UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 34, Page 1
June 11, 1992
Graduates told to protect, preserve English language

     As students donned their blue gowns, straightened their mortar
boards and gathered for Commencement in Delaware Stadium May 30, they
surely thought that lectures on grammar were behind them forever, but
there was, in fact, one more to go.
     Journalist, author and language watchdog Edwin Newman gave them a
brief accounting of what's wrong with English in this country and
charged them with a task: "to protect, preserve and defend the English
language."
     Calling the condition of American English in need of "urgent
attention," he said, "...too many Americans-and I hope none of them
are here today- have become addicted to jargon, to mush, to smog, to
dull, pompous, boneless, gassy language, which is a serious handicap
to us in business and in government.
     "The condition of the language demands our attention also because
so many Americans cannot speak, read or write in any useful way, which
is a considerable handicap to the nation since there is a direct
connection between the skill and dispatch with which a nation uses its
language and its ability to compete in the modern world," he said.
     "Beyond that, when it comes to English, millions of Americans are
being cheated. They're being cheated because they have never been led
to understand the pleasure and satisfaction that come from using
English imaginatively and precisely. Their lives are narrowed and
impoverished as a result."
     Newman said the worst problem the language faces is bloating. "It
has unfortunately become typical of American English that enough is
almost never enough," he said, noting that "plan" has been supplanted
by "pre-plan" and "admit" replaced by "admit to."
     "When words are plain, specific and easily understood and do the
job, why not let them?...NBC Nightly News put on a handwriting expert
who pronounced a document 'a simulated forgery.' And does the San
Francisco Chronicle really believe that 'falsely impersonating a
federal officer' is more serious that just impersonating one?"
     Bloating occurs in other ways, he said, when a library becomes a
"learning resource center" and a greeting card a "social expression
product." "It's also the use of words that sound somehow technical,"
he added. "Once it might have been said of someone that she didn't get
along with people. Now she would be said to have failed to demonstrate
strong interpersonal skills and to lack human relations competence
with the result that she does not achieve the desired forceful but
likable impact."
     After citing similar examples from the military, Newman said,
"Straight-forward English clears the mind. It's no wonder that Gen.
John Vessey, when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
this, 'From my own experience I can tell you, more has been screwed up
on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack
of understanding of the English language than any other single
factor.'
     Listing more examples of obfuscation masquerading as English, he
noted, "I've been told about a hospital where, when somebody dies,
this is translated into 'negative patient care outcome.' And, in
another hospital, so I learned from an issue of The American Medical
News, a patient was said 'not to have fulfilled his wellness
potential,' which meant that he had died and seemed to imply that it
was rather his fault."
     Newman said 34 states have passed laws requiring plain language
be used in insurance policies, and 20 have passed such requirements
for consumer contracts.
     Another obstacle to preserving the language is the deliberate
misuse of English by large corporations, he said. For example, a
Purina ad reads, "If more dogs in New York ate Purina High-Pro, it
would seem like there were less dogs in New York." He noted it should
be "seem that" not "seem like" and "fewer dogs" not "less dogs."
     "Advertisers evidently believe that if you use 'I' and 'we'
correctly, rather than 'me' and 'us' incorrectly, you will go bankrupt
at once," Newman said.
     In addition to the bloating of the language, he described another
problem-the view that "correct and precise language were not
important, that what truly mattered was that people be warm and caring
and have healthy interpersonal attitudes, and that those who thought
it worthwhile to write and speak well were snobs. If you did not say
'you know' three or four times a sentence, you came under suspicion at
once."
     This view was embraced by many in education for several reasons.
Some were convinced that standard English did not matter, and others
thought it was undesirable because it set up class divisions. The
rebelliousness of the 1960s and 1970s was reflected in a rebellion to
the rules of language. "People wanted their insides to speak for them,
but that is not necessarily our insides' strong suit," he said.
     Another development that has taken its toll on American English
is "the great ethnic flowering in the United States," Newman said.
"For clinging to the immigrant connection, as so many Americans do,
may mean clinging to the English used by immigrants and that
inevitably was not an advanced form or subtle use of the language....I
am not speaking of borrowings from the tongues of those who came and
are coming to this country, which can be colorful and useful. I am
speaking of an attitude. Now, there's no implication here that English
 is superior to Spanish or to any other language or that any group is
any better than any other group.
