Dictionary meaning / idiom
Obama enacts [read signs] patent reform (headline, Houston Chronicle (chron.com), September 17, 2011)
Congress enacts; presidents sign. A dictionary prude might look enact up -- "to establish by legal and authoritative act" -- and declare that it works for the president too. But idiom and standard usage maintain the useful distinction between legislative and executive roles in the making of a law. The Chronicle's misuse of enacts may have been a simple slip-up. Or it may have been an expression of simple ignorance about the substance of the class, "How a Bill is Passed," in the course once known as civics -- a course many modern journalists seem to have skipped.
Gender-neutral usage
For better or worse, today's average writer has bowed to political correctness and adopted gender-neutral style for his or her prose. One who resists -- specifically for translations of the Bible but more generally as well -- is Houston's most interesting public intellectual, Professor Louis Markos of Houston Baptist University.
[Gender-neutral usage] represents something unprecedented in the history of language. . . . [It] is a wholly new thing, an idea that would have seemed ludicrous (if not unthinkable) to anyone before, say, 1970. And yet . . . its very vocal proponents act as if it were the most obvious and natural thing in the world: the necessary endpoint of thousands of years of linguistic evolution. Buoyed up on a wave of what C.S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery," they feel no shame in blithely sweeping away three millennia of traditional syntactical structures that are shared alike by Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, and the majority of other world languages. . . . / . . . . / . . . . [The] spread of the gender-neutral agenda has been accomplished primarily through subtle tactics of intimidation. . . . [Most] people (young and old) have little confidence in their writing abilities or their control of grammar and syntax. Such doubts and fears leave them particularly vulnerable to being beaten into submission by teachers who present gender-neutral language as if it were a fait accompli, a thing proven and incontrovertible. Well, I am a writer and speaker who has taught both composition and literature for fifteen years, and I can decalre to you boldly and confidently that gender-neutral language is neither a proven fact nor an incontestible given. . . . / . . . . / The censorious imposition of gender-neutral language is, I believe, one of several factors that is helping to produce a generation of American males who are as timid, ineffective, and emasculated as J. Alfred Prufrock. And that is not only a tragic thing for the men of America; it is even more tragic for the women. (Louis Markos, "Why I do not use Gender Neutral Language," Personal Web Page, Houston Baptist University (hbu.edu), downloaded September 23, 2011.
Gender-Neutral Usage / More
With the advent of the Internet and cable television, no one is silent any more, unless they choose to be . . . . (Editorial, "The single life," Houston Chronicle (chron.com), September ___, 2011)
Here, an ancient rule about number agreement (no one, he) is tossed away to avoid using he as a pronoun for both genders. With respect to Mr. Markos (above), that battle is largely over. The best solution, however, is not to link a plural pronoun (they) with a singular antecedent (no one). It is better to avoid the number-agreement problem altogether by starting with a plural subject: people are silent no more, unless they choose to be.
Parallel structure
We hope and assume this modest bump downward will allow for more certainty in the budgeting processes of the city, the county and at local school districts, including HISD. (Editorial, "Stable property values = better planning," Houston Chronicle (chron.com), August 31, 2011)
This series or prepositional phrases lacks parallel structure. Here are two ways to fix the problem: (1) the budgeting processes of the city and the county, and at local school districts; or (2) the budgeting processes of the city, the county and at local school districts. The second alternative is better because it is simpler.
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