On Stating One's Opinion

Among the most common errors I see in beginning writing is misuse and overuse of phrases such as "in my opinion." I mentioned this previously in my piece on avoiding redundancy, but it's such a complex issue that it's worth a closer look. There are good reasons to say that something is your opinion, but most of the time, it actually detracts from your writing.

On a Linguistic Hole

There's a hole, there's a hole, there's a hole in the bottom of the... English language.

Ahem. What I'm referring to is a linguistic “hole” that, while it's been especially contentious in the politically correct atmosphere of the last 40 years or so, has vexed writers for centuries. I'm talking about our language's lack of a neuter, singular third-person personal pronoun.

On Being Concise

I remember being told, though I can't recall by whom, that the mark of a good writer is being concise; that is, using as few words as possible.

Accordingly, I'm ending this post right here.

On the "Because Club"

Back in elementary school (I believe it was second grade), I remember being taught never to start a sentence with the word “and” or “because.” My teacher even created two “clubs,” the And Club and the Because Club, for students who dared to use those words incorrectly.* The message was simple: You don't want to be in either club.

*We were also cautioned not to start a sentence with the word “but,” but there was no But Club. I leave it to the reader to ponder the reasons for this omission.

Now that I work with high school students on a pretty frequent basis, I'm learning that I was far from unique in being taught these things many years ago. In the past year, I've probably had a dozen different people assert that it's not okay to start a sentence with the word “because.” Years after learning how to write much more interesting sentences, they're still trying to stay out of the club.

On Proper Pronoun Usage

A pronoun is just a word that stands in for a noun, which is a person, place or thing. In many cases, pronouns serve to make sentences clearer and more concise by preventing word repetition. Consider the following sentence:

I went to the Empire State Building; the Empire State Building was very tall.

Technically, this sentence is fine, but it's awkward and wordy. Now, consider the following revisions:

I went to the Empire State Building, which was very tall.

I went to the Empire State Building; it was very tall.

Each revision uses a pronoun to stand in for the Empire State Building, making the sentence much more concise without obscuring its meaning. In this case, the Empire State Building is the antecedent, the word or phrase that the pronoun replaces.

Pronouns probably aren't the most difficult words in the English language to understand, but they may be the hardest to use properly in writing. In everyday speech, we use pronouns very casually, which isn't a big deal as long as our meaning is clear. In formal writing, though, we have to be very careful to avoid pronoun usage errors.

On Misplaced Modifiers

By now, you may have heard that former MLB slugger Jack Clark has accused Albert Pujols (along with Tigers ace Justin Verlander and retired outfielder Shawn Green) of using performance-enhancing drugs. Essentially, Clark claimed on WGNU 920 AM in St. Louis that Chris Mihlfeld, an athletic trainer who worked with Pujols early in his pro career, told him about Pujols' PED use when both Clark and Mihlfeld were working for the Dodgers a decade ago.

Pujols, of course, has denied the accusations and says he's initiating legal action against Clark. Mihlfeld likewise claims that he never told Clark any such thing and would “bet [his] life” that Pujols never used performance-enhancing drugs. Finally, insideSTL Enterprises, the company that employed Clark for WGNU, has asked Clark and co-host Kevin Slaten not to return to work.

I'm not here to offer commentary on the story itself, as fascinating as it is. Rather, I'm interested in the wording of insideSTL's statement.

On Starting a Blog

Why start a blog? The simple answer is that I love to write, probably too much for my own good, and I find myself coming up with things to write about almost constantly. I have plenty to say, and some people have even mentioned that they might be interested in things I have to say.

Hey, I may as well put things in a place where people will read them.

So, what can you expect? Most of my thoughts fall into three broad categories:

• Writing. It's only natural, after all, that someone who loves to write might love to write about writing. At times, I may have things to say about writing techniques; at other times, I may have commentary on the joys and challenges of being a writer. You'll find those thoughts right here.
• Sports. When I say "sports," I mostly mean 'baseball,' though it's at least theoretically possible that I'll branch out and write about something else sooner or later. Expect to hear a bit about the Red Sox and much more about the random musings of my amateur statistician/historian's mind over at my baseball blog, 90 Percent Mental.
• Theology: The Bible, explained! There's a lot of wisdom to be had there, and while I'm not quite an expert, I'm happy to share whatever insight I can muster at In Step.
  

From time to time, I may write about something else that's important to me: marriage, say, or fatherhood. Or possibly food. We'll see.

In the meantime, happy reading!