Grammar Rules

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Unhopeful

“These are sad times for grammatical purists. One can forgive the usual assaults on the language that characterize political debate across the spectrum: Those are to be expected. But I have been stewing for months—months!—over the decision by the Associated Press, for a century the vaunted exemplar of proper journalistic usage, to amend its style guide to allow its dwindling stable of reporters to use the adverb ‘hopefully’ as a synonym for ‘it is to be hoped that.’”

“During my undergraduate term as managing editor of the Stanford Daily, I enforced the style guide with a will. Reporters complained, wanting to know what difference consistency made. My answer, then as now: If we can’t agree about the small things, we’ll never agree about the big ones.”

—Stephen L. Carter, Bloomberg columnist and Yale Law professor, 

“It Is to Be Hoped That Proper Grammar Can Endure,” 

Bloomberg.com, Sept. 6, 2012

 

• Editorial Comment: . . . he opined irascibly.

• Yesterday’s WORD: Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from MediaNews Group co-founder Richard Scudder, on what makes a good newspaper? Click here. 

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