Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Dear delegate

And so it begins, the long (long, long) political campaign season. Newspaper articles on major candidates have grown too numerous to ignore. Junk mail arrives at least once a week from would-be elected officials. At some point soon the TV commercials will reach even the political backwaters of Minnesota.

I'm sure I will have many more complaints along the way, but for now I have just one plea: check your grammar before sending me crap! Take for example the first sentence of a letter from Mike Ciresi for Senate:
There is a deep concern among Minnesotans about the course that our state and nation is taking.
Or the first sentence of a letter I received last season from Matt Entenza's campaign:
In the tradition of great Minnesota attorney generals...
(It would have been much less egregious if he was running for some other post.) So please, candidates, find an English teacher or a really nerdy friend to read your letters before you print a thousand copies.

4 comments:

KC said...

the second one is especially egregious since it comes from a Macalester grad! egad.

the first one would be okay if he meant that Minnesota and the US are taking the same course, right??

Rachel said...

Yeah, the first one is technically write, it just sounds terrible.

That's nice. I just wrote "technically write."

For the love of God.

Anonymous said...

Hmm...I never considered they could mean the same course. Mr. Ciresi may be off the hook--except for the random capitalization of nouns throughout the letter.

Anonymous said...

I *LOVE* saying things like "attorneys general" or "gins and tonic." I love the last one cause it is usually uttered to a bartender.