George T. Arnold story

Herralda1172010758pm

Arnold story

By Ashley Herrald

George T. Arnold, a self-confessed “grammaraholic,” said he feels the need to correct any and all grammar mistakes Tuesday to a Marshall University Journalism class.

Arnold is the copy editor and author of the “Media Writer’s Handbook,” an AP style textbook used across the nation by journalism students.

Teaching at Marshall for more than 35 years inspired Arnold to write his own grammar book because he felt there was not a textbook that covered everything.

“There wasn’t really a good book to cover the material I was attempting to cover,” Arnold said. “I started to make handouts and soon the handouts got so thick that a publishing company wanted to know if I wanted to do a book.”

One experience Arnold shared with the class was one of an arts and crafts woman at a W.Va. State Fair who made stones with peoples’ last names on them. When referring to the family’s last name as the place of their residence, one should not state the families name then add “…’s” because it is a possessive tense. This one of the many mistakes Arnold noticed at the fair. It should have had an “s” added to a last name unless the last name ended in an “s,” then there should have been an “es” at the end. When he told the woman about her grammatical error, she said her English teacher told her it could be either way.

“I simply said, well your teacher was wrong,” Arnold said. “She of course did not like that I corrected her and asked me to leave, not very politely I might add.”

This experience was one that Arnold said he always shared with his students in hopes they would not make themselves.

Arnold is creating a new chapter in the sixth edition of the handbook because he said it is important to observe the fundamentals of journalism writing.

“You don’t need to apologize for your mountain accent,” Arnold said when he spoke about different types of people and the ways they speak.

Arnold moved to S.C. one year ago and is still gathering new material for future editions of his handbook.

Arnold retired in 2004 and said he will continue to visit Marshall as often as possible.

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