Many ambitious writers believe that if you can just get the @##$%! grammar right, you’re going to be an effective writer. Sadly, that’s not true. Here’s a perfectly grammatical sentence from the Business Daily Review that – nevertheless – has a problem:

Abortion clinics and a doctor have launched a challenge at the Florida Supreme Court after an appeals court Wednesday rejected a temporary injunction that would have blocked a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

First, it’s too long. More seriously, readers (at least the ones with a brain like mine) have to struggle to figure out what the sentence means.

I’m going to be folksy here and call this sentence a triple negative. A preventive measure was blocked, rejected, and challenged. Each step reversed the previous step. It’s like a shell game.

Be kind to your readers! Tell the story one step at a time.

Abortion clinics and a doctor have launched a Florida Supreme Court challenge. Florida has a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That law started a chain reaction: a temporary injunction blocked the law and reinstated the right to abortion. But then an appeals court reimposed the 15-week limit. On Wednesday the Supreme Court accepted a challenge from an abortion clinic and a doctor who want to make no-limits abortions legal again.

Whew. (Incidentally, the Florida Supreme Court did reinstate the 15-week limit.)

Writing isn’t a contest to see who can cram the most information into a sentence. The goal is to communicate with your readers. The best writers are the ones who work hard to make things easy for their readers.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your language skills, you might enjoy this article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/505154/25-words-don%E2%80%99t-mean-what-you-think-they-do.

It’s a clear and engaging discussion of some words that have tricky meanings: luxurious/luxuriant and loath/loathe, for example. 

But be warned! There are some traps here. Right off the bat, the author notes that literally is often used to mean figuratively: “I literally laughed my head off.” Umm…no, you didn’t. Your head is still nicely attached to your neck and shoulders.

That literally/figuratively confusion is often used as a sad example of the deterioration of English nowadays. I’ve also heard people from the UK complain that it’s yet another example of American disrespect for English.

To settle the issue, I headed for the Oxford English Dictionary, which traces the history of English words over the centuries. And what I discovered is that literally was first used to mean figuratively back in 1769 – in an English novel, not an American one.

Words change over time. I’ve stopped yapping about the widespread misuse of disinterested, for example. It’s supposed to mean “impartial”: you don’t have an interest, or an investment, in a proposal or program.

But today it’s often used to mean “bored,” and I’ve stopped worrying about it. We haven’t really lost anything: you can always use impartial, as I just did.

I recommend a healthy dose of common sense as you go through this Mental Floss word list. Some words have always been so confusing that they should never be used.

Nonplussed is a prime example: “I was surprised” (or “taken aback”) will do nicely. (That confusion is nothing new, by the way – I remember struggling with nonplussed back in the 1970s.)

The reverse principle is also true. If you know the difference between – say – luxuriant and luxurious, you’ll impress people like me who still care about those words.

I’m one of those dinosaurs who still reserve enormous for negative sentences (“enormous damage”). Enormity continues to have a negative meaning, but the expiration date on that definition is looming.

Have fun with these words!

                                       Photo courtesy of Emdot

Today’s topic is scare quotes – quotation marks used to call attention to an unusual way to use a word. Here’s an example:

While I was reading about Charles Dickens yesterday, I “stumbled” onto something interesting.

The person who wrote this didn’t really stumble, of course. They were sitting down and reading. To show that it wasn’t a real stumble, they used scare quotes: I “stumbled” onto something interesting.

 The pros don’t use scare quotes, and you shouldn’t either. It’s like wearing a t-shirt that says, “I’m an amateur!”

The sentence about Charles Dickens is stronger if you omit the quotation marks:

While I was reading about Charles Dickens yesterday, I stumbled onto something interesting.  BETTER

I’ve always told my students not to apologize if they use an unusual word – or if they use a word in an unusual way. The pros do it all the time, and so can you.

Stand by your word choices! If it’s the word you want, go ahead and use it. If it’s not the word you want, find a better word.

Take a look at this sentence: “Jenny and Tom were wrapped up in each other.”

I doubt that Jenny and Tom were Scotch-taped together in shiny Christmas paper! Anyone can figure out what the sentence means: Jenny and Tom were deeply involved with each other. No quotation marks are needed.

Next week I’ll have more to say about quotation marks.