It may well be the case that modern American teens “do not know how to form a sentence” and “cannot write an intelligible paragraph.” It is, however, ill-advised to broach this topic in your newspaper column if you, too, seem to have some serious difficulties on these fronts.
Friendly Advice
October 29th, 2007 · 6 Comments
Tags: Academia
6 responses so far ↓
1 Chris // Oct 29, 2007 at 10:47 am
What a totally lame cheap shot, Julian. What’s your problem with Morford? I would say he’s reasonably well in command of his prose. Was his tone insufficiently formal for your taste?
2 Julian Sanchez // Oct 29, 2007 at 11:16 am
If by “insufficiently formal” you mean “displaying all the craft of a hastily dashed-off e-mail,” then yes. I realize I’m not always a model of conciseness, but these sentences are bloated wrecks. It reads like Proust, if Proust were an idiot.
3 joeo // Oct 30, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Morford writes annoying columns full of annoying columnist hyperbole. He isn’t unintelligible though.
4 mtc // Nov 3, 2007 at 4:04 am
i’m with julian. reading the first few paragraphs, i wasn’t entirely sure morford wasn’t attempting to parody the terrible writing skills he alleges of our youth. in fact, i’d much prefer to believe the whole column was meant as a parody of people who claim the world is ending for reasons x,y, and z…if the next generation is illiterate, i’ll count it a blessing they won’t be capable of producing the sort of linguistic abortions that comprise moford’s column.
p.s. can anyone remind me where i stole the phrase ‘linguistic abortions’ from. its a good one!
5 Julian // Nov 4, 2007 at 3:13 pm
http://juliansanchez.com/notes/archives/2007/10/i_surrender_to_the_inevitable.php
6 Swimmy // Nov 12, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Yeah, I don’t think it’s a cheap shot. The sentences are rambly; some of them approach run-on status. It doesn’t help that all of the arguments are poorly thought-out and somewhat contradictory as well.
In fact, Morford writes much like I do when I’m drunk.