Hi, all! the Grammar Cop has had a busy week, finding infractions by the dozen. Here are a few of them.
- “And any submission by McConnell to his caucus to pass the Democratic CR’s [continuing resolutions] puts him squarely in Trump’s sites as a traitor to the cause.”
- “Basically, [immigration is] leaving one’s homeland to escape hardship or oppression, and arrive either in the U.S. or Canada for a new life.”
- “These anti-Semitic acts are becoming more frequent and horrific but people should not have ever believed that anti-semitism was dead or dying.”
The corrections:
- Trump’s “sites” as a traitor? I can think of many “sites” I’d like to put him in, but this sentence really calls for sights, as when you look through the sight of a rifle. Come to think of it…
- The problem here is the verb form of “arrive.” It should mirror “leaving,” so that the sentence would be immigration is leaving one’s homeland to escape hardship or oppression, and arriving either in the U.S. or Canada for a new life. Look, it’s not great literature, but at least it’s grammatically correct.
- The first “anti-Semitic” is written correctly. So why did the second one go awry? “Semitic” and “-Semitism” refer to an ethnic group composed of Semites. The word should always be capitalized, whether as part of a noun or adjective. {But kudos go to the author for the correct hyphens. 😀)
And that wraps up the rotten writing samples for this edition of Friday Follies. Join us next week for more… if you dare!
Crossed Eyes and Dotted Tees 
And on a non-grammatical note, immigration can be for a job as well as leaving due to hardship or oppression, and the writer makes it seem that is the only reason people want to immigrate. A lot of engineers are foreign-born and have skills that native-born persons lack … I worked for an immigration attorney at the Firm and you would not believe (at that time, circa late 1980s) how many computer engineers who had degrees in CAD-CAM were being brought to this country. Unbelievable! My father was actually transferred to the U.S. through Ford Motor Company of Oakville, Ontario who sponsored him to come over here to the Woodhaven Stamping Plant in Michigan. (Too bad they were so helpful. Just sayin’.)
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Sure. And my son went to be with his loved one in NYC. Worked there on special visas for a bunch of years, then got his green card, married The gf and later became a citizen. Dual.
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Yes, there are good things and the person who wrote that leaves people with the impression that immigration is an escape … I wonder how many people understand the term?
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Which term?
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Love your remarks on “sites” for the Orange!
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Thanks! I do my bit! 😁
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