Excuse me, Sorry, I beg your pardon

We use the following words and phrases, Excuse me, Sorry and I beg your pardon almost every day, but most times we interchange them for each other and they still sound nice to the listener.

Well, that might be allowed semantically, but for proper representation and for the sake of good writing we have to align them properly in terms of the syntax structure. So, the onus is on us to properly know how and when to use them, either in the British or American context. Please follow us as we clearly distinguish their usage.

We say excuse me to someone if we want to get the person’s attention or before we do something that might disturb him/her, interrupt him/her, push him/her in a crowd or disagree with him/her.

    1 .   Excuse me; can I get past, please?

We say sorry (formally) or I beg your pardon when we need to apologise for something:

    2.    Sorry, I did tread on your toe.

    3.  I beg your pardon. I think you were next in queue.

But in American English, pardon me and excuse me are used as apologies.

We say pardon? When we did not hear what someone has said and want them to repeat it. In this case, sorry?  is also used in the British English and excuse me? or pardon me? in American English.

We hope we have been able to shed some light on the different contexts of usage of “excuse me”, “sorry” and “I beg your pardon”.

This is the second building block; do keep in touch with us as we intend to lay a solid foundation in the use of English as it relates to problematic words.

PROBLEMATIC WORDS IN EVERYDAY USAGE

When building a house it becomes necessary to put the right blocks in the right place otherwise, the house will not align with the layout or design in the original plan. The foundation is the most important part of a building because it carries the weight of the whole building. That is how it is when it comes to our everyday use of grammar.

There are words that look simple, yet they are problematic. If we don’t have a proper understanding of these words, it might affect our writing and the information we intend to pass across to our readers.

Standard text on the use of English are in two-denominations: the first one is that most books on English language present formal ideas of how the language should be written, that’s not  bad but it is the grammar of the language  which most times we find hard to conform to because of the various ‘shifting lattices’ of the usage. Secondly and more importantly, because of their continuous insistence on the grammar, some books usually fail to capture and describe how people use the language. In this perspective, we have decided for the next few weeks to point the way to linguistically correct and socially acceptable form of the language. So, please stay with us:

 (1) EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT 

 If somebody works without wasting time or energy, and in a well-organized way, we say that he is efficient. For instance, a good secretary is efficient; an inefficient secretary puts paper in the wrong place, forgets things or takes too long to do small jobs. A machine or a system that works well is also described as efficient. Let us consider these examples:

1. She has sorted out all my letters and filed them alphabetically; I think this new secretary is efficient.

2. The Nigerian Telephone System is becoming efficient.

When we say that something is effective, we mean that it solves a particular problem that we have, or gets the result we want:

3. My aunt only gets weaker by the day; those drugs are not effective at all.

4. I think a black belt would look very effective with that dress.

We hope we have shed some light on the difference between “efficient” and “effective”. This is the first building block that we want you to lay.

Please share this with friends so they also can put it in use.

Rejecting a Manuscript: An Editor’s Perspective

Editing, specifically book editing, is simply the conception, planning and specifying of the contents of a book, in cooperation with the author, for the purpose of transmitting the author’s message to the reader in the best, most satisfying and most profitable way possible (Festus Adesanoye).

The editor’s main role is that of an experienced intermediary who ensures the successful delivery of the author’s ideas for the information, education, instruction or amusement of the reader.

The editor sees to the development of the manuscript; the selection, preparation and styling of the manuscript; and the organisation of the entire editorial process.

When selecting or rejecting a manuscript he/she puts a lot of factors into consideration:

a)   Does the manuscript fit into the list of his publishing house?

b)  Does the manuscript conflict in any way with the books already accepted by his publishing house?

c)   Are the lists of manuscripts in his publishing house already crowded with similar texts?

d)  Is the subject matter of the book one which has proved unsuccessful for the particular publishing house in the past; and

e)   Most importantly, is there a ready market for the book if eventually published?

It is not until all these factors have been carefully considered – the literary sophistication of the author has very little to do with the publishability or not of his manuscript – that the editor decides, regretfully, to decline.

Unlike the popular picture painted in the mind of an author, of a hard-to-please editor, gloating over all the manuscripts he rejected; is the more real imagery of an experienced professional, seeking to make objective book decisions, acceptable for public consumption and for profitability.

The editor, indeed, tries to make the process of rejection as painless as possible to the author, and he achieves this by writing as gracious a note as is possible in the circumstances.

Here is a sample of a letter of rejection fashioned by the editor of a Chinese journal:

We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of a lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that, in the next thousand years, we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity (Cited in Festus Adesanoye, The Book in Nigeria).

It is true that the standard rejection note is not as ebullient in tone as this one, but the real goal of the exercise is to say ‘thanks, but no’ in the most pleasant way possible.

Modified from: Festus Adesanoye, The Book in Nigeria: Some Current Issues, Ibadan University Press, 1995.

Descriptive Writing 102 (Guidelines to Writing Good Descriptive Essays)

Continued from last week.

2.    Select a vantage point (point of view) from which to relate events or details. We have three points of views:

a)     First person: In the subjective case, the singular form of the first person is “I,” and the plural form is “we.” “I” and “we” are called subjective case because they are both used as the subject of a sentence. “I” refers to yourself, while “we” refers to yourself and/with others.

For example: I just joined the Lagos Book Club and we are reading, “The Wonders of Africa.”

Other singular first person pronouns include the objective case (this means it is used as the object of a sentence) “me,” and the possessive case (they are used to show possession or ownership), “my” and “mine.”

Plural first person pronouns are “us” (objective case) and “our” and “ours” (possessive case).

I am certain a table will make it easier to understand.

First Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case
Singular	I	Me	My
Plural	We	Us	Mine

b)  Second Person: This point of view is more appropriate in formal writing. Use the second person point of view for presentations, emails, business and technical writing.

This point of view addresses the reader. It makes use of pronouns like, “you,” “your,” and “yours.”

Second Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case
Singular and Plural	You	you	your/yours

c)   Third Person: This is the most common point of view used in fiction and academic writing. The pronouns used here are “he,” “she,” and “it.”

For example: It was the best time of my life. “It” is in the singular third-person subjective case.

In addition to having singular and plural cases, the third person also has gender and neuter (a gender that refers to inanimate objects) categories.

Third Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case
Singular	He (masculine)	Him (masculine)	his/his
	She (feminine)	Her (feminine)	Her/hers
	It (neuter)	It (neuter)	Its/its (neuter)
Plural	They	them	Their/theirs

3.   As you write, include vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeal to all of the reader's senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. 

4.   Consider including figures of speech, such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help evoke feelings and paint a picture in the reader's mind.

5.   Use precise language. Specific adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs give life to the picture you are painting in the reader's mind. Do not use general adjectives, nouns, and, of course, passive verbs.

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