I had the privilege of being Grammarian on Tuesday at Guildford Speakers Club – A role that does not come naturally to me. I expect there will be grammatical errors on this page.

As with many of my passions, in speech writing I follow my heart and not my head. I do not have a grasp of the technical side of the English language, yet I understand the importance of the way words are used. In preparation for my role, I needed to remind myself of what adjectives, alliteration and analogies are, making notes on my smartphone for later reference.

When I introduced my role at the start of the evening, I also explained that I had set myself a challenge ….. to come up with a concise and interesting description of my job. I am a compliance professional and whilst there is never a dull moment in this world, to others it probably sounds rather boring.

Throughout the evening I listened intently to the participants, whether they were introducing their supporting role, delivering their prepared speech or taking up the challenge of topics. I made notes of any words or phrases that I thought added interest or impact to what the speaker was saying, then, during the short break, looked up my own reference notes to ensure that I would be able to accurately describe the form of grammar the words or phrases demonstrated.

I managed to deliver a successful summary of the evening and went home happy, having learnt that pattern or rythm adds interest and can help make something more memorable (alliteration or trios for example); and that the use of well chosen descriptive words (adjectives) can create imagry or cause an emotional response, whether it raises a laugh or brings a tear.

Language matters.

Oh yes…I did come up with a concise desciption of my job:

“As a compliance professional I relentlessly risk assess against regulatory requirements”