Posts Tagged ‘The Birmingham News’
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
I have one or two posts on Grammar Glitch Central that correct the use of INTO in connection with perpetrators turning themselves into police officers. Today's suspect did something even more unusual. He turned himself into the jail! Consider this sentence from The Birmingham News:
(The man) turned himself into the jail, sheriff's officials said Sunday.
As I have pointed out before, there is a difference in usage between INTO and IN TO. You can say that you walked INTO the drugstore or you fell INTO a ditch or you transformed yourself INTO a happy person. In each case, you are creating a prepositional phrase that describes where or what (INTO the drugstore, INTO a ditch, INTO a happy person).
TURN IN, on the other hand, is a verb plus an adverb. Used together, TURN IN means to give over to someone or something else, as in "The man turned himself IN TO the police." or "Alice WILL TURN IN her keys before she leaves the building."
I am certain that the man arrested in the shooting death at a Forestdale convenience store recently did NOT become the Jefferson County Jail! He simply went there to TURN HIMSELF IN. This sentence would be much clearer and simpler with this wording:
(The man) turned himself in at the jail, sheriff's officials said Sunday.
Tags: The Birmingham News, word usage
Posted in Grammar, word usage | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Here is a usage glitch I've never come across:
In fact, they overroad then-Gov. Bob Riley's veto, preserving their 61 percent increase in compensation.
Whoops! What the OUR VIEWS page of The Birmingham News meant to use in their editorial about state government budget woes was the word OVERRODE (past tense of RIDE). ROAD, of course, is a noun that does not fit this situation. The sentence should read as follows:
In fact, they overrode then-Gov. Bob Riley's veto, preserving their 61 percent increase in compensation.
Tags: The Birmingham News, verbs, word usage
Posted in Grammar, verbs, wording | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 20th, 2012
Here is a good example of where proofreading could improve a sentence:
Ikea has received eight reports of the buckles opening worldwide, with three reports of injuries.
What was that again? Ikea has (to their credit) voluntarily recalled high chairs sold between 2006 and the beginning of 2010 because of a problem with restraint buckles. However, the sentence above makes it sound as if these buckles OPEN WORLDWIDE. What the reporter means is that, worldwide, there have been eight reports of the buckles opening unexpectedly, but that is not what the sentence says. It should read this way:
Worldwide, Ikea has received eight reports of the buckles opening unexpectedly, with three reports of injuries.
It is important to be sure that a modifier like WORLDWIDE is inserted where it will describe the correct thing.
Tags: adjectives and adverbs, Ikea, sentence structure, The Birmingham News
Posted in adjectives and adverbs, Grammar, wording | 10 Comments »
Friday, January 6th, 2012
I have read several news stories recently about Eagle Scout candidate Dane Smith who gathered volunteers to help clear an overgrown section of the new Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park near Washington, D. C. About 90 soldiers from the Tenth Alabama Infantry Regiment camped there and died in an outbreak of disease in the summer of 1861.  
Since the first stories appeared, the park has received new information from families of these soldiers and has added to its documentation.
One sentence in The Birmingham News story about this caught my eye last week because the reporter apparently confused the word ANCESTOR with the word DESCENDANT:
Following a story in The News about the cemetery's rebirth, several ancestors, amateur genealogists and historic preservationists contacted park officials with information.
Whoops! The word ANCESTORS would refer to the previous generation family members who died at Bristoe. It is much more likely that it was their DESCENDANTS who contacted the park officials. Attention to correct vocabulary makes for much better writing. The sentence should read this way:
Following a story in The News about the cemetery's rebirth, several descendants, amateur genealogists and historic preservationists contacted park officials with information.
Congratulations to sixteen-year-old Dane Smith on a creative and important Eagle Scout project.
Tags: The Birmingham News, word usage
Posted in Grammar, word usage | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Today's Grammar Glitch involves a criminal I would have to nominate for the "lowest of the low" award. A counselor on the approved list of providers for the Department of Human Resources in Alabama has been charged with using his position to force women to have sex with him. When DHR referred a woman to him for counseling, he would go to the woman's home and tell her that if she did what he asked, he would give DHR a good report and help her keep her children. He actually threatened these women with losing their children if they didn't comply.
Shame on him, double shame! I commend the young woman in her mid-20s who had the courage to set up spy cameras in her house and reported him to the police.
