Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Stupid question(s) of the (still-young) day

1) Dunno. Why he not?

The next is a bit tricker. At first glance, this looks like the sort of inept deck that simply repeats the structure and ideas of the main hed ("sister" for "family," "illegal immigrant" for "suspect") with a few minor changes in detail. But there's a big change hidden in there: When the deck moves into the active voice, it shifts the suspect's role from done-to to doer. So at the risk of seeming impolite, the answer to the second question is probably something like:

2) Because he could.

If you don't want readers to think you're saying something you didn't, pay attention to your grammar. Use the rules or they'll use you.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

or moreover, 'because he not deported'.

7:27 PM, April 25, 2007  
Blogger fev said...

How right you. He not.

11:40 AM, April 27, 2007  

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