Speakers include 18th Circuit Chief Judge Robert Kilander, Circuit Clerk Joel Kagann, and Judges C. Stanley Austin, Ann B. Jorgensen and Hollis Webster. DCBA President Neal Cerne will be the moderator.
Land of Lincoln
The Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation will hold a family law training seminar for pro bono attorneys from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, in Collinsville. Topics include testimony of child abuse victims, maintenance, property issues and litigation of custody cases.
Among the speakers are ISBA Assembly member Julie Keehner Katz, who serves on the Special Committee on Implementing the New Parental Responsibilities Act, and Judge Barbara Crowder, a member of the Bench and Bar Section Council. Call Julie Rose, (217) 356-1351.
Illinois CLE Institute
The Office of State Appellate Defender is co-sponsor of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education seminar, "Presenting and Challenging DNA Evidence," that will be presented from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, in the UBS Tower Conference Center, Chicago. Call (800) 252-8062.
Lake County Bar
The Lake County Bar Association Wills, Trusts and Probate Committee will hold its annual luncheon seminar from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at the Northern Trust Co., Waukegan. Call (847) 244-3143.
Law and Technology
The Chicago Bar Association and Milwaukee Bar Association are sponsors of the Midwest Law and Technology Conference and Expo. The dates and locations are: Tuesday, Nov. 30, UBS Tower Conference Center, Chicago; Wednesday, Dec. 1, Wyndham Milwaukee Center.
To register for the Chicago program call (312) 554-2056. For Milwaukee, call (414) 274-6760.
Constitutional Rights
The Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago will conduct its second Equal Justice Under Law Conference for students on Friday, Dec. 3. Call Kathy Bell, (312) 663-9057.
Illinois Trial Lawyers
The Illinois Trial lawyers Association Education Fund will condict a medical malpractice seminar on Saturday, Dec. 4, at the DoubleTree Guest Suites, Chicago. Call (800) 252-8501.
Fundraising Professionals
The fund-raising seminar, "Planned Giving When That's Not All You Do," which had been scheduled Thursday, Oct. 28, in Champaign, has been postponed until March 1. Call Jacqueline S. Joines at Eastern Illinois University, (217) 581-7969.
Q:I was taken aback by the headline: "Forecast Outshined the Gloomy Facts." It sounds wrong, but perhaps it is correct. I can't find the answer elsewhere; can you help?
A:Chicago correspondent David Lester has good reason to be confused: Dictionaries don't agree about the past tense of shine. Webster's Third New International (1993) lists both shined and shone as the past tense of shine, and the online American Heritage Dictionary agrees. But the online Webster's Revised Dictionary lists only shone, calling shined "archaic."
Webster's Third lists a number of quotations showing how authors have used shine and shone. A perusal of these indicates that when shine was used as an intransitive verb (a verb that doesn't take an object), authors seem to prefer shone as the past tense. For example, Sherwood Anderson wrote, "His withered face shone with spiritual power." But when shine is a transitive verb (one that takes an object), authors preferred shined as the past tense. For example, Richard Bissell wrote, "We stood there and shined our lights upon the deck." And the meaning of the two past tenses usually differs. The past tense shone is synonymous with beamed or glistened (the sun shone brightly); the past tense shined means polished or cast light on. (He shined the metal till it gleamed.)
The etymology of the English language explains why shine has two past tenses. During the period of Old English (Anglo-Saxon), which ended with the French victory at Normandy in 1066, there were seven classes of what linguists call "strong" verbs, with numerous verbs in each class. Strong verbs change their base form to create the past tense and past participle. Thus, to name a few: ride, rode, and ridden; shake, shook, and shaken; sink, sank, and sunk. Weak verbs, on the other hand, merely add -ed to form the past tense and past participle.
After the Norman Conquest, the French invaders who settled in England found it easier to add -ed to verbs than to remember the strong past tense. So the number of strong verbs began to shrink. By the thirteenth century, verbs like burn, brew, bow, climb, flee, flow, help, mourn, row, step, and walk had lost their strong endings, adding -ed instead. And the number of strong verbs has been shrinking ever since. Professor Albert Baugh (in A History of the English Language) wrote in 1959 that there remained in English only 68 of the Old English strong verbs, and there are doubtless fewer today.
