury

I am responding to a letter I saw on Teletext which said that another writer was wasting time nit-picking over grammar when we had major financial problems to solve.

1 In times of financial crisis we need better-paid jobs. Recruitment companies use correct spelling to help select shortlist candidates, for jobs in IT, maths, security, secretarial, solicitors’ and government offices. In times of crisis you may be made redundant and need a job of any kind.

2 It’s only five per cent of the marks in your A level, O level or GCSE, but that can make a difference between top grade for the university of your choice. Five marks for correct spelling makes the difference between pass or fail - getting into any course at all.

3 Correct spelling tells me whether I have an email from my online bank or a scam from somebody who is unemployable and will take my money. Recognizing a mis-spelled company name saves me from scams sending viruses which crash my computer.

4 An inaccurately worded will means the money goes to the wrong person or so much as spent on legal fees contesting the will that nothing is left. Correct wording can save me tax and time.

5 Incorrect or unclear, or ambiguous instructions mean customers can set fire to the microwave, injure themselves with a reversing needle on a sewing machine, or sue your company so you lose time, money and jobs. Correct wording means instead of leaving my mobile phone untouched, or taking it back for a refund, I use it and recommend it. So the shop makes more money.

6 Easy to understand language sells me an Apple MacBook laptop at twice the price I would have paid for yet another machine using only Microsoft Word.

7 Accurate wording saves lives in court. Bentley was hanged because the words, ‘Let him have it,’ were judged by the jury to have instructed him to kill the policeman, not to hand over the gun.

8 A Japanese man approaching a house to ask the way was shot dead in the USA because he did not understand the householder’s instruction ‘Freeze!’ A life would have been saved if the householder had used the less slangy and ambiguous word, ‘Stop!’

9 Hospitals regularly kill people normal patients and those on experimental programmes who are given overdoses. This could be prevented if doctors and nurses double-checked the seemingly less important little things, handwriting which is readable, and the correct, safe maximum dose.

10 Lives are lost on motorways because people parking broken down cars on the hard shoulder are ploughed into. The drivers’ minds are on the major problem - getting the broken car started, and they forget minor details like setting up the warning triangle. If parents insist on children taking care of all the details, in a crisis children and later adults will continue to do so.

11 Regarding losing money, a dress shop can order ten times the number of dresses needed by specifying the numbers of each colour and style, but not specifying the total number of dresses. Ten times the number of ships - not checking the number of zeros. In the army you lose lives if you send ten times the number of troops, or one tenth, not tallying the boots, bullet-proof vests, weapons and vehicles to the number of troops.

12 Battles are lost and wars are started because of inaccurate telegrams. It is said that countless lives were lost, that WWII was started, because the Japanese misunderstood a ambiguously worded telegram which appeared to say Japan could go ahead with an invasion of another country and America would not intervene.

(Citation needed.  Can you help make this more accurate?)

Rewrite this headline

Rewrite this headline:
    'Mother of ' (babysitter/teen died after being locked in house cries in court). 

    I have taken a real headline and changed it slightly. The subject is mother. The verb is cries. We can draw a sentence tree. Imagine a tree or face with ear rings. On the left is the branch or ear, the subject. On the right is the branch or ear, the object. Draw hanging from each branch or ear a circle for the clause describing the subject and object. Mother cries. Teen was locked in house then died.
   The subject is mother.We could have two sentences. Mother first. Teen second. Mother cries in court. She learns/learned/heard teen was locked in house, then died. Link the sentence with time description 'while/after'.
    You can rearrange the sentence several ways to make it easier for the reader to understand. One way is to put part of the information in brackets. Like this: 'Mother (of teen who died) cries ....
    The subject matter is rather grim, but that's a typical murder trial/ court case headline.
 
  

 I could have given a jollier example. Let's try that.
Mother of Olympic dancer/skater (who) got prize despite fall at last round cries with joy. 
   The reader has to read twice to work out whether the mother got the prize - and whether the mother or offspring cried with joy.
    I've put the word 'who' in to try to make the sentence clearer. By the time you get to the end of the sentence you are losing track of who is the subject and who is the object.
   Mother cries with joy after daughter wins prize despite fall.
   Mother's tears of joy after/when daughter wins dance prize despite fall.

Read my other posts on grammar.
Angela Lansbury
My cv includes writing and sub-editing women's magazines, encyclopaedias and partworks (encyclopaedias issued alphabetically in weekly parts as magazines to be stored in folders). 
Read my blogs and follow me on Facebook, or LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, or look at my books on lulu.com and if you like one, buy it.

Headline - woman talking about her sister says she ....

Woman talking about her sister says she ...   
    You can see the problem. Is the sister talking about herself or the sister?
 
     What the solution to this problem. I use names. 'Amanda, talking about her sister, (model/suicide) Julie, says Julie was dieting/self-harming...'
    'Suicide Julie's sister, Amanda, says, "I was dieting/self-harming ..." '
    I have taken this from a newspaper headline. To make it more cheerful for myself and you I'll make up another example:
   Woman talking about her sister says she made bride's wedding dresses for dolls
   Presumably the bride made her own wedding dress. Or was the dress made by the sister? Did they both make wedding dresses for dolls as children? Did the older sister, the bride, inspire the younger one? Or did the older sister inspire the younger bride?
   Bride's sister says she
   Same problem. We don't know who 'she' refers to, the bride or the sister.
   The reader expects she to refer to the most recent noun, the sister. That's what most grammar books would teach, that the clause modifies the preceding and nearest noun.
   But headline writers and others so often get the sentence structure wrong that the reader has to read back or on to check.

Angela Lansbury - author.
See books on lulu.com   

The fox using the phone! - Misplaced Clauses

Picture of the week in  Thursday March 13 2014 edition of the Observer
getwestlondonco.uk
to simplify and paraphrase it, 'Sophia ...snapped this (fox) using her mother...'s iPhone' .
On first reading I thought the fox was playing with an iPhone left in the garden. Seeing no phone in the photo, on second reading of the text I realise it's Sophia - using her mother's iPhone, snapped this fox.
The problem is the misplaced clause, which modifies the subject, has been added as an afterthought at the end of the sentence where the phrase seems to the reader to apply to the nearest noun which is the object of the sentence.
Subjects start sentences. 

 

Two foxes in the back garden in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury.