As a Grammarian in Toastmasters, I was at a Toastmasters meeting this past Monday night and heard the following from a speaker:
- If the horse is dead, get off [followed later in the speech with] Get off the dead horse.
- Saunter
- What do I want to Import here?
These are great phrases and saunter is a great word! But the Grammarian at this meeting didn’t mention the unique phrases and words that were used during the speech. Such a loss!! So you know, the phrase If the horse is dead, get off is a reference to the book If You’re Riding a Horse and It Dies, Get Off by author Jim Grant (here’s a link to see it on Amazon).
As an educational piece for us to establish a high-quality Toastmasters meeting, let’s discuss…
THE GRAMMARIAN
It’s the Grammarian’s role to identify and recognize the unique uses of phrases and words during a meeting. This adds value to the meeting by providing the person taking the Grammarian Role a leadership skill of Listening and Giving Effective Feedback to the person who’s said the unique phrases and words.
In many clubs, the Grammarian will also provide the Word of the Day. The WOD (or Word of the Week, WOW) allows members to increase their vocabulary and can add to the speakers speaking agility when speaking in front of others.
In some clubs, these two roles (The Word of the Day and the Grammarian) are combined, and in some clubs, these roles are separated.
LINKS
Below is an informational link for the GRAMMARIAN. It goes to Toastmasters.com:
https://www.toastmasters.org/membership/club-meeting-roles/grammarian
If you’d like to see more of my Toastmasters posts, please click here: infinitejim.com/toastmasters
