English for Lovers of English: Comments on English Usage for Advanced Learners

by S.K. Rana

Overview

In this book, I have brought together about 1,400 utterances that are faulty. None of these faulty utterances have been produced by me to illustrate incorrect use of English. All the faulty utterances found in this book have been taken from printed materialmostly from the newspapers I read. In order to focus attention on the error, I have shortened some of the faulty utterances. To me, it is very important that the faulty utterances in this book have not been produced by me. Jacques Barzun, the celebrated American scholar and recipient of the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters has something very pertinent to say on genuine faults as opposed to faults that have been produced as sample utterances. This is what Barzun says: In student writing, when the assignments are frequent and well designed, all kinds of error and clumsiness occur that are never found in the sample sentences of manuals and grammar books. These faults have the advantage of being genuine; they represent somebodys way of thought, and finding them faulty is a therapeutic attack on the mind that produced them. Barzun is talking about writing done by university students in America, but what he says about it is applicable to a great deal of Indian writing too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524525804
Publisher:	Xlibris US
Publication date:	07/30/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276
File size:	402 KB

About the Author

In recognition of his outstanding performance as a participant at the Summer Institute in English sponsored by the University Grants Commission in 1967, S. K. Rana was deputed by MS University of Baroda to do a course at Central Institute of English, Hyderabad. At the end of the course, he was awarded postgraduate diploma in the teaching of English. He also has an MA in English language and literature awarded to him by Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, in the year 1961. He has taught university and college teachers of English at three summer institutes. These summer institutes were sponsored by University Grants Commission and conducted by Department of English of MS University of Baroda in the years 1972, 1973, and 1977. He has also taught English in programs organized, among others, by All India Radio (broadcasts meant for secondary school teachers) and IAS Training Centre of MS University of Baroda for its trainees. He has also taught English to participants in training programs organized by the Rotary Club of Baroda and the Gujarat Electricity Board. All through his teaching career of thirty-two years at MS University of Baroda, he has been deeply interested in English usage. For him—to use Samuel Johnson’s words—“the allurements of emendation are scarcely re-sistible.” He has written 140 articles on the correct use of English, and these have been published in the Times of India and the Indian Express publications. These articles were widely and warmly praised by readers. S. K. Rana has also published a few articles of a noncritical nature. Most noteworthy among these is an article published by SPAN magazine, which is brought out by American Center, New Delhi. The title of this article is “American Girl in an Indian Home,” and it was published in SPAN magazine’s issue of January 1994. This article was subsequently published in a university-level textbook, Indian Prose for Effective Communication (Macmillan). Included in this textbook meant for university students are writings of such luminaries as Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Rabindranath Tagore. M. K. Gandhi, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajaaopalachari, R. K. Narayan, B. R. Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, Khushwant Singh, R. K. Srinivasa lyengar, and Sri Aurobindo.