Now back to Grammar Glitches. The sentence in this news article that bothered me was this one:
The prosecutor, Laura Poston, said ( ) used his position to coerce the women into having sex with him during sessions he held at each woman's homes.
The word EACH is treated as singular. Notice that it is used with WOMAN, not WOMEN. Therefore, HOMES should be HOME to be consistent with the singular pattern. The sentence should read this way:
The prosecutor, Laura Poston, said ( ) used his position to coerce the women into having sex with him during sessions he held at each woman's home.
Speaking of sentences, the judge who heard this case was frustrated by the fact that he had to reduce the charges because state law required proving "forcible" compulsion, and it was not possible to define the threat of losing one's children as "forcible" compulsion against a woman. Personally, most women I know would probably consider that "forcible" compulsion.
Tags: pronoun/antecedent agreement, The Birmingham News
Posted in Grammar, pronouns | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
I have not done a blog post on subject/verb agreement in a while. That was a good thing, but a recent article about Jefferson County's "inherited sewer pipe" problems contained a sentence that brought the agreement issue back to the front page of The Birmingham News. Here is the sentence that caught my eye:
 John S. Young, the court-appointed receiver, testified during a bankruptcy hearing last month, that 60 percent of the water flowing through county sewer pipes to the treatment plants come in through broken joints, leaky manhole covers and other flaws.
Whoops! The subject for the verb COME is "60 PERCENT OF THE WATER." This is what I call a "lump sum" subject. We write that 60 percent of the bottles (countable) on the shelf have (plural) gold labels, but we write that 60 percent of the water (not countable) in the lake comes (singular) from Patton Creek.
We don't think of WATER as something that can be counted and made plural. We would not say WATER COME THROUGH BROKEN JOINTS. Therefore, the verb should be COMES.
I agree with the commas before and after THE COURT-APPOINTED RECEIVER because they set off something that renames JOHN S. YOUNG. However, I would not put a comma between MONTH and THAT. A that clause should not be set off from the rest of the sentence.
I would edit the sentence to read this way:
John S. Young, the court-appointed receiver, testified during a bankruptcy hearing last month that 60 percent of the water flowing through county sewer pipes to the treatment plants comes in through broken joints, leaky manhole covers and other flaws.
Let's hope Jefferson County, Alabama, will find the means to solve its longstanding sewer nightmare in the New Year of 2012.
I hope those of my readers who are Christians had a very Merry Christmas, and I hope the holiday season has been enjoyable for everyone. I did not intend to take such a long break from Grammar Glitch Central, but an unexpected and nasty case of strep throat kept me from keeping up as I would have liked. Now, hopefully, things are back to normal!
Tags: agreement, commas, The Birmingham News
Posted in comma, Grammar, Subject/Verb Agreement, THAT and WHICH | 6 Comments »
Friday, November 18th, 2011
It is good news that Honda has just announced an expansion of capacity at its Alabama auto plant. The plant, located in Lincoln (near the Talladega Superspeedway), is set to become the highest-volume automaker in the state, building more than 300,000 cars a year.
One sentence in the article about this (front page of the Business section in The Birmingham News on Sunday, November 13) has a subject/verb agreement problem:
Gov. Robert Bentley, along with other state and local leaders, are expected to attend a special ceremony Monday at the $1.5 billion, 4,000-worker Lincoln plant.
Whoops! The subject of this sentence is GOV. ROBERT BENTLEY, so the verb should be IS (singular). Reporter Dawn Kent inserted the phrase ALONG WITH OTHER STATE AND LOCAL LEADERS between BENTLEY and the verb, which is fine. However, that inserted phrase is not part of the subject and does not affect the relationship between BENTLEY and IS. It does not create a compound subject. The sentence should read as follows:
Gov. Robert Bentley, along with other state and local leaders, is expected to attend a special ceremony Monday at the $1.5 billion, 4,000-worker Lincoln plant.
Tags: agreement, The Birmingham News
Posted in Grammar, Subject/Verb Agreement | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 14th, 2011
The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, and it pops up in amusing places. A company called Gamer Food is now offering snacks to boost your energy for game playing. Who knew sitting at a console could burn enough calories to require an energy snack!
The announcement about these snacks in the Tech section of The Birmingham News this morning contained this sentence:
 Gamer Food has released snack bags they say boosts your energy for game playing.
