Grammar Punk Blog

What Did He Say?

He shouted, screamed, whispered, yelled, bellowed, growled, murmured, threatened, or cried.

She protested, claimed, wailed, shrieked, sighed, squealed, whined, sneered, trilled, twittered, ranted, railed, smiled, smirked, simpered, or sniveled. And on and on.  

Dialogue tags or said bookisms are the bane of every fiction writer—whether they know it or not.

I’ve always been of two minds—at the very least—about this concept. Editors, regularly rant about the overuse, misuse, or just plain mishandling of dialogue tags. And for the most part I have to say I agree with them. Except when I don’t.

Every time I pick up a book by an author I’ve not read before one of the first things I pinpoint when deciding whether or not I like the writing, never mind the story, is the use—or misuse—of dialogue tags.

“I tell you I never went near those scissors,” Delilah shrieked.  “And I’m tired of being accused,” she wailed, “every time you pull a muscle lifting your stupid old weights!” She warbled, wincing as she accidentally poked herself.

Okay, so I’m exaggerating. But seriously, there is nothing that can pull you out of a story than a jarringly inappropriate or just plain dumb dialogue tag. And while I don’t always agree that the ubiquitous “he said,” or “she said” is the only permissible tag. There are times when shrieked, whimpered, cried, and even growled works. The key to tags is to read your story aloud. Does that whine fit the moment or can you convey your characters emotion through action?

Teachers of English, writing and grammar, this is a great writing challenge. Dialogue tags trip up even the most experienced writers and should be explored thoroughly and the best way to do that is to write lots of dialogue. Then read it aloud. And share!

Beatific: be·a·tif·ic

Blissful, expressing or radiating great happiness and serenity

Of heavenly happiness: bringing or expressing the perfect happiness and inner peace supposed to be enjoyed by the soul in heaven

What a lovely word. I like to think I’ve experienced the emotion of perfect happiness but I have to say I doubt it. I was watching a program about wee kittens and puppies and their first days and weeks of life and there was beatific.  It took so little to make them happy, food, sleep, play. And just watching them, I felt decidedly beatific.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, this is a great word to add to your students’ vocabularies. An even better one to try and add to your classrooms.

Grammar Punk Sentence: B A 3

Snuggled together in a pile of paws and tails and muzzles, the brand new batch of kittens created a positively beatific picture of domesticated bliss.   

Write a Grammar Punk Sentence that includes at least three words that contain B and A and the word beatific.

My Name Up In Song

There are two songs of relative well-knowness that happen to have my name in the title. Over the years I have become comfortable with my relative ambiguity about this fact. On the one hand it is not a horrible thing to hear your name sung by a cute rock guy.
On the other, if I had a dollar for every time I was serenaded—usually badly—I could have bought the rights to the stupid things and banished them from the airwaves for all time.

For the most part I don’t mind it.

The much more modern one was just playing on my radio and I happen to like the tune as well as the artist so I don’t grit my teeth too much. It just got me to thinking about how many songs contain someone’s name—usually women. And how many of us flinch when we hear it on the radio.

Layla, Brandy, Sharona, Tammy, Sherry, Jeannie, Rosanna, Beth, Eleanor (Rigby), Judy, Jude, Mary, Sue, and on and on. Not to mention, Danny, Billy, Johnny, etc. This is of course not a new phenomena and it’s pretty much apropos of nothing much—I was just thinking…

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, here’s a good writing challenge for your students. Ask for a list of names in songs and see how many your class can come up with. Then challenge them to write a paragraph or two about the character in the song. Then share!

The Cheshire Cat

My personal favorite. The image of that cat fading away and leaving behind nothing but a smile. Brilliant.

And here I’d always thought that Carroll created this enigmatic character from whole cloth and his own imagination. Apparently, the phrase, Cheshire Cat first appears in print in John Wolcot’s pseudonymous Peter Pindar’s Pair of Lyric Epistles in 1792: “Lo, like a Cheshire cat our court will grin.” Earlier than that, A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue by Francis Grose (The
Second Edition, London 1788) contains the following entry: “CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of anyone who shows his teeth and gums in laughing.”

In any case, Alice first encounters the Cheshire Cat at the Duchess’s house in her kitchen, and then later outside on the branches of a tree, where it appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation. The cat sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Hearts’ croquet field, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by having made its head appear without its body, sparking a massive argument between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether something that does
not have a body can indeed be beheaded.

At one point, the cat disappears gradually until nothing is left but its grin, prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.

By the by, the county of Cheshire contained a number of mills and the occupation of hatter was common. This leads us to surmise that both the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter originated in the author’s familiarity with Cheshire.

I myself associate this particular character with my utter adoration of Charles Schultz Peanuts and Snoopy’s version of the Cheshire Beagle. Perfect.

The Cheshire Cat is an interestingly enigmatic character—aren’t all cats—and while he is a source of puzzlement to Alice he is also a touchstone of sorts as she finds herself in a world quite unlike her own. I think there are few of us who don’t know how she feels.

Basilisk: bas·i·lisk

a legendary reptile, said to have been hatched by a serpent from a rooster’s egg, whose look or breath was supposed to be fatal

a lizard, related to the iguana, that is able to run upright on its long hind legs. Native to: Central and South America

I’d guess you’d be baleful too if your breath and gaze was fatal!

In Roman mythology a basilisk was a serpent-like creature that had the power to mesmerize with its ferocious gaze and one breath could kill you. There is also an actual basilisk lizard related to the iguana with a large crest of skin that flares up menacingly and can also skitter across the surface of water.

