Words are fascinating and we use them each and every day. The role of Grammarian is to listen to see how words and grammar are used in a speech, evaluation or topic and to pick out good use of phrasing, whether it brought pictures into the mind and also to comment on bad use of grammar.
The Grammarian should also listen for unusual words. We are advised to keep it simple and not complicate any speech with long words that may not be understood, but some unusual words may add to a speech.
The Grammarian really needs to listen well to enable them to report back to the members at the end of the meeting of how those performing provided interesting phrases and colourful words and where a presentation may have been improved by the use of different words or phrases.
Other items to watch out for are the continual use of ‘filler’ words, the dreaded ‘um’, ‘basically’, ‘actually’, ‘yknow’ etc. They can become very irritating and detract from the message the speaker is endeavouring to put across to the audience. Maybe some people do not notice these non essential words, however if you really listen they will become a blight to the message.
As Grammarian you can pick up on these aspects of speech and give feedback on how these have detracted from the speech and give examples of how not to use them, i.e. use the pause instead.
Your report should not be overlong, give examples of good and not so good grammar, words that you particularly liked and also how the use of unnecessary ‘filler’ words need to be curbed.
From Speakeasy 151 – September 2011