"I'm silently correcting your grammar."
That's what it says on my new coffee cup, and that’s what I do.
Can’t help it. I'm commenting (to myself) about the stylistic quality of what I'm hearing in this conversation we're having. I'm commenting in detail, all in my head.
An obsession with the rules of language arose in me early, and has sent down deep roots over the ensuing decades.
I'm the son of an editor. I wrote well from an early age. I was successively an English major, a
newspaper editor and a management/writing instructor. I designed and delivered
a three-day course in Business Writing and a daylong training session for working professionals called “A Grammar Refresher.”
You don’t easily get over such a history.
