Clean Collars, Rough Diamonds, and Good English

I've been rummaging through a box full of cast-off books--more specifically, guides to business writing and office etiquette, all about a century old. My quest? To find a reasonable definition of "good English," a phrase cherished by the authors of such texts. What I found, however, revealed more about good looks than good language.

If pressed to say definitely what good American English is, I should say, it is the English of those who are believed by the greater number of Americans to know what good English is.
(Ralph Olmsted Williams, "Good English for Americans," in Our Dictionaries and Other English Language Topics, 1890)

"Do you know good English?" is just one of the questions posed by Ellen Lane Spencer in her book The Efficient Secretary, published in 1916. It shows up in Chapter Five, "Responsibilities of a Secretary"--right after "Have you any definite ideals or ambitions?" and "Can you spell?" (If you're curious, "the market price of the ambitionless kind is about a dollar a day" and "reference to the dictionary should not average more than once in several hundred letters.") Listen to what Ms. Spencer has to say on the topic of good English:

It has been asserted, and is probably true, that no one on earth speaks absolutely correct English. Yet many do write correct English. In the rush and hustle of modern life, though, we have learned to cut down our words and sentences, and at times to use a single phrase, correct or slangy, to tell a complete story. That is one reason why we do not speak better English. We have not sufficient time to do so. It is always possible to write good English, and a secretary must know how; for many business men do not take time to dictate correct English, leaving it to their secretaries to correct errors.
(The Efficient Secretary: Practical Suggestions, Information, Helps to Stenographers and Others Wishing to Become Secretaries, Ideas, Economy, Loyalty, Typing, Filing, Getting a Position, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1916)

Yet according to Ms. Spencer, fixing the boss's mistakes isn't the half of it. To earn her 12 bucks a week, a secretary must, above all else, look good. After all, "It is no more a fault for a business man to want good appearing, well dressed, healthy workers in his office than it is for him to want his furniture to look good. It is but natural and right for a business man to want a good-looking, healthy secretary."

Clean Collars and Rough Diamonds

Interestingly, the author of another advice book from the same era employs a clothing analogy to suggest that good grammar may be too important to be left to the help:

Clean collars and good grammar are not the things that make a Napoleon of Wall Street, but the absence of clean collars and good grammar arrests attention and divides the customer's interest, and in so doing it is bad business.
(Edwin Herbert Lewis, Business English, La Salle Extension University, 1922)

Yet Mr. Lewis also admits that if your daddy's rich and your mama's good looking, good English can be profitably avoided:

I recall a rich man's son who in college scorned to speak correctly or write legibly. "I shall always be able to hire a stenographer," said he. He is. He is well up in a big business, and other people manage his English for him. People call him a rough diamond, and enjoy his bad grammar.

Lewis concludes his sermon on "Grammatical Correctness" rather wistfully: "Not all business is done by rough diamonds for rough diamonds with rough diamonds."

Correcting the Dictator's Errors

Oh, but let's not kid ourselves, says the author of yet another old textbook. Any businessman (or "dictator") who's worth his salt must be too immersed in ideas to be concerned with the niceties of syntax. So once again, it's time to call in the secretary:

Theoretically, the secretary is supposed to put down on paper just what is said and just as the dictator said it. As a matter of fact, he should do no such thing, for a busy man in dictating letters will often be guilty of errors which would make his letter ridiculous if it were written just as he dictated it. In his concentration upon the idea, he is likely to become mixed in tense and mood, and his verb may not agree in number with the subject. These errors should be corrected by the secretary as the letter is being typed. For such revision of the employer's letters, the secretary must have a good knowledge of English grammar and rhetoric.
(Edward Jones Kilduff, The Private Secretary, His Duties and Opportunities, Century Company, 1919)

Note that while Mr. Kilduff's secretary is insistently male, a good appearance remains "the first requirement." Indeed, if a secretary "has freakish ideas about dress, he will soon find that he is laboring under a disadvantage."

Hitting the Mark With Good Grammar

In the end, one of the reasonable answers I was searching for showed up in a different sort of book altogether--a historical study of English published in 1909 by Dr. George Philip Krapp:

Our definition of good English is . . . very simple; any English that "hits the mark" is good English. To hit the mark in the center, it must express exactly what the speaker or writer wishes to express, in such linguistic terms as will convey to the hearer or reader exactly those impressions which it is intended that he shall receive.
(Modern English: Its Growth and Present Use, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909)

A professor of English at Columbia University, Dr. Krapp devoted much of his professional life to examining and challenging popular notions of what constitutes "good English." You'll find his engaging reflections on the topic in the final chapter of Modern English, reprinted here under the title What Is Good English?

Back in our own time, the quest continues. To share your thoughts on the meaning of "good English," please click on the comments button below.

More About Good English:

• What Is Standard English?
• Standard American English
• Standard British English
• What Is Good English? by George Philip Krapp

Image: A Comprehensive Guide to Good English, by George Philip Krapp, Rand McNally & Company (1927)