Not bad for a lizard.

Grammar Punk Sentence: T E 5 basilisk

Intercepting the decidedly basilisk glare, the class quickly quieted down and gave their attention to the new substitute teacher. 

Write a Grammar Punk Sentence that contains at least 5 words with the letters T and E and the word basilisk.

Teachers of English, writing, and grammar, this is a nice word to add to your students lexicon. You might also try out your own basilisk stare if they get rowdy…

What else does it mean? Poach

To catch game illegally: to catch wild animals or fish illegally on public land or while trespassing on private land

To encroach on something: to encroach or impinge on somebody’s rights, territory, or sphere of operation in order to appropriate or remove another person or thing

To play somebody else’s shot: to play a shot that properly should be handled by a partner in badminton, tennis, squash, or handball To make ground muddy: to become muddy, or make ground muddy by trampling it

To simmer in liquid: to cook something by simmering it in or over water or another liquid

Seriously? This little monosyllabic word means all that? And the most common usage of the word—at least to those of us who cook occasionally, is the last one listed in the dictionary? What’s up with that?

I do love a “what else does it mean” that means so many different things.

poach
(v.1)

“steal game,” 1520s, “to push, poke,” from M.Fr. pocher “to thrust, poke,” from O.Fr. pochier “poke out, gouge,” from a Germanic source (cf. M.H.G. puchen “to pound, beat, knock”) related to poke (v.). Sense of “trespass for the sake of stealing” is first attested
1610s, perhaps via notion of “thrusting” oneself onto another’s property. Related: Poached; poaching.

As you can see this one goes back a ways and seemed to have come from the concept of invading another’s territory. Eggs are apparently a last minute addition.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, give this one a go with your class. See how many definitions of this wee word they know. Write a sentence including each definition. Maybe put them all together in a story. Then share.

Leaping Lizards

I do love a good leap year. And I’m always grateful that I have an ordinary old August birthday every time one rolls around.

The Julian calendar, which was developed in 46 BC by Julius Caesar, and became effective in 45 BC, distributed an extra ten days among the months of the Roman Republican calendar. It was also good old JC who sprinkled in an extra day in the woefully short February. So simple. So cool. So…weird.

And it is. Think about it. An extra day once every four years that doesn’t exist the other years in between. Weird.

Which got me thinking—for some reason—about Leaping Lizards. Apparently, this silly little phrase comes exclusively from Annie and the annoying little redheads propensity for alliteration. Hmm, not as interesting as I’d been hoping.

So leap year has come and is fast leaving not to return for another four years. See, I told you. Weird.

Teachers of English, writing, and grammar what do you think about leap year? What about your students? Write about it. Then share.

To round up our cavalcade of characterizations concerning Clue, even the cast of characters intended to knock off poor Mr. Body have characterization of their own. The weapons used for general mayhem have their own characteristics: Wrench, Candlestick, Rope, Gun, Knife, and the ubiquitous Lead Pipe.

Let’s face it, they’re all a bit ubiquitous and therein lies their inherent charm. The characters who we’ve already established have their own characteristics which automatically lend credence to their motivations must then take up a particular weapon to dispatch the victim and the choice of which weapon chosen is yet another layer added to the characterization.

Outside of a board game the choice of weapon tells a lot about a character. What type chooses a rope over a nice heavy candlestick? Who goes for the noisy gun over the quieter knife? Who has the nerve to get up close and personal and who prefers a lead pipe over a wrench? Those choices tell a lot about the character. How they use them tells even more. And how they clean up after themselves even more.

There you have it. A board game that contains all the elements of story complete with colorful characters,  motivations, means, opportunities, settings and a nearly endless array of ending possibilities. What more can you ask? Of a board game?

Teachers of English, writing, and grammar, we hope you take our Clue challenge and get your students thinking about characterization.

Apodictic: ap·o·dic·tic

demonstrably or indisputably true; expressions of the nature of necessary truth

I like a word that is sure of itself. This is a handy little word that describes a conclusive concept. So the next time you wih to make your point clearly and without fear of repudiation be apodictic about it.

Teachers of English, writing, and grammar this is a great word to add to your students’ vocabulary. Challenge them to think of things or ideas or concepts that they are positively apodictic about then write about it.

Grammar Punk Sentence: P O 3

So apodictic as to make one apoplectic just listening to her, we all began to avoid Nanette when she began talking politics.

Get a Clue!

Even the rooms are characters:

The Billiard Room, Library, Kitchen, Conservatory, Lounge, Dining Room, Hall, Ballroom, and Study.

To carry on with my Clue characterization, I love the rooms as much as the characters. Rooms can be characters, especially when they are written to be a tangible part of the story.

How is a room a character you might ask. How can it not be? I ask. Rooms can be so much more than the mere setting where the story takes place. Rooms can be drama. With proper use of description and choice of words rooms can live, breathe, and emanate mood, emotion, action, suspense, even danger. Rooms can make us want to enter or so not, snuggle into a comfy chair or be tied to one, sit down for a feast, learn, be entertained, be scared, or want to solve a mystery.

The rooms in Clue depend on their intriguing names and a graphic printed on a piece of pasteboard. Add in a cast of characters who are obviously up to no good and you have the makings of a story. What more can you ask?

Teachers of English, grammar and writing, ask your students to create their own tales from the rooms in a Clue game. What else happens in those rooms? Write about it. Then share!