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    It Ain't Always "I": Four Quick Steps to Speaking Correctly
    It Ain't Always "I": Four Quick Steps to Speaking Correctly
    It Ain't Always "I": Four Quick Steps to Speaking Correctly
    Ebook35 pages20 minutes

    It Ain't Always "I": Four Quick Steps to Speaking Correctly

    By James C. Bowers

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    About this ebook

    Grammar check and spell check on our computers have partially salvaged our written English, but spoken English has really disintegrated over the past 50 years. To prove to yourself that you need to read this book, I have a simple challenge for you: Take just 15 minutes listen to any news broadcast, speech, sermon, politician, lecture, address, etc. Mark down the number of times the speaker used the pronoun “I.” On a second column, mark the number of times the speaker used the pronoun “me.” When you find that the speaker never used the word “me,” (when a third of the time they should have) you will buy this book and move to the head of the class! Easy to read, understand and quickly apply - without grammar rules or textbook rigor. Just a simple technique that anyone can follow to get it right!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateNov 4, 2013
    ISBN9781483511900
    It Ain't Always "I": Four Quick Steps to Speaking Correctly

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      Book preview

      It Ain't Always "I" - James C. Bowers

      grammar.

      INTRODUCTION

      My father had the most influence over my early years; however, my mother’s fascination with grammar led me to write this book. Mom did not discipline us kids because of poor grammar; rather she made it fun, interesting and exciting. Many times she would write out a complex sentence and challenge us to diagram it. Often after hearing a speech or commentator on radio or TV, she would ask us how many grammatical errors we had detected. Knowing she would ask that question at the end of the program accomplished two goals: it trained our minds to listen for correct grammar and it also had us listening intently to the speaker. Years later, I wondered if the latter purpose were not her primary intent. It worked - all seven of us kids learned to always listen carefully.

      Having had that start in life and having spent over 25 years as a university professor, I have developed some perspective and made some observations. I have also put myself on the firing line of scrutiny by co-authoring three engineering books, publishing dozens of articles and giving hundreds of speeches. For all of these reasons, I believe I have earned the right to make some observations.

      It seems to me that during the first half of the 20th Century there were those (the uneducated, in general, but not always) who spoke consistently with bad grammar. Those more educated (and back then schools were very demanding concerning grammar) spoke for the most part using correct English. It seems that a reaction to this split began to occur in the l960’s. Grammar was less and less stressed in the classroom, but at the same time most people still wanted to appear correct and chic. In my opinion, this led to the always I and other phenomenon during the latter half of the twentieth century. Apparently people growing up in the 50’s heard their educated parents and classmates ridiculing the poor grammar of people some called

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