Dick, may I quote you on the syllabus for my next grammar class? Bravo!
Nancy
Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of English
Director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
Columbia College
Columbia, South Carolina
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803-786-3706
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Veit, Richard
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 6:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
To know what is good English, see what literate speakers and writers do. If
everyone but me is making errors and the everyone includes our most
distinguished and accomplished speakers and writers, then it is me, not
everyone else, who is wrong.
Language is an evolving process, and correctness is determined internally by
usage, not externally by the pronouncements of experts.
Dick Veit
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Brad
Johnston
Sent: Mon 2/18/2008 2:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
Dear Grammarians,
In the first twenty-one pages of "The Audacity of Hope", by Barack Obama,
c.2006, the word "had" appears 68 times.
Of the total, 16 are used correctly as the past tense of the verb "to
have" (11), or in the past perfect (2), or in the subjunctive (2).
Of the 52 in error, 5 use "had been"' instead of "was" or "were", 13
insert the word 'had' in front of the wrong form of an irregular verb, and
34 insert the word "had" in front of a past tense verb.
Before you decide to kill the messenger, let me remind you that they are
all there in black and white. They await the scrutiny of doubters.
When you are satisfied, tell me ( a ) what difference does it make? and (
b ), assuming you think it makes a difference, what can be done about it?
The misuse of the past perfect is widespread. Obama's error rate of 76%
puts him about the middle of the range in the 50 texts I have examined,
where error rates run from 48% (John Coetzee) to 100 % (Henry Kissinger,
believe it or not).
You are welcome to see the numbers on some of the others. It was tedious
to collect but is not particularly tedious to look at and consider.
.brad.18feb08.
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