But some verbs retained their strong endings while adding weak endings. For example there is string, whose past tense can be either stringed or strung. Another is wake, with either waked or woke as its past tense, and a third is weave, with the choice of weaved or wove as its past tense. Readers can probably think of others. Add shine to this list, and you provide a nice distinction in meaning when you choose either shined or shone.
My thanks to Mr. Lester for an interesting question.
Q:One of the attorneys I work for has a particular grammatical "preference" that I find troublesome. Here is a copy of a paragraph he drafted.
"These issues were directly addressed with plaintiff's counsel, pursuant to which conversation the parties agreed that they would attempt to settle the matter on the basis of plaintiff's claimed medical specials, without reference to the lost wages claim (it was also indicated to plaintiff's counsel defense counsel's belief that the unsigned letter purported to be from plaintiff's previous employer, alleging additional lost wages of X$, was a fabrication on the part of plaintiff, which while not specifically acknowledged as such by plaintiff's counsel, nonetheless was also included in the agreement to not be considered in any calculation of claimed damages at least insofar as settlement negotiations were concerned).
If, after reading that paragraph-long sentence you had to take a deep breath, you are not alone. The correspondent who sent it said that she would improve the sentence by putting a period after the word claim (just before the parenthetical section began). She is right, but that isn't all that needs to be done. This long sentence contains parenthetical phrases inside parenthetical phrases, making the statement almost unintelligible. The language "alleging additional lost wages of X$" is a parenthetical phrase; the language "which while not specifically acknowledged as such by plaintiff's counsel" is a parenthetical relative clause; and the final phrase, "at least insofar as settlement negotiations were concerned" is another parenthetical phrase.
The paragraph was also laden with passive verbs, creating long involved sentences: "were directly addressed"; "it was also indicated"; "purported to be"; to "not be considered"; "calculation of claimed damages." Active verbs would make the paragraph clearer and shorter.
The drafter of that paragraph should discard his "particular grammatical preference."
POTPOURRI:
A reader sent the following excerpt, along with a note saying that it was from a speech of "a preacher in New England and from the Southeast." You may or may not agree with the sentiments expressed, but as an illustration of persuasive writing it seems hard to beat:
"Dancing is for the most part, attended with many amorous smiles, wanton compliments, unchaste kisses, scurrilous songs and sonnets, effeminate music, lust provoking attire, ridiculous love pranks all which serve only of sensuality, of raging fleshly lusts. Therefore it is wholly to be abandoned by all good people. Dancing serves no necessary use, no profitable, laudable or pious end at all. It is used only to inbreed depravity, vanity, wantonness, pride, profaneness or madness of men's depraved natures. Therefore it must needs be unlawful. The way to heaven is too steep, too narrow for men to dance in and keep revel rout. No way is large or smooth enough for keeping roisters for jumping, skipping, dancing dames, but that broad, beaten pleasant road that leads to hell. The gate of heaven is too narrow for whole rounds, whole troops of dancers to march in together."
Gertrude Block is Lecturer Emerita at the University of Florida College of Law. Her book, "Effective Legal Writing" (Foundation Press), is now available in a 5th edition (1999), with an accompanying instructor's manual. Ms. Block is also co-author of the "Judicial Opinion Writing Manual" (published by the American Bar Association, 1991). Send questions to the ISBA Bar News Language Tips, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Bar Center, Springfield, IL 62701, or e-mail her at block@law.ufl.edu.
A jazz trio will provide background music while members of the Advocates Society enjoy a lavish buffet dinner and bid in a silent auction from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at the Chicago Athletic Association. A benefit for scholarships, the event is chaired by ISBA Assembly member Maureen C. Pikarski, (312) 456-0377.
Appellate Lawyers
Justices of the Appellate Court, 4th District, will join members of the Appellate Lawyers Association for luncheon and roundtable discussions on Thursday, Nov. 18, at Biaggi's Ristorante in Bloomington. Call Justice James A. Knecht. (309) 829-3715.
