Defining the terms...by Sharon Flood Kasenberg

We all have our pet peeves when it comes to language usage. Don't get me started on the way the English language has been debased and abused over the past few decades! If I were to give a detailed account of all of my frustrations with the lack of grammar, spelling and general comprehension skills in our society then I would be posting  a very long tirade indeed!

Thus I have decided it would be better for my blood pressure to merely list a few of my larger complaints in poetic form.

Defining the Terms-by Sharon Flood Kasenberg  (April 2011)

Perhaps it's churlish to complain,
but some from this may knowledge gain.
You see, these terms may be confused
and language shouldn't be abused.
A few of my pet peeves are these -
(so pay attention, if you please)
bear with me while I take the time
to re-define these words in rhyme.
An opposite's an antonym -
like saying "her" is "anti-him"
or how what's wrong opposes right
or that the dark is "anti-light".
Now to explain a synonym
I'd say that "thin" is just like "slim"
or "crazy" is just like "deranged" -
for these words can be interchanged.
With homonyms one must take care -
When to use they're or their or there?
Perhaps THEY'RE still on THEIR way THERE -
WEARing the WARES they bought someWHERE!
And then there is the homophone,
which really is an aural clone -
to ears - just like another sound
although in different letters found.
Uneducated men may scoff
when I say cough is not spelled "coff"
or tell me that I'm being gruff
by telling them their spelling's rough.
Yes, words used well are lovely things -
with proper usage, grammar sings -
and editors will think you kind
if you use words as they're defined.

(But stay tuned readers, there is such a proliferation of horrific linguistic bastardization in cyber-space that I feel bound and beholden to post more on this topic at a later date!)