THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280416
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Alison Schoew, a colleague, remarked that she and her husband, Rick, were discussing whether it is correct to say one ``has mown'' as well as ``mowed'' the grass.
``You have come to just the right person!'' I told her.
``Oh, then you know the answer!'' Alison cried, delighted.
``No, but I know who does,'' I said - and called the Grammar Hotline at the Virginia Beach Campus of Tidewater Community College.
And reached Donna Reiss, English professor, director of the writing center and doyenne of the hot line since 1981.
She is a wonder - meticulous in features, speech, dress and the outer edge of her left eyebrow that raises to punctuate a conversation.
Reiss and eight other faculty members staff what has become the mother of all grammar hot lines.
She has fostered champions of good grammar throughout the United States. Thanks to her, Virginia Beach, celebrated for sun and surf, has gained intellectual status. It could boast: ``Come to Virginia Beach for Sun and Syntax.''
Reiss compiled a directory of hot lines to hand out nationwide. Houghton Mifflin funded printing 20,000 copies for itself and TCC.
National redoubts of English teachers summon Reiss to speak on how to run writing centers and hot lines, as one just did in New Orleans. They don't pay, but TCC bears the fare. She goes with zeal.
Most speakers back and fill with the grace of bulldozers at a city dump. Her spontaneous discourse emerges diamond-cut.
All kinds call: sign painters who suspect an apostrophe is out of place; a plumber trying to comprehend wordy orders; students who need a hand framing a phase; a secretary untangling a boss' sentence; businessmen wording a contract; somebody settling a bet, concluding, ``I just got a free lunch!''
She and her colleagues, answering 3,000 calls annually, consult two dozen books. For hours call 427-7170.
The grammar gurus are Lianne Lambriola, Bob Kunzinger, Salatha Ford-Griffin, Stan Barger, Mike Thro, Pat Richardson, Tom Williams and Ann Woolford-Singh.
Reiss' verdict on the two past participles: both are acceptable, but even though the use of ``mown'' is correct, she said, ``I don't think it's a comfortable contemporary usage for most people. It is somewhat lyrical, too elegant for cutting the grass.''
Reiss was born with books. Her mother is an inveterate reader; her father brought her books from his sales trips. With bachelor's and master's degrees in English, she has taught in schools from suburban Atlanta to working-class London. Her mind knows no bounds. ILLUSTRATION: MORT FRYMAN/Staff
Donna Reiss, an English professor at the Virginia Beach Campus of
Tidewater Community College, directs the Grammar Hotline.
by CNB