Proper Form, Pure and Simple: A Handbook for English Grammar

Proper Form, Pure and Simple

A Handbook for English Grammar

Horace (Skip) Robinson

Proper Form, Pure and Simple

A Handbook for English Grammar

Copyright © 2012 Horace Robinson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

isbn 13: 978-1-61097-183-6

eisbn 13: 978-1-63087-958-7

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

To my wife, Wilma, for her patience and encouragement during the decade-long quest to draft an English book that could be understood

To the three thousand students of Southeastern Oklahoma State University who served as the proving ground for Proper Form, Pure and Simple

To my colleagues, administrators, and higher education officials who championed the writing of this handbook

Preface

This handbook is not for the scholar, nor is it intended to address every grammatical issue that could arise in the study of the English language. It is crafted and directed toward the intelligent learner or on-the-job professional who got off on the wrong foot in his/her pursuit of proper form. Reasons for the poor start are many and varied, including non-interest in learning, trauma during the instructional period, and to be realistic, ineffective instruction.

During my teaching of forty classes of English 1113, it dawned upon me that the examples which were clear to me were not always clear to the students. Many high-sounding, melodious definitions were indicative of where the professor was and not where the students were. This realization should have been axiomatic, Accept the students where they are and begin at the very beginning.

As a result, the learner or the on-the-job professional is the target audience of this commentary. These two groups are the determining factors in the wording of any illustration, example or definition. (All words pertaining to Proper Form have been capitalized to indicate their importance and specificity and to increase the simplicity of the handbook.) The major issues of where the student is intellectually, how to move him/her to the next level of understanding, and how best to affirm the learner as he/she progresses, have been foremost in determining what should be included in this handbook.

The goal of this small missile is to enhance the careers of capable young people who, for one valid reason or another, missed this vital element of their education. It is designed to replace complexity with simplicity and to reduce verbosity to succinctness. This will allow the student or professional worker to leave guesswork and mind games behind and to put the language together with skill and confidence.

—Horace (Skip) Robinson, November, 2011

Acknowledgments

In academic pursuits, few projects are accomplished alone. The following contributors have enthusiastically shared their knowledge, their creativity, and their encouragement to bring Proper Form, Pure and Simple to our readers.

Dr. C. Henry Gold—for the high value he places on proper form and for his unceasing excitement for the project

Mrs. Stacia Harrison—for her skill and perseverance in manuscript production

Mrs. Betty Clay—for the unselfish application of her talents in the design of the thirty Tables that are included in this handbook

Mrs. Jackye Gold—for her experience in teaching proper form and for her expertise as a copy editor

Dr. Wilma Shires—for her knowledge of proper form and for her willingness to share that knowledge

Introduction

Let’s visit! Many of you who are reading this little handbook are hiding a deep, dark secret. You do not know Proper English Form. This does not mean that you are deficient in any way. It simply means that you have not learned Proper Form to this point. The faint of heart may be saying, I try, but I just can’t learn it. Oh! Yes, you can.

Has a teacher ever started at the beginning with you, at the very beginning? I remember with painful clarity being in your shoes, but I also remember a professor who was willing to start at the very beginning in her teaching of Proper Form.

Learning Proper Form is much like building a house; you need to understand basic definitions. One summer, my son and I were attempting to build a lake house. Neither of us is a builder; he is a computer design technician; and I, an English professor. We envisioned a beautiful interior curved staircase, but it was beyond our skill level. A seventy-year-old man was hired to build the complex staircase, and my son and I were left to handle the simple, straight, outdoor staircase to the porch. Noticing our hesitancy to take on the allegedly simple task, the old fellow leaned over the porch rail and said, You can git them 2x6’s out of the scrap pile over there and cut ‘em with the chop saw, the table saw or the Saws All if ye want to—but rip ‘em on three feet, then cut your risers on thirty-seven degrees, and ye got her done. Problem: what is a chop saw and a Saws All? What is the thirty-seven degrees all about?

Mr. Grubbs did not begin at the beginning. He assumed we knew some basic definitions when we had no idea of what these strange-sounding names meant. This made my son and me, two reasonably intelligent men, feel and look inadequate. I want to spare you this feeling of inadequacy or perhaps rescue some of you from this feeling of inadequacy that overwhelms you when it comes to using Proper Form. Let’s begin at the very beginning and take slow, sure, steps together. All right?

Beginning Again

Before you can learn Proper Form, you must deal with the grammatical debris that spins like a tornado above your head. Since you have never understood Proper Form, you most likely have concocted various ways to beat the system. Probably, in the early grades, you learned to guess which form was correct. And as you matured, you created make-believe tests to determine which form was correct. These tests were usually based on what sounded right as opposed to the true test of rule.

And then it happened! With your mind awhirl, employing your guessing games and trusting what sounded right to determine correctness, you ran into the mother of all English teachers, the dreaded Mrs. McGuillacuddy. Chop saws and Saws Alls are simple compared to the stream of terms that flowed effortlessly from her lips. She joyfully hurled her Gerunds, Appositives, Participles, Subjunctive Moods, and Comparative Degrees into the mix, and these terms were added to that swirling, irrelevant mass above your head.

It may be your first day on the job or your first assignment in Freshman English, or the first time your employer says, Please write a narrative about the history of our company since 1990. But sooner or later the grammatical debris (unsuccessful English comprehension) that has swirled above your head for so long will collapse upon you, threatening your very life in the academic or business world.

Is this where you are? Are you under what feels like tons and tons of unsuccessful English lessons? If so, do not feel defeated or incapable of freeing yourself from the debris which has collapsed upon you. You can crawl from under the debris that covers you! You can separate it, analyze it, and identify the parts which now swirl unrelated and undefined in your mind. Once these things are done, the complexity of Proper Form will be cut in half. So, let’s go to work; separating, analyzing, and identifying your grammatical debris.

Chapter 1

Parts of Speech versus Parts of a Sentence

First, let’s separate the Parts of Speech (eight of them) from the Parts of a Sentence. Right now, in your mind, they probably exist in one, big, meaningless pile. Let’s see how Parts of Speech differ from the Parts of a Sentence.

• The Parts of Speech could be thought of as the raw material from which a Sentence