Branson Titanic
Great article! Visually descriptive and engaging. I enjoyed knowing the Titanic continues to live on in the Heartland of America! While the article is well written, I am increasing troubled by a disturbing trend invading both the written and spoken language: the misuse of the word "myself". Even professional journalists fall into that almost invisible trap. "Myself" is reflexive, and should only be used as such. I'm the only one who can do anything to "myself". No one else can. As a writer/editor/proofreader for the military, I see it all the time in letters and memorandums. Lines such as: "for details, please contact MAJ Clark or myself before COB today". The correct way to write this should be "...please contact MAJ Clark or me before...". Recall your basic English. Break down the sentence into its separate parts: "contact MAJ Clark by COB today" and "contact me by COB today".. not "myself". When you break it down, you can tell how bad it really sounds. Regarding Ms Parker's article, the first line of the second paragraph should read "...my boyfriend, his 12-year-old and 8-year-old sons, and me...". I don't mean to nit pick, but as professional writers, those are simply errors we should not be making. Just because we have a President who brags about having been a "C-Average" student in college (how patheitc) and who cannot string one sentence together without falling all over his words, is no reason for the rest of America to "dumb down" to his level. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I've seen happening the past eight years: the "dumbing down" of America. We have to guard against that. We have to be the ones to turn that trend around and to not continue to fall prey to journalistic laziness. Let's begin here to change the course of "C-average" writing back to an "A+" level. I will now step down from my soap box. Again, great article. I enjoyed it very much, and will certainly take a trip to Branson to see the Titanic. Keep up the great work, and "Write-On!"
Respectfully,
SGT Joseph Herbst
National Guard Bureau Education Division
Washington DC
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1 Comments on this articleby jrherbst on August 25, 2008
Branson Titanic Great article! Visually descriptive and engaging. I enjoyed knowing the Titanic continues to live on in the Heartland of America! While the article is well written, I am increasing troubled by a disturbing trend invading both the written and spoken language: the misuse of the word "myself". Even professional journalists fall into that almost invisible trap. "Myself" is reflexive, and should only be used as such. I'm the only one who can do anything to "myself". No one else can. As a writer/editor/proofreader for the military, I see it all the time in letters and memorandums. Lines such as: "for details, please contact MAJ Clark or myself before COB today". The correct way to write this should be "...please contact MAJ Clark or me before...". Recall your basic English. Break down the sentence into its separate parts: "contact MAJ Clark by COB today" and "contact me by COB today".. not "myself". When you break it down, you can tell how bad it really sounds. Regarding Ms Parker's article, the first line of the second paragraph should read "...my boyfriend, his 12-year-old and 8-year-old sons, and me...". I don't mean to nit pick, but as professional writers, those are simply errors we should not be making. Just because we have a President who brags about having been a "C-Average" student in college (how patheitc) and who cannot string one sentence together without falling all over his words, is no reason for the rest of America to "dumb down" to his level. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I've seen happening the past eight years: the "dumbing down" of America. We have to guard against that. We have to be the ones to turn that trend around and to not continue to fall prey to journalistic laziness. Let's begin here to change the course of "C-average" writing back to an "A+" level. I will now step down from my soap box. Again, great article. I enjoyed it very much, and will certainly take a trip to Branson to see the Titanic. Keep up the great work, and "Write-On!" Respectfully, SGT Joseph Herbst National Guard Bureau Education Division Washington DC
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