What is good quality English?

Good quality English is English which would receive a good grade in an English composition course. It is English which is recognized by most speakers of some standard dialect of English as being grammatical, with words that sound good together, with syntax that is appropriate to the rules of English grammar. It is recognized as good English by good writers of English, by editors of a wide range of journals, magazines, and newspapers. Good quality English follows the rules of English for how English words may combine (collocate) with each other. Good quality English *does* permit some creative bending of English rules, especially for poetic purposes, but even then there is typically a literary context established in which the creative expression can be understood and appreciated. Good quality English does not use grammatical patterns from other languages. It only uses grammatical patterns of the English language. Good quality English is pleasant to read. There is a wide range of English writing and speaking which would qualify as good quality English (from sophisticated English in the Atlantic Monthly to more common English in Reader's Digest), but none of it would have wordings which fluent speakers of the language would regard as ungrammatical or breaking some semantic rules of English. Good quality English uses metaphors and idioms whose meanings can be understood by speakers of good quality English.

I believe it is possible to translate the Bible to English, using only good quality English, while at the same time keeping accuracy as the highest priority, maintaining transparency to historical, cultural, and, as much as communicatively possible, even linguistic devices of the original biblical source texts, and reflecting the literary differences among the various genres of the Bible.

Categories: literary style, Bible translation, proper English