Bah, humbug.

[Mike Burke]

Just reading an article in Commentary magazine which I had hitherto thought
was reasonably literate. The article was written by the British historian,
Andrew Roberts, ditto. He describes the "enormity" of the task of editing
the vast bulk of Winston Churchill's papers.

I despair. A relatively recent atrocity common to the modern generation of
Defence bureaucrats here in Oz is the abuse of the verb "to discharge".
Correct usage is "Bloggs is to be discharged next Monday". Or, as a noun,
"Bloggs is to be granted an honourable discharge with effect next Monday".
Modern malpractice is to write "Bloggs is to discharge next Monday". One
wonders exactly what he will be discharging next Monday, and whether we
should call the cops or an ambulance.

I was reasonably confident that this sort of nonsense was limited to
Australia, but today I read a story about an American serviceman who
"commissioned" in 1942.

It's moments like these that make me glad that my time in this vale of
tears is relatively limited.

Mique

[Nyssa]

Post by Mike Burke
Just reading an article in Commentary magazine which I had
hitherto thought
was reasonably literate. The article was written by the
British historian,
Andrew Roberts, ditto. He describes the "enormity" of the
task of editing the vast bulk of Winston Churchill's
papers.
I despair. A relatively recent atrocity common to the
modern generation of Defence bureaucrats here in Oz is the
abuse of the verb "to discharge".
Correct usage is "Bloggs is to be discharged next Monday".
Or, as a noun, "Bloggs is to be granted an honourable
discharge with effect next Monday". Modern malpractice is
to write "Bloggs is to discharge next Monday". One wonders
exactly what he will be discharging next Monday, and
whether we should call the cops or an ambulance.
I was reasonably confident that this sort of nonsense was
limited to Australia, but today I read a story about an
American serviceman who "commissioned" in 1942.
It's moments like these that make me glad that my time in
this vale of tears is relatively limited.
Mique

Perhaps this horrible misuse of those verbs is tied into
a comment I made about the grammar checking software that
seems to think that passive=bad, active=good and nags the
user to change their prose to reflect this bias.

Also consider, of course, too many users who have not been
properly schooled in grammar much less the correct use of
passive and active verbs will default to the software being
correct and bow to the wishes of some unknown and unknowing
programmer and change what they've written.

Another possibility is that these people are simply filling
in the blanks on some template that has been provided for
the purpose. Once carved in stone (or template) in many
offices, it becomes the de facto rule, even if incorrect.
Government and military offices seem to be victims of this
even more often than private corporations.

Go with the flow, don't rock the boat, and all that.

Nyssa, who is currently reading "Dyer Consequences" in the
Knitting Mystery series

[Carol Dickinson]

Post by Nyssa
Another possibility is that these people are simply filling
in the blanks on some template that has been provided for
the purpose. Once carved in stone (or template) in many
offices, it becomes the de facto rule, even if incorrect.
Government and military offices seem to be victims of this
even more often than private corporations.
Go with the flow, don't rock the boat, and all that.
Nyssa

Another major offender is the media, both the printed and
the newscasters who speak from written texts and teleprompters.
Most of the new atrocities of language that are offending me
daily come from them. And they seem to get them from social
media, texting and tweeting etc.

carol

Carol