Our lesson this week borders on what the English purists and masters consider as weak and redundant statements that could make it difficult for one to understand the message the writer is trying to convey at a glance. It is advisable to read the grammatical constructions listed below taken form the Penmen’s Media Studies Manual; rephrase and make them clearer for the reading and listening audience. Before I go into the details, let me further clarify my position on what constitute redundant phrases and how they impair our understanding of the language. According to the Penmen’s Media Studies Manual, these ungrammatical expressions and outdated construction mean great impediments to clarity in the use of English. Find better alternatives to them. Believe it or not, these are statements taken from newspapers of old, to say the least, which in modern day cannot stand the test of the time. However, I won’t be surprised if these expressions still occupy valuable spaces on the pages of some of our today’s newspapers. Change, as the saying goes, doesn’t come easy. Little wonder, the old, redundant mantra, “This is how or the way we use to do it,” remains the enemy of change. Take it or leave it, change is inevitable if the world must march on or catch up to new things and developments. Don’t be left behind, move with the time always. Stop singing old tunes and keep an open mind. After all, we all transit from being babies to adults, grow old and die one day along the stretch. So, why the hues about rejecting change. Experience gathered from my weekly piece are enough lessons why people, especially the elderly ones remain critical of some of the issues I raised. Well, I can understand their feelings, and so let them be. But still, that won’t change my position, just as the English pragmatists would insist on the currency of the language, or nothing else. These are food for thought for people who are averse to change. Sample these redundant or clumsy expressions and rewrite for clarity: “I have said it again and again. In the determination on who and who to play. At every nook and corner. What I think best necessary now… The lessons of our faults has to be enacted. I wish to stoop to the side lane and advise. Can do Nigeria more future pride. Encounter with a well prepared for team. Appreciate the plain home truth. In the case of another time. Attributed to some numbers of mistakes.” The list of these boring statements are endless. My emphasis here is that one should write clearly; employ short, simple and straightforward English to effectively engage the reader; desist from using redundant phrases that could possibly make him or her go to sleep.
These types of constructions are the impediments to clarity. The next important question is, how would someone identify statements that are clumsy and redundant? Simply by reading wide and taking notes, when necessary. Listen to the news on radio and televisiona good station for that matter, and take note of the simplicity of language and copy, or learn from it. No room or excuse for pomposity, or what others may call big grammar in the use of the language. It hinders understanding and sometimes creates apprehension in the minds of consumers of the information. I tell you, the good writer, writes with the mindset not only to educate but also to inform and entertain his or her audience, and of course, to persuade people to act or make informed decisions. Name them as the four cardinal objectives the journalist or reporter must bear in mind in the course of carrying out his or her assignments. I leave you with this note by a popular writer, W. Strunk Jnr. In his book “Elements of Style”- “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should contain no unnecessary lines…”
