The dog days of summer are blanketing us, so it's a perfect time for our Annual Collection of Pet Peeves. Please send me your current favorite examples of poorly written or spoken language.
In a moment, my choices.
But first, some relief from the heat: Here's one of my all-time favorite sentences, by Red Smith, who reported from the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1932.
Smith described the primitive conditions for the working press, who had to slosh through snow from one event to the next, before staggering back to the hotel bar, known as the Cellar A.C., where the king of sportswriters held court.
Smith wrote: "The late, great W.O. McGeehan, not one to wallow in drifts up to his navel merely to watch a case of arrested development leap off a mountain, covered the 1932 Winter Olympics from the Cellar A.C."
Now, come wallow with me through three of my current peeves.
A singular subject and a plural verb. An example: "A series of setbacks are hindering Russian forces who are trying to seize territory in Eastern Ukraine."
Another: "The number of graduates of community colleges are the highest in decades."
These missteps result from slips of the mind. The subject nouns — "series" and "number" — are singular. But when the writers approached the verb, they succumbed to the plural descriptors "setbacks" and "graduates" and used the plural form "are."
To be correct, we have to write, "A series of setbacks is hindering Russian forces." and "The number of graduates is the highest in decades."
An annoying outbreak of lazy speech. Take one: "The City Council is sort of considering a plan to remodel law enforcement."
Sort of?
How about leveling with us? Is the City Council considering such a plan, or not?
The spread of the "sort of" rash is the latest form of a speaker's grasping for a moment to collect a thought. Earlier forms include "um" and "well."
Using "so" to start a sentence. This has become an almost universal practice when answering a question.
Now it's your turn.
Twin Cities writing coach Gary Gilson, who teaches journalism at Colorado College, can be reached at writebetterwithgary.com.
