Dear Readers,
In this month's post, I am going to focus on grammar and then I am going to show you how grammar can solve murders. But first, an introduction to my two new best friends, Strunk and White, who wrote The Elements of Style, my English grammar bible. Here's a description from Wikipedia:
The Elements of Style is a prescriptive American English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was composed by William Strunk, Jr., in 1918 and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and expressions commonly misused", and a list of fifty-seven "words often misspelled". It was much enlarged and revised by E.B. White for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of so-called Strunk & White, which Time magazine named in 2011 one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923.
I was surprised to find out how well known these two men were when I heard them referenced in the following TV shows.
Example: A clue in the category "Non-fiction" on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" gave this answer:
"Time [magazine] called this handbook by Strunk and White one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923."
Of course the correct question was, "What is The Elements of Style?" which you just read above.
Example: The TV show "Monday Mornings" was a show about the Monday morning ritual of M&M (morbidity and mortality) conferences at major hospitals to determine patient deaths. In the episode, "One Fine Day," Dr. Sung Park, a Korean surgeon at the fictitious Chelsea General Hospital, is called on to explain his actions during a surgery where his patient died. After his limited-English explanation, Chief of Surgery Dr. Hooten exclaims, "That was very well put, Dr. Park. Strunk and White could not have more eloquently made your case."
Example: In the episode "Fathers and Sons" on the TV show "Blue Bloods," NYPD detective Danny Reagan and his partner Kate Lansing are arguing over the pronunciation of the noun forte. In the squad room, they check the dictionary to see who is right. Their commanding officer comes out of his office and addresses them: "Hey, Strunk and White, you done?"
How important is grammar? Read on.
Example: The 2013 film "The Heat" has FBI agent Sarah Ashburn teaming with Boston detective Shannon Mullins to work on a drug case. Shannon enters the apartment of a suspected drug dealer and yells, "Hands up!" but is caught off guard by the roommate who holds a gun to her head and says, "I think it would be much more better if you put your hands up." Agent Ashburn comes up behind him, points her gun and says, "'Much more better?' Drop the gun and take a grammar course, you idiot." *My sentiments exactly.
Example: On the TV show "Motive," Detectives Flynn and Vega are questioning a suspect in a murder. Flynn asks him, "So you didn't say: 'If you don't make me happy, you and your family won't live to regret it'?" Her partner adds, "Which, aside from the lousy grammar, pretty much sounds like a death threat." *Yes, the double negative is not good grammar.
Example: John Travolta plays Army investigator Paul Brenner who works for the CID (Criminal Investigation Division) in the 1999 film "The General's Daughter." He's questioning Colonel Robert Moore who worked with, and may have been involved with, the daughter who was found murdered on the army base. During the interview, Moore asks Brenner, "Did you go to college?" Brenner asks, "What do you think?" The colonel answers, "I think not." Brenner asks, "Why? Did I make a mistake in grammar?" *I didn't hear any mistakes.
Now here's where knowing good grammar can actually solve murders.
Example: The TV show "Murder in the First" has SFPD Inspectors Terry English and Hildy Mulligan investigating several murders surrounding internet wunderkind Erich Blunt. An email written by one of Erich's loyal employees catches English's attention. He points out to Mulligan where the employee typed, "Not happy with this month's ad in Wired. You shouldn't've moved ahead on that campaign without my sign-off." Mulligan asks, "So?" Terry points out, "shouldn't've. Look at that - two apostrophes ... How common is that?" He then compares the email to what he believes is a bogus suicide note where the deceased wrote, "Then I broke her neck. Yes, I killed her. I shouldn't've but she deserved it." *The inspector believed that based on the unique spelling and contractions, the same person wrote both, therefore the employee is the culprit. He was right.
Example: Attorney Keegan Deane on the TV show "Rake" must defend an accused serial murderer, Jack Tarrant. The suspect claims that then-police officer and now Chief of Police, Bernie Michaels, wrote the confessions and made him copy and sign them. Having worked with Bernie and knowing how he writes his reports, Keegan is curious and rereads the confessions. He sees that Tarrant is telling the truth. He tells his client, "I can prove Bernie Michaels wrote your confessions for you. Look at this first one, circled in red. 'I must of blacked out ...' Must of instead of the grammatically correct must have or the contraction must've." He flips to another page and reads, "'I should of never gone there.' Should of, not should have. Bernie Michaels, he's chief of one of the biggest police departments in the world and his grammar is shameful." *I was glad to see that the attorney knew his grammar. The Police Chief was arrested.
So now we know how important grammar, good spelling and punctuation are. They could literally save your life.
