LAGAN’S LITERACY MISSION - THE RESCUE OF STANDARD (BRITISH) GRAMMAR!
How many times are people confronted by what are seemingly simple tasks of literacy? For example; writing a job application, preparing a short report related to work or a personal situation, even a letter to a sweetheart, or composing a reference … or whatever. So often, the simple task gets compounded by a blockage hinting at inadequate literacy skills. If the latter scenario rings true, then do not get too worried; you are certainly not alone.
We often hear it said that the literacy merits of our grandparents generation rather exceed ours, and that is no exaggeration. Just take yourselves back to the Second World War, to young squaddies cramped into foul-smelling tanks en-route from Normandy beaches moving towards the Rhine, or camped in the deserts of North Africa… or even held in a German Prisoner of War camp. All of those poor fellows had wives/girlfriends/parents/siblings/friends etc with whom contact was so important. Few were well educated, but yet, as is common knowledge, in their meticulous longhand those letters home of so many British, Commonwealth and American/Canadian soldiers are among the most moving and valuable human recalls of that horrible conflict.
The same was true of the letters home from British servicemen of the Great War, 1914-18. There was something very revealing about the ability of past generations to articulate their experiences and feelings to loved ones. Perhaps the inculcation of basic grammatical rules from school days had given those people the confidence and means to express themselves? It certainly paid dividends.
Nowadays people seem troubled about expressing themselves. They rarely use dictionaries and scorn old rules of compositions having a beginning, main part and conclusion. Sentence structures are often unclear, punctuation either absent or misplaced, while terminology is riveted with American jargon – like “guys”, “hi”, “buddies” etc, none of which add much to comprehensibility. We are even troubled by the prospect of American mis-spellings becoming the norm, not something to be welcomed. I recall once getting a letter from a bank manager containing seven lines to a single sentence! What an exhibition of illiteracy from a so-called ‘professional’ executive!
To some degree, these trends are a consequence of computer culture (with poor standards dictated by American IT providers), but also reflecting modern commercial culture, where again Americans have a dominant input. At Lagan, we say enough Enough! The English language deserves to be rescued from cultural philistines whose priority would appear to be commerce above all else.
Lagan is not anti-American or a force of imperial cultural reactionaries, nor do we have any great sympathy with those wanting to preserve elite culture or other snob factors once associated with the presentation of English grammar. Not at all! Hailing from west of the Irish Sea, we proudly reassert the language and grammar used by some of our most distinguished sons, such as Derry poet and Nobel Laurete, Seamus Heaney, famous Belfast author C.S. Lewis, another of the great Belfast literati, Louis McNeice, plus many others. Those ‘titans’ are Lagan’s literary role models, and it is their legacy we treasure. Most important, it is their standards which guide us, and which we want to impart to clients.
Accordingly, we urge clients to understand that in seeking the help of Lagan with your essay, dissertation, thesis, company report or other professional communication, you are opting for a body wholly committed to British English in its most grammatical form. We make no concessions to American spellings, jargon or sloppiness. Nor do we feel that the declining use of the traditional essay by universities, colleges and public examination boards, in favour of document questions, has benefitted students or the British public, far less our overseas friends wishing to learn/improve fluency in sound English.
Our priorities shall include the use of dictionaries - instead of computer spell checks – grammatical structures, especially sentences and paragraphs, proper punctuation, broadened vocabulary, structured arguments, Oxford-style footnotes and, generally, all the threads of solid British essay writing. We feel this emphasis on standards would enhance your project, and also give you a standard of literacy that might boost your confidence for future works.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards, and may God bless you all with your respective tasks.
Dr Vincent McKee – Principal.
