The statement ‘Words make the World Go Round’ is really a no brainer. When I was at school, words and english, correct english was a necessary evil. Not all of us thought that words were a doorway to a magical world that you could create yourself, a world limited only by your imagination.
I can’t remember thinking to my self “I want to be a writer”. I just wrote. About anything and everything. I think before writing became all-important to me I drew and most of all I read and read and read. I mostly read lady writers (no offence guys), tis was probably to my own detriment, however ladies such as Enid Blyton,who wrote The Famous Five, The Secret Seven The Ringading Mysteries and a lot more; Eleanor H Porter author of the ever optimistic Pollyanna; Pixie O’harris was famous for her illustrated fairytales but I loved her series the Fortunes of Poppy Trelor.
These are but a few of the wonderfully talented ladies who shaped my early times of reading and who, along with my school teachers at primary school encouraged a young writer on her life's path. Later on in my life the ladies feature once again in the pages of Catherine Cookson, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Anne and Charlotte Bronte, Phillipa Gregory, Karen Rose, and many many others.
So words! Why do they affect us so profoundly? What is their magic? What do these amazing conglomerations of letters mean to us. We use them every day in a multitude of different ways . We use words without even thinking about it. We spell, write, read learn, all these things involve the use of words. Even those of us who don’t feel this overwhelming urge, no need to put our thoughts into some sort of permanent display, are bound to use words every day.
As I get older I appreciate the use of ‘proper’ language. Not because I am prude so much as for the innate beauty of stringing together the perfect sentence. Hearing how the syllables roll off the tongue painting an exact picture in ones mind.
I am saddened that our younger people are have created their own abbreviated text that, while they understand it well enough has destroyed the beauty of the english that we were taught in school. Don’t knock old english it is the essence of who we are.
