Revised Speech Story

John Gibb

11/4/10

11:30 p.m.

Arnold Speech Story

            Retired faculty member at Marshall University said Tuesday that he is a self proclaimed “grammarholic” who is constantly annoyed by mistakes on menus and billboards.

            George T. Arnold, journalism professor at Marshall for 35 years, taught classes dealing with newspaper writing and editing and told students what he learned from his experience as a “habitual” copy editor. He said “I know I should mind my own business. I’ve known that for a long time. I just can’t help myself. I’m an addict.”

            Arnold said he wrote the “Media Writer’s Handbook,” published in 1996, because nothing in the market back then provided this information in a suitable manner. He said he is working on the sixth edition which is due out soon.

            Arnold, in his humorous sense, told students about specific instances that inspired him to write “Confession of a ‘Grammarholic’.” He said it annoys him when he sees those nice stones that sit in driveways that says the Jone’s or the William’s when is should be the Joneses or the Williamses because he said the apostrophe adds possession rather than being plural. He told of the State Fair of West Virginia incident in which he spoke with a woman that designs these rocks and was asked to leave when his critique offended her.

            Arnold said he admits to correcting everything and bothering everybody but it’s just habit considering his work with copy editing. He said he usually leaves notes for the managers about the mistakes that he reads but is typically “given a cookie and pointed to the door.”

            Arnold told of an article he had written titled “I Don’t Sound Like a Vice President,” where Arnold focuses on the use of pretentious language. He said he once had a graduate student that worked for one of the university’s vice presidents. Arnold said her boss was not pleased with her after she eliminated the wordiness and simplified the language because it didn’t make her sound like a vice president.

            Arnold talked about the new chapter he is including in the sixth edition of the handbook and said it is important to observe the fundamentals of journalism writing. Arnold said “you don’t need to apologize for your mountain accent,” when he spoke about various types of people and the ways in which they speak.

            Arnold moved to South Carolina 1 year ago and is still collecting material for future editions of his book which has been adopted by over 80 colleges and universities. Arnold said that he will continue coming back to Marshall as often as he can.