     "We are, however, a nation with an unusual number of forces
making for division: regional forces, economic forces, racial,
religious, historic and others. English and the willingness of
immigrants to learn it-indeed the eagerness of immigrants to learn it
as a way to get ahead socially, politically and economically-has been
one of the unifying factors in this country. It can still be, but it
will be much harder to bring about if large numbers of Americans have
evident scorn for English and cannot be bothered to learn it even
moderately well."
     Despite all these problems, Newman noted that there are
encouraging signs. He cited two executive orders issued by President
Jimmy Carter calling for plain language in government regulations and
an order by a federal judge in New York to rewrite a letter to
Medicare recipients that told them why their claims were reduced or
turned down. He added that corporations, trade associations and
universities and colleges have all addressed these issues.
     But what lies ahead? "We cannot expect the language ever again to
be as settled as it used to be, as orthodox or as respected," Newman
said. "There are too many forces at work on it for that. Authority in
language used to be easier to maintain. The language models most
people saw and heard were few. Tradition mattered more than it does
now and more than it has in decades."
     These forces affecting English today, he said, include television
and radio, advertising and public relations, popular music, as well as
"a change in public manners with obscenity widely accepted, ...the
computer and its effect on language, ...the notion promulgated in
countless movies and television programs that, especially for young
women, vivacity is what counts and being unable to express yourself
well is somehow charming."
     English is the closest thing to a universal language, he said,
with an estimated one-third of the world's population knowing it to
some degree. "It is in our interest to encourage the use of English
elsewhere. To do that, we must know it well ourselves," he said.
     Newman concluded, "We cannot escape the fact that a nation awash
in jargon, pomposity and opaque language on the one hand and awash in
illiteracy and semi-literacy on the other is not healthy. It is
damaging itself."
     Also addressing the graduates and their family and friends at the
ceremony was University President David P. Roselle. He noted that the
graduating class included "a diversity greater than any before in the
history of this institution.
     "You represent over 90 majors from the University's 10 colleges;
you come from more than 30 states in the U.S. and from 30 countries
around the world; you range in age from 20 to 65; you have appeared on
national television as NCAA basketball championship contenders and as
a contestant on the game show Jeopardy," he said. "You represent a
diversity of culture, of race and of lifestyle entering a world of
instantaneous global communication that ensure that the graduating
Class of 1992 has the ability to affect the lives of more people than
any class we have ever graduated."
     The ceremony included two firsts, Roselle said, as students in
the first classes of the Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional
Management Program and the Professional Theatre Training Program were
awarded degrees.
     "You set forth today on a challenge even more remarkable than the
one that brought you here," Roselle said. "I have heard many speakers
observe that there are no exams in real life; I would like to correct
that by observing that there is, in fact, only one exam in real life,
and you may be relieved to know that it is multiple choice. Your
challenge as graduates will be to meet these choices, to weigh them
with the tools you have acquired here and to make better lives for
yourselves and for the people of our world."
     Also at the ceremony, five graduating seniors were recognized for
achieving a 4.0 cumulative grade index, upon completion of seven
consecutive semesters at the University.
     Introduced by Catherine B. Flickinger, vice chairman of the Board
of Trustees, were William Fredric Fagan of Rockville, Md., biological
sciences; William David Fell of Rising Sun, Md., English; Michael
Clinton Johnson of Delta, Pa., who received a bachelor of chemical
engineering degree; Robert Harvey Pritchard Jr. of Rehoboth Beach,
accounting; and Gary Robert Searer of Hershey, Pa., civil engineering.
     Craig Cheston, president of the senior class, presented Roselle
with the senior class gift, a contribution of $2,800 to be used for
specified University programs, with the majority going toward
landscaping at the new Bob Carpenter Center, which loomed over the
ceremony from the south end of the field.
     As has been a tradition for the last several years, the ceremony
opened with a procession of alumni delegates representing classes from
the 1920s through 1991. Leading the procession were this year's
recipients of the Warner and Taylor Awards as outstanding 1992
graduates: Kieran M. Gorgonne of Crystal Lake, Ill., Diane Swartwood
of Frederick, Md., and Brian E. Thorpe of Cherry Hill, N.J.