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发帖数: 2710 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: dragonfly (小蜻蜓), 信区: Military
标 题: 左逼控告信真是学习英语的好教材
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Tue Sep 25 15:11:46 2018, 美东)
14 mistakes in the letter written by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
Ph.D. writers are highly trained in writing. In fact, it is an essential
part of their education. Yet the letter released by Sen. Dianne Feinstein is
riddled with simple errors that point to a writing level that barely
qualifies as “high school” composition skills.
Here are the 14 glaring mistakes and discrepancies in the letter:
#1) “in evaluating” should be “to evaluating”
The opening sentence of the letter states, “I am writing with information
relevant in evaluating the current nominee to the Supreme Court.” This is
an error. A Ph.D. would correctly state the letter offers information
relevant to evaluating the nominee, not “in” evaluating. In fact, a truly
intelligent person would write, “I am writing with information relevant to
the evaluation of the current nominee…”
#2) The font size is altered in the line that mentions Brett Kavanaugh’s
name
The font size of the first line of the second paragraph, where Brett
Kavanaugh’s name is first mentioned, is oddly 140% the size of all the
other lines in the document. This could indicate one of several things: 1)
The line may have been altered after the fact by a person who failed to be
careful in carrying out an attempted document alteration. 2) The document
may have been printed on a printer that suffered a line feed problem on that
one particular line. However, this problem would typically reveal
horizontal white stripes in the line, and such lines do not appear. 3) The
line may have been added in a rushed, last-minute fashion without careful
attention to the font size.
#3) “1980’s” should be “1980s” — and any Ph.D. would immediately spot
this obvious error
The first sentence in the second paragraph contains a glaring error. It
states that “…sexually assaulted me during High School in the early 1980’
s.” This use of the apostrophe in the “1980’s” is a very common error
made by people who possess poor writing skills, but those who are highly
educated know that the proper construction is “1980s” (without an
apostrophe). Why no apostrophe? Because it indicates possession, of course.
And the “1980” isn’t possessing anything here. She simply means the
decade from 1980 to 1989. All professional writers know that is properly
described as “1980s.”
#4) The strange capitalization of “High School” — a newbie writing error
Also in the same phrase, “…sexually assaulted me during High School in the
early 1980’s,” the writer inexplicably capitalizes “High School.” This
is another obvious, “newbie” error in writing that might typically be made
by a very inexperienced or low-education individual. In this sentence, “
High School” is not a proper noun, so it should not be capitalized. The
proper time to capitalize such a phrase would occur if the full name of the
high school in question were included, turning it into a proper name of a
high school, such as the, “Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School.”
#5) “1-2 years older than me and students” error
The second sentence in the second paragraph states, “Both were 1-2 years
older than me and students at a local private school.” This is a
grammatical error that’s typical of low-skilled writers. A more skilled
writer would have written something closer to, “Both were 1-2 years older
than myself and other students at a local private school.” The sentence is
still awkward, but improved. The construction of this sentence smacks of a
poorly educated individual with very little writing experience.
#6) “that included me and 4 others” error
In the second paragraph, the sentence, “The assault occurred in a suburban
Maryland area home at a gathering that included me and 4 others” also seems
awkward and highly indicative of a low-skilled writer. A more grammatically
correct ending of the sentence would replace “that included me and 4
others” with “that included myself and four others.”
#7) “I feared he may inadvertently kill me” word choice problem
One sentence claims, “With Kavanaugh’s hand over my mouth, I feared he may
inadvertently kill me.” This reveals another mistaken word choice. The
word “may” implies present tense. An educated writer would use the word,
“might” instead, so that the phrase would read, “I feared he might
inadvertently kill me.”
#8 and #9) “drunken” error and “mixed words” phrasing
Here’s another sentence from the letter: “From across the room, a very
drunken Judge said mixed words to Kavanaugh ranging from ‘go for it’ to ‘
stop’.” This contains two oddly phrased words that indicate a very low
level of writing skill. The term “drunken” should have been written as “
drunk.” Only a very inexperienced writer would use the term “drunken.”
Similarly, the phrase “mixed words” seems to be something that a non-
native English speaker would write, not a highly trained Ph.D. who went to a
reputable university in America.
#10) “the two scrapped with each other” odd phrase
The next sentence claims, “The pile toppled, and the two scrapped with each
other.” Again, this seems like a very odd choice of words for any
accomplished, experienced writer. The entire sentence reads like something
written by a non-native English speaker. Who says “scrapped” when they
mean “fought?”
#11) “opportune moment” indicates a low-level writer attempting to sound
sophisticated
One of the tactics used by low-level writers to try to impress their
intended audience is to use sophisticated-sounding words that are “above
their pay grade,” so to speak. I see this frequently in writing samples
authored by young writers with very little writing experience. In this
letter, the phrase, “…I was able to take this opportune moment to get up…
” is a glaring red flag that the letter wasn’t written by a well educated
individual. Who uses “opportune” in such a context? Only a low-level
writer hoping the word makes them sound sophisticated.
#12) Failure to capitalize “I”
Here’s a sentence near the end of the letter: “It is upsetting to discuss
sexual assault and its repercussions, yet i felt guilty and compelled as a
citizen about the idea of not saying anything.” Note that the “i” is not
capitalized in the phrase, “yet i felt guilty.” This is another red flag
error only made by an extremely inexperienced writer. No Ph.D. would make
such an error, but a low-information blogger or activist is very likely to
make such an error. The failure to capitalize “I” words is also very
common among younger writers below the age of 25.
#13) “yet i felt guilty and compelled as a citizen about the idea of not
saying anything” strange phrase composition
This phrase suffers from poor sentence construction and a lack of clear
thinking. The word “compelled” implies an action item. People are
compelled to do things. You do not experience being “compelled” about an
“idea.” The entire phase, “yet i felt guilty and compelled… about the
idea” is not something an educated, experienced writer would write.
#14) Christine Blasey, who says she is afraid to fly, is “vacationing in
the mid-Atlantic until August 7th and will be in California after August
10th.”
This is not a grammatical error; it is a logic problem. We’ve been told for
over a week that Christine Blasey Ford did not wish to testify in front of
the U.S. Senate because she had a fear of flying. But in this letter, she is
apparently flying great distances for a vacation. Her online photos also
show her to be vacationing in Hawaii, which requires a very long flight. |
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