Essential English for all - a rant!

Language skills are an essential part of a lawyer’s armoury. We spend much our time communicating whether it be in correspondence, drafting documents, emails, discussions or on our feet in court. Call me old fashioned but taking liberties with good English never ceases to irritate me. We are of course all familiar with Eats Shoots and Leaves or was it Eats, Shoots and Leaves?? Hopefully most of us now remember where to place a comma!

But there are so many liberties being taken with language that there is a serious need of a rant…

So I’m not a grammar pedant. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something I can cope with. And I regularly begin sentences with a conjunction. But only in some circumstances.

So what I am talking about is those phrases which are in common usage but completely meaningless.

So It is highly unlikely that you have literally done anything. You either have or you haven’t.

So when was the last time that you saw anybody turn round and do something?

So what does ‘should of’ even mean?

So don’t even get me started on misplaced apostrophe’s!

So is it me? Should I pick on less people for not getting it right?

Why is compulsory to start every sentence with the word ‘so’?? You have to admit that it gets on your nerves...

It isn’t about being pedantic. It is about communicating simply and clearly. We do not need to add these extra words and phrases.

End of rant.