Whoops! The word BAGS is plural, and the word BOOSTS, which refers back to the BAGS, is singular. That won't work because the subject and verb must agree. It should be: The BAGS BOOST. Putting THEY SAY in between does not change that relationship. The sentence should read as follows:
Gamer Food has released snack bags they say boost your energy for game playing.
Anyone out there have a study on how many calories a gamer burns per hour? I have no idea if these snacks (not the bags) boost energy in general, but they come in three flavors–Seeds of Victory, Nuts of Destruction, and Cashews for Chaos!
Tags: agreement, The Birmingham News
Posted in Grammar, Subject/Verb Agreement | 4 Comments »
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Even if you use correct grammar and punctuation, you can still confuse readers if you don't put words and phrases in an order that makes sense. Take a look at this lead sentence from an article in this morning's The Birmingham News:
The Alabama Board of Education will select a new superintendent to lead the state during this morning's board meeting, following a nearly five-hour meeting Wednesday in which members interviewed three of the four finalists it selected last month.
First of all, the State School Superintendent does not LEAD THE STATE of Alabama. That's Governor Bentley's job. Second, whoever is leading the state is probably not going to do it just DURING THIS MORNING'S BOARD MEETING. I would suggest wording the sentence this way:
The Alabama Board of Education will select a new State School Superintendent during its meeting this morning, following a nearly five-hour meeting on Wednesday in which members interviewed three of the four finalists it selected last month.
Or,
During its meeting this morning, the Alabama Board of Education will select a new State School Superintendent. This action follows a nearly five-hour meeting on Wednesday in which members interviewed three of the four finalists it selected last month.
COMMENT: Best wishes to retiring Alabama State School Superintendent Joe Morton who topped off his 42-year career in education by serving as superintendent from 2004 to 2011.
Best
Tags: sentence structure, The Birmingham News
Posted in Grammar, wording | 3 Comments »
Friday, November 4th, 2011
I am happy to hear that Independent Living Resources of Greater Birmingham is getting a new 8,000 square foot facility next spring. Since 1980, this agency has offered a wide variety of vital services to disabled people in our community, and their new building on Sixth Avenue North is well deserved.
When Birmingham News reporter Roy L. Williams wrote about this, he created a redundancy in the following sentence:
The $2 million, 8,000 square foot facility should open in the 1500 block of Sixth Ave. North by April or May 2012, said Dan Kessler, executive director of the agency that assists 2,000 individuals annually a year.
I am certain this reporter knows that ANNUALLY and A YEAR mean the same thing, and I am certain he did not intentionally bop this point twice (as I refer to this crime in my business writing workshops). He probably tried one version (ANNUALLY), then considered the second version (A YEAR) and then forgot to delete one or the other.
 If he had proofread his copy, he would have spotted this redundancy error. Apparently, the copy editor missed it, too. That is my point. All of us create redundancies (bopping something twice when once will do), but the good writing trick is to proofread carefully and weed out the extras before going to print. I would have worded the sentence this way:
The $2 million, 8,000 square foot facility should open in the 1500 block of Sixth Ave. North by April or May 2012, said Dan Kessler, executive director of the agency that assists 2,000 individuals a year.
Are you wondering why I chose A YEAR and got rid of ANNUALLY? Two reasons: First, if two words or phrases mean exactly the same thing (no difference in shade of meaning), I always choose the simpler one, which is A YEAR. Second, I try to avoid placing multi-syllable words next to each other. INDIVIDUALS has five syllables, and ANNUALLY has four.
COOK'S RULE: Avoid redundancies. Do not bop things twice when once will do.
FUNNY FOOTNOTE: In the headline of a recent post, I referred to an ambiguous "it," meaning a pronoun that did not have a clear antecedent. As I often do in the body of a post, I used capital letters for the word I was referring to. The headline read this way:
Benefits only available on Monday? Plus an ambiguous “IT.”
My new webmaster, who is an expert in IT (Information Technology), saw that headline and wondered who the ambiguous Information Technologist was! Perhaps others did, too, so I have changed the headline to make it clearer that I am referring to the pronoun "it." It now reads this way:
Benefits only available on Monday? Plus an ambiguous “it.”
Welcome, Sam!
Wel MMymy M
Tags: The Birmingham News, wordiness
Posted in Grammar, wordiness | 4 Comments »
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