Welcome to Jose Carillo’s English Language Forum!

THIS WEEK IN THE FORUM:
December 18– 24, 2010

"A cabinet of finely balanced wonders
on the essay as a form of writing”
Click to read a review and
 excerpts from this book

• A Publisher’s Seemingly Serious
  Error in English Pronoun Usage
  My Media English Watch
• Using the Serial Comma Isn’t Just
  A Matter of Stylistic Preference
  Essays by Jose Carillo
• A Love Letter, a Provocation,
  and a Treatise on the Essay
  Readings About Language
• China Dotcom Giant Launches
  An English Language Service
  News and Commentary
• Is It Advisable to Write
  in Sentence Fragments?
  Use and Misuse
• Should Courses Be Chosen Mainly
  To Provide Better Employability?
  Education and Teaching Forum
• Some Romantic Rhymes
  With Unromantic Twists
  The Finest in Language Humor

It all depends on whether the pronoun
is a subject, a doer of the action, or
an object in the sentence.

• Celebrating the Holiday Season
  With the Element of Surprise
  The Lounge
• Hollywood Icons of Pulchritude
  Evolving Literally, Cinematically
  Time Out from English Grammar
• The Relative Importance of Main
  Clauses and Subordinate Clauses
  Going Deeper into English
• Figuring Out What Highly
  Figurative Language Means
  You Asked Me This Question
• Can Bad Sex in Literary Fiction Be
  Just as Enlightening as Good Ones?
  Advice and Dissent
• A Student’s Gnawing Doubt About
  What Constitutes Act of Plagiarism
  Students’ Sounding Board
• How Criterion-Referenced Tests
  Can Help Improve Your English
  How Good is Your English?

Do you have any question about the English language—its vocabulary, its grammar and usage, its construction and structure, or its idioms and other peculiarities? Or do you have the knowledge or expertise—and, of course, the time—to help English-language learners seeking to understand and navigate these aspects of the language better?

Or maybe you happen to be just a concerned English user disturbed by the misuse of English—whether subtle or blatant—in the publications or books that you read or by the people whom you deal with, or perhaps dismayed by how badly English is spoken in a TV or radio program or some other public platform?

If so, then Jose Carillo’s English Language Forum is the perfect place for you. Here, freely and at any time of the day, you can:

• ask questions about any aspect of English that confuses or mystifies you,
• give advice to people asking for informal instruction on the correct or better use of English, or
• simply relate your experience or encounter with English misuse at work, in school, or in the mass media.

Here, for starters, are some sample questions that will be most welcome in this forum:

1. Is “not unless” a redundant phrase?
2. Is the phrase “most often than not” correct usage?
3. Which is correct, “on behalf” or “in behalf”?
4. When do you use “would” and when do you use “will”?
5. Do you say “Best wishes!” to an ailing person?

If you want to know the answers to these questions now, Click here.

This forum will be focusing exclusively on English and its usage, and aims to be a vibrant venue for healthy and civilized discussions, not angry or violent ones. In the process it hopes to generate clarity and light, not semantic heat and verbal pyrotechnics, over English. It will therefore give no room to unbridled rants—whether pro or con—on any issue about English and its uses.

The English this forum will be using, by the way, is the American standard; the forum won’t be averse, though, to questions or explanations about how American English differs from British English or from other English standards or variants. But a word of caution: this forum won’t welcome opinions or value judgments as to which of these standards is the best or better English.

So, if everything’s clear to you now on what this website is all about, simply click on to see what Jose Carillo’s English Language Forum has to offer for you. Good luck in your continuing quest for better English!

Joe Carillo