Black Women Lawyers
A roundtable program, "Career Planning: Building the Career of Your Choice," will be conducted by the Black Women Lawyers Association of Greater Chicago from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at Holland & Knight. The speaker is Nina Fain. Call (312) 554-2088.
Chicago Bar
The Chicago Bar Association's 81st annual Christmas Spirits show, "The Associate," will be staged at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Dec. 7-11, at the Merle Reskin Theater. Optional pre-show dinners are offered at 6 p.m. in the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Call (312) 554-2000.
Chicago Law Libraries
Mary Alice Baish, associate Washington affairs representative of the American Association of Law Libraries, will speak to the Chicago Association of Law Libraries at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the University Club of Chicago. Her topic is "The 108th Congress Draws to an End: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
Baish also will participate in a 10 a.m. workshop panel discussion Nov. 17 at another location (see Seminars, page 22). Call Jim Wilson, (312) 258-4718.
DuPage County Bar
Members of the DuPage County Bar Association may drop off clean coats, hats and mittens for distribution to needy men, women and children until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 23, at the bar center or state's attorney's office in Wheaton.
The garments will be sorted that evening by participants in the Lawyers Lending a Hand program, and will be delivered to appropriate agencies. Call (630) 653-7779.
Federal Bar
A program on "Child Exploitation on the Internet: The Federal Response," will take place during a luncheon meeting of the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the Chicago Bar Association. Call (815) 464-9068.
Elizabeth F. Yore, general counsel for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, will be moderator of a panel that includes Andrew Oosterban of the U.S. Department of Justice, Virginia M. Kendall of the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, and Scott J. McDonough of the Innocent Images Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Grundy County Bar
The Grundy County Bar Association has received an ISBA affiliated bar association grant of $350 to distribute hardbound, engraved copies of Black's Law Dictionary to five high school libraries.
The project will promote the bar association and legal profession, and will honor the memory of former judge Leonard Hoffman, who died in January. Call Charles Schmidt at (815) 942-0701 for details.
Jewish Judges
Current officers of the Jewish Judges Association are Gerald C. Bender, president; Edward R. Burr, Morton Denlow, Allen S. Goldberg and Shelley Sutker-Dermer, vice presidents; Ronald S. Davis, corresponding secretary; Michael C. Zissman, recording secretary, and Robert E. Gordon, treasurer.
Kankakee County Bar
Kankakee County Bar Association members will hold a fall social reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Dionne's French Country Restaurant in Momence. Call President Roger C. Elliott, (815) 472-2634.
Lee County Bar
ISBA President Ole Bly Pace III of Sterling was honored by the Lee County Bar Association on Nov. 10 during a dinner at the Dixon Country Club. Gary R. Gehlbach, a member of the ISBA Real Estate Law Section and Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Board is president of the association.
North Suburban Bar
The North Suburban Bar Association will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria in Lincolnwood. Call President Paul Shuldiner, (312) 372-8242.
Northwest Suburban Bar
The Women of the Bar Committee of the Northwest Suburban Bar Association will meet Friday, Nov. 19, at Yanni's Restaurant, Arlington Heights, for luncheon and program. The speaker is Debran Rowland, attorney and author of "The Boundaries of Her Body: The Troubling History of Women's Rights in America." Call (847) 259-7908.
The NWSBA will conduct a civil litigation seminar, "The Ins and Outs of Shareholder Disputes," from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, in the District 214 board room, Arlington Heights. Speakers are Cook County Judge Stephen A. Schiller and Deborah S. Bussert of Meltzer, Purtill & Stelle.
Phi Alpha Delta
Barrington attorney John Peter Curielli received an Outstanding Devotion to Phi Alpha Delta Award from the law fraternity's Chicago alumni chapter during a dinner Nov. 14 in Lombard.
Sangamon County Bar
New officers of the Sangamon County Bar Association will be installed during a dinner Thursday, Nov. 18, at Panther Creek Country Club, Springfield. Call Shirley Vinson, (217) 753-6365.
The association will conduct its annual Thanksgiving Day Hike, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 25, at Carpenter Park. Coffee, cider and pastries will be available before the hike.